Description :
Job Title: Product Planner - Marketing
Job Category: Marketing
Product: (Not Product Specific)
Date Posted: 07/02/2008
Job Code: 233965
Location: WA - Redmond
Travel Required:
Background
Advertising has become an increasingly important and profitable business opportunity for the Entertainment & Devices (E&D) Division at Microsoft. As advertising revenues grow and new ad-funded businesses continue to be created, we face an array of exciting challenges that when addressed, will result in the creation of large amounts of advertising inventory that will be easy to for advertisers to buy, easy for the ad platform to serve. Come be a part of this energetic and agile group focused on putting the "Fun" in ad-funded entertainment for consumers.
The E&D Video Advertising Product Planner will be responsible for evaluating opportunities, building a case, and executing on delivery of these product offerings in partnership with product groups. In all, the focus is on putting the consumer experience first and creating clear value for the user and the advertiser.
Scope and Deliverables
In order to build a large, high-margin ad business for E&D, the Advertising Business Group, and the Video Advertising Planning team, must focus on three core activities:
1. Ad inventory creation.
2. Ad inventory sales.
3. Ad inventory serving.
The Lead Product Planner for E&D Video Advertising will be involved in all three aspects of the advertising business, with emphasis on creation and serving. Responsibilities include:
Design of E&D Ad-funded Products and creation of inventory. The first and primary responsibility of Video Ad Planner will be to ensure that we create large amounts of easy to buy and sell, scalable advertising inventory. This involves working with the E&D business groups to ensure that their product plans anticipate video advertising from the onset while putting the customer first, and that we have a set of guidelines and best practices that provide guidance for all creators of video advertising inventory.
Shared responsibility for experience planning. Advertising is just part of the overall video consumption experience. The Video Ad Planner must work closely with the E&D product planning teams to affect a "whole experience" of video consumption.
Serving of ad inventory. In the end, we make money when we serve the right ad to the right person at the right time. This can't happen without the appropriate ad serving technology. The Video Ad Planner will work closely with the Ad Platform teams and Operations to nurture this work to completion.
Sales Support. The Video Ad Planner will be twice removed from the selling process, but still plays an important "upstream" role. Once we have a significant amount of easy to buy, sell and serve ad inventory, we must train the sales force to sell it. The Video Ad Planner must work with the trade marketing and selling organization to ensure that the key selling points of our offering are clearly understood.
Competitive analysis and partner strategy. The Video Ad Planner must also stay abreast of competitive technologies and offerings, and develop a partnership strategy which clarifies the difference between a potential partner and a potential competitor.
Influence and track industry working groups. The Video Ad Planner must work closely with the IAB and other standards/working groups to ensure that we have the appropriate voice in the standards discussions that continue to occur.
Qualifications
A qualified candidate will have:
A college degree (BS or BA), MBA is a nice plus
Five+ years experience in the digital advertising field and/or video industry involving technical aspects of digital advertising.
Communication and collaboration skills. The ability to work collaboratively with other technical leads across the division and the company is a key requirement. Emphasis is placed on quick yet thorough decision making and execution abilities.
Project management skills. The ability to oversee and drive large, complex projects with many stakeholders.
A passion for media and new models of media consumption that puts the user experience first.
This role is based in Redmond, WA (Microsoft HQ) area. Limited business travel required (less than 3 weeks/year).
