VP, Social Innovation

Director of Social Strategy & Innovation

Mission One Media is a brand within Barkley

OKRP that combines full-funnel media planning and buying services, CRM, data, analytics, retail media, SEO, and digital experiences.

• 200+ Team Members
• Our tech stack is powered by Adlucent, the digital performance marketing agency that joined Barkley
  
  OKRP in 2024

This is a senior, highly influential individual contributor (IC) role at Mission One Media, part of Barkley

OKRP. In this executive-level strategic role, you will be responsible for defining and driving the agency’s future-state social media offering. You will act as a visionary leader who identifies new competitive advantages, revenue streams, and first-to-market opportunities rooted in platform, creative, and media innovation. The DSSI works adjacent to the Planning team and is the strategic bridge for innovation, requiring deep collaboration with the Omni‑Channel Activation team to assess technical feasibility and ensure the scale of all new initiatives.

This role demands exceptional influence, advanced strategic thought leadership, and an authoritative understanding of the social ecosystem to secure the agency's competitive advantage.

Visionary Leadership & Strategic Acumen:
You possess an unrivaled ability to anticipate emerging social trends and platform shifts, translating this knowledge into a coherent 6‑18 month strategy that drives competitive advantage for our clients.

Collaborative Partnership (Crucial):
You demonstrate a strong track record of successful collaboration with high-volume media buying and execution teams. You are adept at working with Activation leadership (VP, Omni‑Channel Activation) to assess technical feasibility, design pilot tests, and ensure new strategies are scalable.

Planning Adjacency & Creative Integration:
You are skilled at partnering with the Planning team to inject bold, innovative social ideas into integrated media recommendations, leveraging new media types and platform features to create unique client value.

Executive Communication & Influence:
You are a masterful communicator, capable of articulating complex strategic investments and innovation roadmaps to executive stakeholders (agency leadership and clients) with clarity and conviction.

Organizational Steward:
You use strategic insights to inform resource allocation requests, helping executive leadership justify new hiring or technology purchases based on client demand and internal ROI.

• Define, develop, and champion the strategic 6‑18 month roadmap for the agency’s social media and innovation offering.
• Own and manage high‑level strategic relationships with core social platform partners (Meta, Tik Tok, Pinterest, etc.) to secure access to proprietary beta programs and future products.
• Lead internal initiatives to vet, evaluate, and prioritize emerging social trends (e.g., live commerce, generative AI in creative) for client‑facing integration.
• Design and lead high‑level creative and media workshops focused on identifying big idea social concepts and first‑to‑market opportunities.
• Partner closely with the Planning team to ensure innovative social solutions are integrated into broader media recommendations and strategic client roadmaps.
• Work directly with the Paid Social Activation team to assess the technical feasibility of proposed innovation strategies and collaborate on pilot testing design.
• Ensure seamless transfer of knowledge and strategic intent to the Activation team for scalable execution.
• Collaborate with Analytics and Activation to design and implement new methodologies for measuring large‑scale social engagements and non‑traditional performance metrics.
• Act as a recognized industry thought leader by authoring white papers, hosting agency training sessions, and presenting externally.
• Use strategic insights to inform resource allocation requests, justifying new hiring or technology purchases to the EVP of Activation and Investment.
• Serve as the agency’s primary internal expert on social media innovation, providing high‑level counsel to clients and internal teams.

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in Paid Social Media or Digital…