Position Purpose:
The Media Planning Lead translates business unit campaign goals into clear, executable and performance-oriented media strategies for McDonald's China. The role primarily leads media planning for McDonald's Breakfast campaigns while rotating across other business units as part of the centralized media planning pool under the User Growth unit. Sitting at the intersection of business strategy, consumer insight, media planning, vendor coordination and campaign performance, the role challenges and sharpens campaign briefs, develops integrated media strategies across digital, MSP / mass media, social, OOH and other traffic touchpoints, and ensures every plan is executable and built to hit its KPIs.
Responsibilities & Accountabilities:
Brief translation & media strategy development:
• Receive campaign briefs from business units and translate objectives into actionable media strategies, clarifying the business problem, target audience, communication task, campaign role, KPI logic and media implications.
• Develop strategies that balance brand exposure, traffic generation, conversion, efficiency and business priority; ensure Breakfast campaigns have clear media objectives, audience and touchpoint strategy, phasing, budget logic
and KPI definitions.
Integrated, multi-touchpoint media planning：
• Lead integrated media plans across digital, MSP / mass media, social, OOH, platform and other relevant traffic channels — defining channel roles, media mix, budget allocation, campaign period, city / audience prioritization, reach-and-frequency logic and deployment rhythm.
• Ensure plans are business-led rather than just channel plans, and are feasible and executable with internal stakeholders and vendors.
Centralized planning pool & cross-BU support：
• Operate within the centralized media planning team supporting multiple campaigns and business units, rotating across other BUs and campaign types when needed.
• Share planning learnings across BUs to reduce siloed planning, and contribute to centralized playbooks, benchmarks, post-campaign learnings and planning standards.
Planning leadership & stakeholder management:
• Lead planning discussions with business units, Central Media, Creative / Social, CRM, EC, CBI, Data and external vendors; help BUs sharpen their media requests and align on the right approach.
• Proactively identify planning risks — unclear briefs, timeline pressure, channel mismatch or KPI misalignment — and escalate key decisions to the Central Media Team and Head of Traffic Strategy.
Execution governance & vendor coordination:
• Work with planners, buying teams, deployment vendors and platform partners to translate strategy into executable deployment detail, and guide them through launch, in-flight optimization and review.
• Ensure execution stays consistent with the approved strategy — budget split, audience setup, channel role, timing and KPI targets.
Performance review & learning loop:
• Own campaign-level media review and post-campaign learning with Central Media, Data and vendor teams, reviewing against KPIs such as reach, frequency, CPUV, CPM, cost per incremental user, conversion, traffic contribution and business impact.
• Build a closed-loop rhythm from brief → strategy → execution → tracking → post-buy → learning → next campaign.
Position Requirements:
Knowledge and Skills:
• Bachelor's degree or above; marketing, media, communications, business or a related discipline preferred.
• 5–8+ years' experience in media planning, integrated marketing, digital marketing, traffic strategy or media-agency planning; QSR, FMCG, retail, consumer brands or performance-driven campaign environments preferred.
• Strong track record developing integrated media plans across digital, social, OOH, mass media and platform channels, and working with agencies, buying / deployment vendors, data teams and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong ability to translate business goals into media strategy and executable plans; solid grasp of media KPIs, funnel logic, audience strategy, media mix, campaign phasing and optimization.
• Good business sense and analytical mindset; able to interpret performance data and convert findings into future planning recommendations.
• Strong stakeholder communication; able to align business units, central teams and vendors. Strong ownership and structure, able to manage multiple campaigns at once, plus people leadership / coaching ability.
• Fluent written and spoken English and Mandarin Chinese; proficient in office software (PowerPoint, Excel).
Critical Experience:
• Led integrated, multi-touchpoint media planning for a major brand or business line, translating ambiguous briefs into executable, measurable plans.
• Managed media planning across multiple concurrent campaigns and/or business units, setting standards and driving plan quality in a centralized or shared-service model.
• (Preferred) Improved campaign media performance or efficiency through a stronger planning, measurement and closed-loop learning approach.
