Established in 2004, OLIVER is the world’s first and only specialist in designing, building, and running bespoke in-house agencies and marketing ecosystems for brands. We partner with over 300 clients in 40+ countries and counting. Our unique model drives creativity and efficiency, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions that resonate deeply with audiences.
As a part of The Brandtech Group, we're at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to revolutionise how we create and deliver work. Our AI solutions enhance efficiency, spark creativity, and drive insightful decision-making, empowering our teams to produce innovative and impactful results.
Role: Planning, Insights & Data Lead
Location: Durban, South Africa, Hybrid
About the role:
The Planning, Insights & Data Lead is a senior individual contributor role at the heart of OLIVER's Strategy & Social function. You'll own the full insights and measurement cycle — from audience research and cultural forecasting to measurement architecture, experimentation and performance reporting — across multiple markets.
Working closely with Strategy Directors, brand leads, paid media, CRM and data engineering teams, you'll act as the primary analytics partner to senior client and internal stakeholders, ensuring data shapes strategy rather than follows it. This role requires the ability to synthesise complex, multi-source data into clear, actionable recommendations — and to communicate those recommendations with confidence to senior audiences.
What you will be doing:
- Lead the insights and planning agenda across social and the wider strategy function: audience research, cultural and trend forecasting, competitive benchmarking, shopper and commerce insight, and cross-channel performance analysis.
- Translate multi-source data — platform analytics, first-party data, shopper data, market research and paid measurement — into strategic recommendations that inform brand strategy, content pillars, channel strategy, localisation and creative briefs.
- Design and maintain executive dashboards and performance packs (real-time, weekly, monthly, quarterly) that connect content and activation metrics to business outcomes — including brand metrics, consideration, penetration and sales uplift where available.
- Own measurement architecture and governance: taxonomy, tagging, UTM standards, metadata and data pipelines that enable comparable, reliable cross-market insight.
- Lead the design and evaluation of experiments and pilots — format tests, distribution experiments, paid and content mix tests, incrementality studies — setting hypotheses, selecting metrics, running analysis and defining scaling or sunset decisions.
- Surface early trend signals and opportunity frameworks to editorial, creative and strategy teams, enabling timely briefs and informed market bets.
- Act as the primary analytics partner to senior client and agency stakeholders, presenting insight and recommendations with clarity and rigour.
- Partner with Strategy Directors, brand leads, paid media, CRM, shopper teams and data engineering to embed insight into planning and decision-making cycles.
- Build and maintain a documented testing portfolio — including learnings, playbooks and handover materials — for local markets and in-house teams.
What you need to be great in this role:
- Deep expertise in social and digital analytics platforms — such as Brandwatch, Sprinklr, GWI, Mintel, Nielsen, Meta Ads Manager, GA4, PowerBI, Tableau, Looker or equivalent.
- Proven ability to synthesise multi-source data into strategic narratives for senior audiences — shaping decisions, not just reporting numbers.
- Strong experience in measurement architecture: tagging frameworks, UTM governance, data taxonomy and pipeline management across markets.
- Experience designing and evaluating test-and-learn programmes, including A/B, multivariate and incrementality studies.
- Proficiency in audience research and cultural and trend intelligence methodologies.
- Strong data visualisation skills with experience building executive-level dashboards and periodic performance packs.
- Experience working across multiple markets, with an understanding of localisation considerations in insights and planning.
- Background in a strategy, planning, insights or analytics role within a creative agency, media agency, in-house brand team or consultancy.
- Experience working on large, complex accounts — ideally global FMCG, retail or consumer brands.
- Familiarity with shopper and commerce data (e.g. retail media, e-commerce analytics) is an advantage.
- Professional proficiency in English is required. Additional languages relevant to EMEA markets are an advantage.
Req Id: 18067
#LI-MR1 #LI-MIDSENIOR #LI-HYBRID
Our values shape everything we do:
Be Ambitious to succeed
Be Imaginative to push the boundaries of what’s possible
Be Inspirational to do groundbreaking work
Be always learning and listening to understand
Be Results-focused to exceed expectations
Be actively pro-inclusive and anti-racist across our community, clients and creations
OLIVER, a part of the Brandtech Group, is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive working environment where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential, and individual differences are valued and respected. All applicants shall be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by local laws.
OLIVER has set ambitious environmental goals around sustainability, with science-based emissions reduction targets. Collectively, we work towards our mission, embedding sustainability into every department and through every stage of the project lifecycle.
Skills Required
- Deep expertise in social and digital analytics platforms (e.g., Brandwatch, Sprinklr, GWI, Mintel, Nielsen, Meta Ads Manager, GA4, Power BI, Tableau, Looker)
- Proven ability to synthesize multi-source data into strategic narratives for senior audiences
- Strong experience in measurement architecture: tagging frameworks, UTM governance, data taxonomy and pipeline management
- Experience designing and evaluating test-and-learn programmes (A/B, multivariate, incrementality studies)
- Proficiency in audience research, cultural and trend intelligence methodologies
- Strong data visualization skills; experience building executive dashboards and periodic performance packs
- Experience working across multiple markets with localisation considerations
- Background in strategy, planning, insights or analytics within an agency, in-house brand team, media agency or consultancy
- Experience on large, complex accounts, ideally global FMCG, retail or consumer brands
- Familiarity with shopper and commerce data (retail media, e-commerce analytics)
- Professional proficiency in English
- Additional languages relevant to EMEA markets
OLIVER Agency Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about OLIVER Agency and has not been reviewed or approved by OLIVER Agency.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Feedback suggests vacation, sick leave, and paid holidays are strong elements, with time off frequently highlighted as a standout part of the package. UK materials also describe generous annual leave that increases with service alongside additional personal days.
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Retirement Support — Feedback suggests U.S. employees can access a 401(k), and at least one account notes an immediate match. UK materials indicate a formal pension arrangement within the parent group.
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Affordable Benefits — Feedback suggests U.S. medical coverage is paired with employer-funded HSA/HRA or flex contributions that help offset high deductibles. These subsidies can meaningfully reduce out-of-pocket costs for some employees.
OLIVER Agency Insights
What We Do
Established in 2004, we are the first and only company to design, build and run bespoke in-house agencies and ecosystems for brands. Today, we create work that delivers business growth, fame and purpose for over 200 clients in 46 countries and counting. Our unique model moves at the speed of modern business to drive change from the inside out; working smarter to make our clients’ money go further, and helping them build better solutions, systems and brands. Client solutions include Unilever’s U-Studio (a platform used by almost three-quarters of Unilever's brands globally), adidas’ off-shore hub and PepsiCo’s global digital team.
