How do you manage £300k across 10 partners you've never worked with?
30mn impressions in 3 months
The problem
Market share was declining. The mandate was to lead the affiliate's first-ever media planning and buying initiative for the GLP-1 obesity portfolio, with £300k, 10+ unknown partners, and leadership watching closely. Everything had to be built from scratch while moving fast.
What I did
Evaluated 15+ potential channels across reach, relevance, brand safety, and cost-efficiency. Built a distributed partner ecosystem rather than a single agency: media planning, creative, and analytics handled separately for best-in-class execution. Developed creative briefs for each channel and audience. Built performance tracking from scratch and managed weekly cross-partner optimisation through rapid iteration on early data.
Outcomes
What I learned
Strategic thinking translates across domains. I had never led media planning at this scale before. The key was knowing what questions to ask, even when I didn't know all the answers.
There's a natural tension between building it right and moving fast. The discipline was establishing good processes while accepting imperfect execution in wave 1.
Ten partners, multiple channels, cross-functional stakeholders, zero precedent. The skill was maintaining strategic clarity while orchestrating tactical execution.
Got a similar problem?
Tell me what you're working on. I'll tell you if it's a fit.
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