Ninety9cents is a full-service, integrated advertising agency, with its head office located in Cape Town, and is one of South Africa’s largest independently owned agencies. Led by founder and Managing Director, Andrew Brand, the agency’s extensive client base includes leading brands such as Shoprite/Checkers, Ackermans, PUMA, Spur Group, Capitec and Distell, to name but a few. We have a position available for a well- rounded Trends Analyst. 

Summary of main duties

Strategy:

·      Work closely with specialists in each marketing channel/department to create effective and holistic content strategies across all channels.

·      Work closely with strategy team to map out a content strategy that supports and extends marketing initiatives, both short- and long-term, determining which methods work for the brand and why.

·      Work closely with strategy to help the client identify the customer personas, segment customers by needs or interests, develop key message points, and ultimately help develop the roadmap to a content plan that addresses each customer segment effectively.

·      Continuous evolvement of strategy and communication of that strategy (internally and externally) is a must.

Creative:

·      Work closely with Creative Director, or similar, on all creative and branding initiatives to ensure alignment of messaging needs across channels.

Production:

·      Work closely with Client Service, Account Management and Project Management teams to understand, make recommendations and deliver on content needs for campaigns.

·      Work closely with Social Media, Email Marketing and Website teams to understand, make recommendations and deliver on content needs for campaigns.

·      Work closely with technical team to define practical content requirements for delivery and upload.

·      Work closely with Client/Brand Team to define ongoing brand stories across channels and manage regular output of content team.

·      Responsible for Content Partners and communicating the use of these content partners to both internal and external teams.

·      Manage regular partners to ensure delivery of content.

·      Pro-active partnership opportunities.

SEO:

·      Responsible for ensuring that all content created for brand or campaign align with SEO objectives.

·      Ensure that all content includes SEO attributes such as a descriptive title, metadata, a relevant keyword focus, images with relevant tags, etc.

·      Ensure that all content is SEO friendly and is shareable through social media according to keyword best practice.

Measurement:

·      Gathering data and handle analytics (or work with those who do) and implement recommendations based on those results.

·      Leveraging market data to develop content themes/topics and execute a plan to develop the assets that support a point of view.

·      Communicate effectiveness of content for campaigns with project owners.

·      Communicate effectiveness of content with client via monthly reporting.

Management:

·      Single point of contact and owner for all content across all channels.

·      Responsible for the management of content creators from creation to deployment.

·      Supervising writers, editors, and content strategists; be an arbiter of best practices in grammar, messaging, writing and style.

·      Responsible for budgets, timelines and project management of content within or outside of projects. 

·      Responsible for the development of a functional content calendar throughout the brand verticals, and working closely with the owners in each vertical.

·      Developing standards, systems and best practices (both human and technological) for content creation, distribution, maintenance, content retrieval and content repurposing, including the real time implementation of content strategies.

·      Establishing workflow for requesting, creating, editing, publishing and retiring content.

·      Participation in the hiring and supervising of content/story leaders in all content verticals.

Defining content needs at 99c:

·      Content team: Is responsible for creating long lasting content plans. This plan is communicated to all teams in order for them to utilise as part of their campaigns.  

·      Technical: There is a team responsible for the strategy and frame in which content appears. This includes being aware of content to use as part of their broader strategy/implementation requirements.

·      Marketing: There is a team responsible for delivering on project or campaign objectives, and is aware of content available to assist in reaching broader strategy objectives.

·      Creative: Will assist with content creation where needed (design, video, content writing) and generate the creative ideas to promote the content available as part of individual briefs or campaign briefs.

Skills required:

·      Editorial skills, with a proven track record in food and lifestyle journalism

·      Nose for the story – storyteller

·      Lead and inspire teams of content creators and creatives

·      Long and short form content creation and strong understanding of distribution

·      Think like an educator and understand the audience needs

·      A passion for new technology tools

·      Clear articulation of the business goal behind the creation of content

·      Project management skills to manage editorial schedules and deadlines

·      Familiar with the principles of marketing

·      Great people skills

·      Basic technical understanding of HTML, XHTML, CSS, Java, web publishing, flash etc.

·      Fluency in web analytics tools for website, social, mailer etc.

·      A willingness to embrace change

·      Powers of persuasion

·      Organised

·      Continually learning the latest platforms

If you have not received a response to your application within 2 weeks, please consider your application as unsuccessful. Applications from EE candidates will be considered with preference in compliance with the EE Act.