Director, Audience Analytics

Agency: Omd Job Function: Data and Analytics Job Subfunction: Data Science and Analytics Job Description: About the Role: The Director, Audience Analytics (Merlin) will play a hands-on role in delivering an audience-first approach to planning, activation and measurement, working directly with client and agency teams.

You will focus on operationalising audience strategy end-to-end - from first-party data organisation and segmentation through to activation, optimisation and performance reporting.

This is a delivery-focused leadership role, responsible for ensuring that audience thinking is effectively embedded into day-to-day planning and activation workflows, and that data is translated into clear, actionable outcomes.

Partner closely with Merlin’s in-house data and CRM/audience teams to structure, organise and maximise the value of first-party data Support the development and implementation of segmentation frameworks, ensuring they are actionable across channels Translate business objectives into practical audience definitions and segment strategies Ensure alignment between client data structures and Omnicom / Acxiom capabilities Lead the development of audience insights and profiling, combining first-party data, Acxiom data and other partner sources Identify key behavioural, demographic and attitudinal drivers that inform planning and creative strategy Translate complex data outputs into clear narratives and actionable recommendations for planning teams Support ongoing insight generation to inform campaign optimisation and test learnings Work with strategy and planning teams to map audiences across the full customer journey Ensure consistent use of first-party, Acxiom and partner data to define and prioritise audiences Develop audience frameworks that guide channel planning and investment decisions Embed audience-first thinking into comms planning processes Partner with activation teams to ensure audiences are effectively translated into platform-specific executions Support the implementation, QA and governance of audience deployment across channels Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to addressability, match rates, and activation gaps Ensure consistency between planned audiences and executed targeting strategies Define and deliver audience-level performance reporting and analysis Track delivery, reach, engagement and conversion performance by audience segment Develop and manage a test & learn agenda focused on audience effectiveness Identify opportunities to optimise audience strategy and improve ROI over time Clearly communicate results and implications to both client and internal teams

About You: Experience in audience analytics, data strategy, or digital/media analytics roles Strong hands-on experience with segmentation, profiling and audience strategy execution Working knowledge of first-party data ecosystems, CRM data, CDPs and identity resolution Experience leveraging third-party datasets (e.g. Acxiom or similar) in media planning and activation Understanding of how audiences are activated across key platforms (programmatic, social, search) Ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insight for non-technical stakeholders Experience working with cross-functional teams (strategy, planning, activation) Strong attention to detail with ability to manage delivery and execution quality Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

About the Agency: At OMD EMEA, we strive to deliver on our promise of ‘better decisions, faster‘ for our clients, partners and all 6,000+ OMDers across our region every day. As part of the world’s largest media network, our business is staging experiences for consumers who have more choice and less attention than ever before. The key to the process is empathy. Empathy to see the world through the eyes of the consumer, to recognise the needs of our clients and to identify aspirations of our talent.

Learn Fast, Act Fast. To help navigate the road to a