Social and Digital Lead

Ogilvy Social.Lab; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 800 000 - 1 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A global digital marketing agency in Johannesburg is looking for a Social and Digital Lead to drive analytics for major brands. You will lead insights generation from digital data, guiding critical business decisions. The ideal candidate has over 7 years of experience in social and digital strategy and a proven track record of delivering actionable insights. This role demands leadership in analytics, mentoring senior analysts, and developing data-driven strategies that align with business objectives.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Social/Digital/Data Analytics, Insights, and Strategy.
• Proven ability to link insights to business outcomes.
• Expert in using social and digital monitoring technologies.

Responsibilities

• Define insights that drive business impact from digital data.
• Lead the analytics function for a unified digital strategy.
• Mentor senior analysts to improve overall output.

Skills

Social/Digital/Data Analytics

Leadership

Analytical Skills

Strategic Planning

Tools

Sprinklr

YouScan

Semrush

Job description

Social and Digital Lead (12 month contract)

Johannesburg, GP, South Africa

Ogilvy Social Lab is setting global benchmarks in digital marketing and is driven by offering our expertise to both local and international clients through a multi-market footprint.

We have enabled ‘borderless ways of working’, operating as connected teams and providing Creative, Content, Media and Intelligence capabilities to Ogilvy agencies and clients in more than 20 countries.

Join our globally connected team and work on challenging projects that transcend borders. Embrace a career that takes you to new horizons and make a global impact!

As the Social and Digital Lead for Studio X, you will be the strategic brain and champion for social performance, defining how insights derived from a holistic view of digital data drive critical business decisions for The Coca-Cola Company brands across Africa. This role is pivotal in transforming reporting from ‘what happened’ to diagnostic ‘why’ insights, directly influencing TCCC’s core commercial objectives. You will lead the analytics function, providing a ‘single eye’ on TCCC’s marketing objectives and KPIs across all digital channels, ensuring a unified digital strategy that unlocks greater ROI and competitive advantage.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the shift from mere data pulling to providing actionable, diagnostic insights that directly measure and drive business impact, focusing on the “why” behind performance.
• Champion the data-driven optimisation of social content and strategies post-flighting, leveraging tools like LearnX to refine content usage and integrate learnings back into creative and engagement strategies.
• Develop and disseminate strategic playbooks that ensure consistent, data-informed, high-quality output and performance across all territories by identifying and scaling best practices.
• Lead and mentor senior analysts, ensuring the team understands how to ask the right questions of data based on each brand’s Job-to-be-Done, and improve overall output and ways of working.
• Provide a “single eye” on TCCC’s overall Marketing Objectives & KPIs across all digital channels, connecting social contributions to broader business outcomes (sales, brand equity, customer acquisition, retention) across the entire digital ecosystem.
• Increase reporting frequency (e.g., monthly) to ensure TCCC is “tracking ahead of schedule.”
• Integrate social performance data with insights from website analytics, CRM, paid media campaigns, email marketing, and e-commerce platforms.
• Analyse the interplay and correlation between different digital touchpoints to understand the holistic customer journey and optimise the “digital flywheel.”
• Analyse the impact of social activities and other digital efforts on the growth, quality, and utilisation of TCCC's first-party data.
• Deliver comprehensive, cross-channel strategic recommendations that drive overall digital performance and business growth.
• Collaborate with a wide range of TCCC digital stakeholders (e.g., e-commerce teams, media agencies, CRM teams, global digital leads) to align measurement, optimisation, and strategic planning.
• Proactively integrate and leverage insights from the global reporting structure (e.g., Studio X real-time dashboard) into a holistic digital performance view, providing localised interpretation and actionable recommendations.
• Lead the monthly performance pulse and quarterly OU reviews to refine impact across Build/Fix, Lead Growth, Selective Play initiatives and reallocate flexible resources as needed.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of dashboards, measurement cadences, and diagnostic insights frameworks.

Experience Requirements:

• 7+ years of extensive experience in Social/Digital/Search Data Analytics, Insights, and Digital/Social Strategy, with a proven track record of delivering diagnostic and actionable insights tied to business outcomes.
• Expert research and analytical skills, with a demonstrated ability to apply qualitative and quantitative learnings to formulate sophisticated, cross-channel strategic recommendations.
• Expert proficiency in using social and digital monitoring technologies such as Sprinklr (advanced expertise preferred), YouScan, NewsWhip, Global Web Index, Semrush, and other proprietary tools.
• Expert understanding of social media and the wider digital communication landscape, including culture-first approaches, community-led strategies, and creator ecosystems.
• Proven leadership experience in managing and mentoring analytics teams.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively, proactively, and seamlessly within an integrated agency team, collaborating across disciplines.
• A keen eye for innovation and the ability to identify emerging platforms, partners, and advanced analytical methodologies.
• Proven experience in always-on social listening analysis and insights generation, with a strong focus on cultural tracking.
• Expert understanding of social media performance metrics and KPIs for organic and paid media, and the ability to link them directly to broader business outcomes (sales, equity, penetration).
• Exceptional reporting and visualisation skills, capable of creating compelling, client-facing presentations for senior decision-makers.
• Advanced experience with dashboarding, complex data collection, cross-channel data integration, and advanced data visualisation tools/techniques.
• Knowledge of customer research methodologies and their integration with social data is a significant plus.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment, managing multiple concurrent analytical projects and leading strategic initiatives.

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