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 Manager
Location: Durban, South Africa, Hybrid
About the role:
We’re looking for a Planning, Insights & Data Manager to join our Strategy & Social team and help transform data into meaningful strategic recommendations. This role sits at the intersection of strategy, analytics and social intelligence, partnering closely with strategists, creatives and client teams to uncover audience, cultural and commercial insights that inform smarter marketing decisions. You’ll be responsible for identifying trends, interpreting campaign performance and turning complex information into clear, actionable recommendations that improve creative effectiveness and business outcomes. If you’re naturally curious, commercially minded and passionate about using insights to solve business challenges, we’d love to hear from you.
What you will be doing:
- Conduct audience, cultural, category and competitive research to support strategic planning.
- Analyse campaign, platform and social listening data to identify meaningful insights and opportunities.
- Translate qualitative and quantitative data into clear recommendations that inform creative briefs, content strategies and activation plans.
- Develop dashboards, reporting packs and performance summaries for internal teams and clients.
- Partner with Strategy Directors, Creative teams and client stakeholders to identify opportunities for optimisation and future planning.
- Support test-and-learn initiatives by helping define hypotheses, measurement approaches and key learnings.
- Monitor emerging cultural, platform and consumer trends and proactively share opportunities with the wider business.
- Contribute to building best practice, templates and reporting frameworks that improve planning capability across the team.
What you need to be great in this role:
- 4–6 years’ experience in strategic planning, insights, analytics or research within an agency, consultancy or client-side environment.
- Strong analytical thinking with the ability to identify patterns and uncover meaningful insights.
- Experience using social platform analytics and social listening tools.
- Excellent storytelling skills and the ability to communicate complex information simply.
- Experience presenting recommendations to internal teams and clients.
- Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills.
- Experience with reporting or dashboard platforms such as Power BI, Tableau or Looker Studio is advantageous.
- FMCG, retail or global brand experience is beneficial but not essential.
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.
