Role Overview
The Head of OOH will lead Publicis Media Africa’s end-to-end Out-of-Home practice — combining strategic leadership, market expertise, and commercial acumen to modernize and scale the agency’s outdoor offering.
The role demands a leader who can balance legacy OOH scale with digital innovation, bringing deep local knowledge of the South African OOH landscape — from townships to airports, CBDs, malls, and key arterial routes — and extending this expertise across Africa.
They will bridge creative communication planning, consumer journey mapping, and commercial negotiation to deliver measurable business outcomes for clients.
This is both a relationship and results-driven role, requiring a strategic thinker, trusted negotiator, and strong operator who can lead a centralized delivery team and represent Publicis Media credibly with CMOs, procurement heads, and OOH holding companies.
Key Responsibilities
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Define and implement Publicis Africa’s OOH growth strategy, ensuring it combines traditional scale with digital transformation (DOOH, data, measurement).
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Overseethe planning and execution of out-of-home strategies, ensuring alignment with brand goals and market trends
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Map the consumer journey and align OOH touchpoints with broader brand and media strategies — from awareness to conversion.
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Identify new growth zones — including township economies, commuter corridors, and retail precincts — and integrate them into client communication plans.
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Translate complex OOH possibilities into simple, strategic narratives that resonate with CMOs and client boards.
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Local Market Expertise & Influence
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Leverage deep understanding of South Africa’s OOH ecosystem — key landlords, site clusters, and ownership structures.
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Analyse market data to optimize placements, and drive innovation in our OOH solutions.
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Maintain trusted relationships with major OOH media holding groups, landlords, and concessionaires across:
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Airports
- Roadside
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Malls & business districts
- Township
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Negotiate strategic site access, long-term value commitments, and preferential rates.
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Proactively identify location gaps or redundancies across client campaigns and fix them through tactical site swaps or deal leverage.
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Commercial & Negotiation Leadership
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Lead all OOH commercial negotiations at a senior level — ensuring transparency, value creation, and profitability.
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Develop strategic supply-side partnerships to secure premium inventory and ensure first-mover advantage for clients.
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Build volume-based or multi-client deals with OOH media owners that unlock better pricing and stronger data access.
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Design framework agreements and trading principles aligned to Groupe compliance and procurement governance.
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Work with finance and procurement to ensure OOH maintains strong margins and operational sustainability.
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Integrated Consumer Planning
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Collaborate with planning, strategy, and data teams to ensure OOH aligns with audience intent, path-to-purchase, and brand funnel goals.
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Translate brand strategy into actionable outdoor blueprints that map where, when, and how OOH drives consumer action.
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Support planners with OOH data, audience insights, and contextual recommendations during campaign ideation.
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Champion OOH as a storytelling medium that drives both emotional impact and measurable business outcomes.
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Team Leadership & Execution Excellence
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Lead a centralized OOH operations and delivery hub based in South Africa servicing all agencies and clients (in South Africa but also including Pan-Africa)
- Ensure flawless campaign execution — accurate site bookings, creative placement, posting verification, and post-campaign reporting.
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Drive operational efficiency through standardized templates, vendor SLAs, and automation tools.
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Mentor and develop a team of OOH planners, buyers, and coordinators to elevate delivery quality and market credibility.
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Innovation & Future Readiness
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Integrate data-enabled OOH and P/DOOH solutions (e.g., location intelligence, programmatic trading, mobile retargeting).
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Pilot measurement frameworks linking OOH exposure to store visits, sales lift, and online conversions.
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Build case studies to demonstrate the commercial impact of integrated outdoor campaigns.
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Collaborate with Epsilon and Data teams to connect OOH exposure with identity-based audiences and retargeting opportunities.
Qualifications & Experience
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Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or Media Management.
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10+ years’ experience in Out-of-Home media, including planning, buying, and strategic account leadership.
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Proven network and influence within South Africa’s OOH ecosystem, from large to small vendors
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Strong understanding of OOH site economics, municipality regulations, concession models, and rate structures.
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Experience in negotiating national and regional deals and managing multi-stakeholder relationships.
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Familiarity with OOH data, mapping, and verification tools (OMC IDS Software, Outdoor Auditors, SEEDOH, ROAD etc.).
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Excellent understanding of brand communication planning and the role of OOH in the consumer journey.
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Skilled communicator capable of engaging CMOs and client boards at strategic level.
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Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional or centralized teams.
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Added experience within the Pan-African OOH ecosystem would be ideal
