A Day in the Life of a Digital Media Planner

We recently caught up with Bright Network member, Lida, to chat about how her career is going. Lida has been working as a digital media planner and told us about her personal experience of what a day in the life of a digital media planner is really like. Read on to learn what a digital media planner does and whether it’s the career path for you.

What does a digital media planner do?

Digital media planners work within advertising agencies. Their main job is helping clients to find the perfect digital places to advertise the client’s product, business or anything else the client would want to put out in the world. Being a great digital media planner requires being a skilful marketer and a tactical communicator. It’s Lida’s job to get the best deals and exposure for her clients and being a people-person really helps with this.

We started by asking Lida about some of her tasks as a digital media planner.

Is there a task or project that you’ve worked on that has stood out to you?

The most important thing for me was onboarding a new tech tool that the tech team created. We had to onboard the tech tool in the media department so the clients could use it. That was very exciting! Even though I was only in the company for a few months, they let me take on a lot of responsibility and collaborate with a lot of different teams. It was exciting.

In agencies, you tend to be given a lot of responsibility early on. However, sometimes you don’t have the best guidance because of this. I learned a lot and I am appreciative of this because I learned a lot, but it can be quite stressful.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned since starting?

Learn how to work differently with each person because everyone has a different working style. Figuring out what their working style is is going to help you connect with them and help them work better. For example, some people might want to solve problems on calls so if you know that you can just call them, and you’ll solve the problem in 5 minutes. Other people don’t like you calling them, and they would prefer an email with a lot of details. 

The working conditions of a digital media planner

Many digital media planners work for agencies. In an agency, you represent your client and speak to media platforms for them. This requires understanding what a client wants to get from their digital marketing and relaying this to colleagues who work with the media outputs, known as the channel teams in Lida’s agency. Most agency work is office based and requires a lot of collaboration between teams. It’s a social role with many conversations through email and on the phone.

We asked Lida about what it’s like working for an agency.

What is the culture like at your agency?

It’s a pretty relaxed agency. There is a lot of freedom to wear whatever you like. You can also work flexible hours. For example, I could take two hours off during the day to go to the gym or do whatever I want, and I can just stay an hour later and start an hour earlier. It’s very flexible once you establish yourself. I don’t know anyone who struggled in creating the schedule that they want.

What’s office life like?

There are always lots of things going on like stimulating events happening in the agency. When we’d all go into the office more, you might see partners coming in and presenting their work. While it might not be related to your team, but since you’re there you learn something new. It’s a very creative, friendly, inclusive environment.

What has been the highlight of working for the agency?

A highlight was when we won an award for a set of campaigns that we had planned. It was a full team effort, and everyone together won the award! It was a lot of combined work. This is a great part of the job – it’s perfect for people who want to work as a team!

A typical day in the life of a digital media planner

Working as a digital media planner may require working beyond the standard 9am to 5pm working day, especially at busier times. We asked Lida to take us through what a typical day in the life of a digital media planner is like, from the tasks she completes to the interactions she has with clients.

What is the first thing you do when you start working?

I read my emails. Since lots of my work is through emails, the first thing I do is check what has come through since I last logged in.

What do you do throughout the day?

The days vary a lot! You might have days where things are very chill and you don’t have a lot of requests, but then the next day you might have tons of requests which you can’t finish in a single day.

On typical days, we receive a brief from the client, and then we brief the channel teams to create their own plans and consolidate everything. We manage the back and forth between the client and the channel teams. We often receive budget upgrades or reductions from clients, and we have to see how this affects the strategy and come up with a few recommendations, talk to the client. When the client approves something, you go to the channel teams, and they update their plans.

An important part of my role is managing a lot of internal teams and externally, the clients. Having good people skills is one of the main requirements of the job.

We tend to have some days which are full of meeting where I’m constantly on Teams talking with internal people or clients. We also talk with a lot of partners about what you want to include in your plans so they can help you with your strategy. Lots of meetings!

How you could become a digital media planner

To become a digital media planner, you need a combination of skills and education. Necessary skills include communication, organisation and an aptitude for the commercial side of advertising. Alongside these skills, you often need an undergraduate degree in marketing, advertising or a humanities subject.

We asked Lida for her advice on how you can break into the digital media planner profession.

What top tips would you give Bright Network members wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Work on your people skills. This is how you approach people and how you work with them. Learn how to get the best out of them.

Take responsibility for everything you do. A lot of mistakes happen, especially in an agency as there is a lot going on at the same time and sometimes processes might not be clear enough.

Have you been inspired by Lida? Are you considering working life as a digital media planner? Explore the current jobs in media, film and TV.