A mutually rewarding experience.

Work. Realize your ambitions. And realize there’s more to being in business than just making a profit. That’s the Mars philosophy. And the opportunity we offer every one of our Associates. An opportunity to take what you do and make it mean more for you, for those around you and for the planet.  What you get here is challenging, interesting work. You get the tools you need to do a great job and you get to have the best possible people on your side to help you do it. And at the same time as getting to find ways to do business better today than we did it yesterday and driving a great career, you also get to build a more enlightened business and drive sustainability.

Because it’s never just about a single person, a single project or a single brand. It’s about how you can grab everything that’s within your reach here and use it to pursue mutual, long-term gain. It’s about having ideas. And ideals. Being prepared to risk failure because the promise of success means we’ll all be a little better off. It’s that mix of integrity and ambition that makes Mars such a special place to work. And why working here is always about more than just a job.

About Mars, Incorporated 

Mars is a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love. With almost $35 billion in sales, the company is a global business that produces some of the world’s best-loved brands: M&M’s®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, MILKY WAY®, DOVE®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, EXTRA®, ORBIT®, 5™, SKITTLES®, UNCLE BEN’S®, MARS DRINKS and COCOAVIA®. Mars also provides veterinary health services that include BANFIELD® Pet Hospitals, Blue Pearl®, VCA® and Pet Partners™. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire its more than 100,000 Associates to create value for all its partners and deliver growth they are proud of every day.

 

Purpose of Role:

This subject matter expert role will be a key part of Mars Pet Nutrition’s Marketing transformation and is critical to delivering meaningfully relevant communication to pet parents. The Social Activation Manager will be responsible for developing engagement & communication strategies, planning, executing, and optimizing all organic social campaigns and influencer activations, as well as leading content creation and creative best practices for paid social. Key to the role will be working with the brand team and content development ecosystem -inclusive of internal and external agencies by leveraging insights from the consumer, the marketplace and the digital landscape to execute high-impact campaigns across a portfolio of brands (ex. PEDIGREE®, IAMS™ and NUTRO™) that are fit for each social platform. This will include an audience engagement strategy, campaign set up and ongoing optimization, and collaboration on test and learn plan development and measurement/reporting.

 

Key Responsibilities:

Serve as brand lead in the development of all social media strategy and execution:

• Develop and implement a plan that outlines the brand’s target audiences (inclusive of influencer), goals, and objectives. Develop a course of action, execute, assess the results, utilize in flight optimization where possible, and evaluate the outcomes (ROAS).
• Partner with brand teams and content development agencies to lead the development of “best in class” content that is fit for platform against each of the social media activation partners (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tik Tok …etc.), in all relevant tactics and formats.
• Lead the organic social media strategy and community management execution (in partnership with external agencies), inclusive of monitoring the brand’s social media presence, and ensuring that the brand’s executions are valuable and engaging for consumers.
• Successfully plan and manage to budgets. Support ongoing governance/proof of performance processes.

Provide thought leadership and expertise within the social space:

• Oversee the monitoring and evaluation of comments, ratings and reviews, measure activity and analyze traffic patterns, activity levels and how well social media messages are received. Provide feedback to brand team and marketing leadership and make recommendations for improvements.
• Research & develop insights around existing and emerging social media platforms, influencers, competitive brands, and trends to assist in the development of brand’s social content & campaigns

 

• Serve as the brand lead in all monitoring, measuring and reporting of campaign results and media investments, and any optimizations based on those results (in coordination with external agency partners and the Marketing Ops team). 

Lead the development and execution of social learning agenda:

• Monitor trends and competitive landscape. Coordinate with the brand teams to research, identify, analyze, and execute new business initiatives.

 

• Lead the coordination of set-up, execution and measurement of hypothesis-based test and learns to continually drive consumer centric organizational understanding and capability.

 

Context & Scope:

The Social Activation manager will be the point person from the brand team in development of holistic organic and paid social strategy, as well as execution and ongoing optimization for a portfolio of brands, in collaboration with the Marketing Ops team and external agencies. They will be responsible for working with the brand teams to understand overall communication & brand audience priorities, as well as overseeing all aspects of community management, organic content creation and strategy, and influencer marketing. Additionally, this person will be the primary representative from the brand team for developing and refining paid social strategy and content creation, working in close partnership with the Marketing Ops media team and external media agency to define the appropriate audience targeting strategy, mix of paid social media partners, and mix of ad formats, tactics, etc. Finally, this person will serve as a  subject matter expert within the social space, working closely with agency partners to identify and ensure adherence with creative best practices at a brand & partner level and to work with Marketing Ops and the external media agency to develop test & learn plans for emerging platforms and tactics.

 

What are we looking for?

Minimum Qualifications

•            Bachelor’s Degree

•            The knowledge, skills, and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program in a related field, or equivalent work experience.

•            3-5 years of prior experience within social and influencer marketing activation and social performance analytics.

•            Ability to travel 10% of the time.

 

Preferred Qualifications

•            Marketing Campaign Management - Must have a solid understanding of marketing organizations, operations, creative and media planning.

•            Consumer Insights - Exceptional experience applying consumer insights to improve campaign targeting, delivery, performance, etc.

•            Leadership - Campaign leadership skills - end to end campaign development

 

•            Proven expertise within social campaign activation and marketing communications via business results

•            Disposition toward learning on the fly and seeking opportunities for self-development to stay informed, adaptable, and knowledgeable in fast changing landscape

•            Proficient in managing complex projects.  Well organized, good at prioritization, attentive to details, clear oral and written communicator.

•            Strong communication skills (oral, written, listening). This includes ability to make effective presentations to all levels of management.

•            High levels of interpersonal skills specifically in influencing, resolving conflict, and creative problem solving.

•            Biased toward action. Takes initiative, entrepreneurial, can hit the ground running and move projects forward right from the start.

•            Proven functional/technical skills as evidenced by business results in the areas of social and influencer media and audience-driven marketing

 

Mars is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.