Associate, Paid Specialist (Cape Town)

Rival is looking for an enterprising Associate to join our core consulting team with a focus on paid media.

As an Associate, you will play an exciting part in building our paid media, analytics, and go-to-market offerings. This full-time role will build strategic thinking as well as technical expertise for those new to the industry or with some experience who want to deepen their existing skills. You’ll get to spend time working directly with clients, but also help build a business and have a real impact on the development of Rival’s internal processes and operations. 

We are a distributed team with people currently based across the US, UK, and South Africa.

Role

• You will join an existing team, reporting to the Principal.
• This role requires you to work in-person in an office in the Gardens area of Cape Town for 3 days a week
• Leading the execution of Rival’s own brand and some of our client’s paid media spends across multiple channels
• Supporting the Principal and Partner on the creation of reports, testing agendas, dashboards, and process documentation for campaigns
• Supporting the Principal and Operations Director on account management, billing, invoicing and spend tracking for our and our client’s budgets
• Collaborating with the Principal, Partner, and other Associates on client strategy by providing key insights on paid media results, including presenting to clients directly
• Coordinating and partnering with some client in-house or partner agency paid media teams on shared executions
• Over time, gaining experience and relevant certifications on key paid media, analytics, and reporting platforms (Google Analytics, Adobe Experience Manager, Tableau, Facebook Ads Manager, et al.)
• Over time, supporting the Managing Partner and Principal with client capability building, including training, workshops, and upskilling
• Over time, leading with the support of the Principal in the development of client recommendations for paid media campaigns, testing, and go-to-market strategies

Opportunity

• You will be joining the Rival at an exciting time - we are three years in, growing quickly, and have big plans for the future!
• We have a global client portfolio - you’ll get a truly global perspective and be exposed to brands and projects in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. 
• We are a small (but mighty!) team of about 25, so you’ll have the opportunity to learn and work on a wide variety of projects - strategy, paid media, creative, data/martech, and our own product development 
• This role holds a ton of potential for the right person, as you’ll be working closely with the founding team shaping the future of our business

Requirements 

We'd like this candidate to have...

• We do not require a minimum years of experience, but we’d prefer you to have some  experience or a strong demonstrated interest in marketing effectiveness, paid media, or data & analytics. 
• Some experience using Google Suite or equivalent tools, particularly Sheets (Microsoft Excel). 
• Some data and quantitative skills, including an ability to do analysis using pivot tables and basic data visualization, with experience in Looker, Tableau, or other visualization tools ideal
• Good organisational skills along with the demonstrated ability to work to a deadline
• A start up mentality and personality: you're mission driven and not afraid to get stuck in
• Able to attend meetings in-person for at least one week each quarter and travel for company events twice a year

• No university degree required - we value your experience and skills

We would be particularly excited if... 

• You have 1-2 years’ experience or are certified as an execution and buying practitioner on key paid media channels, such as paid search (Google, Bing, ASA, Baidu), or paid social (Meta, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter). 
• You have strong data and quant skills, like competency in R, Python, or SQL, advanced Sheets/Excel competency like VBA, or advanced coursework in mathematics, data science, economics, or a related field 

Compensation

• Our compensation philosophy is to “mid-market base, top-market upside”. We offer everyone the opportunity to share in the upside of what we’re building together. 
• There are three components to our compensation package 
  
  • Base Salary - market average for marketing consultancy/agency
  • Profit Share - eligibility for a profit share distribution twice a year (after one year of employment) based on company and individual performance
  • Employee Liquidity Plan -  eligibility for our “shadow stock” plan (after one year of employment)

Benefits 

• 28-days vacation days for South African employees + public holidays
  
  • 21 discretionary vacation days
  • 7 company ‘recharge days’ during the year - these are mandatory days that everyone takes off to relax and focus on family, friends and ourselves.
• Profit Share and Rival Employee Liquidity Plan (ELP)
  
  • ELP aka “shadow stock” has all the financial benefits of options, but without the cost to exercise and tax implications
• Office-first but flexible working environment 
  
  • Our default policy is for everyone to be in the office three days per week (currently Tues/Wed/Thurs). We believe in and have seen the impact of in-person collaboration on our work, culture, and development. However, we hire grown ups and trust people to manage their time and schedule. We understand there will be exceptions to the default rule, as long as we’re all focused on what’s best for the team.
  • The equipment and technology you need to be successful, plus additional support if you need to enhance your work from home set-up
• Quarterly ‘Team Weeks’
  
  • One week a quarter we focus on planning, team building, and professional development. This can involve the opportunity to travel to other offices.  

• Various surprise and delights & Rival events throughout the year.

About Rival

Rival is a marketing consultancy for challengers. We believe incumbent best practices lead to average results. We use the playbook of challenger brands to deliver outsized impact for CMOs who need to do more with less.

Our Hiring Ethos

We want to build a home for the world’s best marketing talent while advancing diversity in our industry. Hiring is the most important thing we do at Rival. Finding and attracting the best talent in the industry is key to our long-term success and day-to-day happiness, but it’s also the most direct way we can have an impact on driving positive change in our industry and for our clients. 

Our goal is to deliver a best-in-class interview experience for candidates:

• Upfront alignment on what good looks like 
• We compensate candidates time for any interview that requires a task
• Timely, respectful communication 
• Opportunity for all candidates to provide feedback 
• All employees undergo unconscious bias training
• Global Equality Collective membership to upskill ourselves in all aspects of hiring

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At Rival, we're invested in a thoughtful, long-term hiring approach that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion. We care about creating a global community with a combined mission, but not at the expense of losing individual identity, which is critical to our innovation. It’s essential that we bring our authentic self to work every day, no matter our age, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, neurodiversity, or otherwise.

We listen to our employees, take direction and are taking continual action to better ourselves in this mission. Inclusion isn't just an initiative at Rival. We strive to embed it into all aspects of our business model and how we operate.

B Corp

Rival is proud to have gained B Corp Certification in 2023, we joined a fleet of B Corp businesses around the world who all have the same goal, driving global social and environmental change. We aim to set a new standard for corporate social responsibility in our industry. We believe we have a responsibility to not just do well for ourselves and our clients, but do good for others and the world at large. We don’t believe we can change the world on our own. But we do believe we can make a meaningful difference in this industry and set a meaningful example for others to follow.

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