Location: Dubai, UAE

Type: Full-time

Who we are
We're BPG (Bates PanGulf), one of the Middle East's leading integrated marketing and communications agencies. Bringing together strategy, creativity, communications, media, technology and data, we help ambitious brands create meaningful impact.

As we continue to grow our Customer Experience offering, we're looking for a hands-on, commercially minded CX Director to join our Dubai team. If you enjoy winning business, solving client challenges and building customer-first solutions, we'd love to hear from you.

The Role

What you'll be doing

• Own the pipeline, not just the narrative. Source new opportunities, build relationships with senior decision makers before an RFP lands, and drive both new business and organic account growth.
• Build and defend the technical point of view. Be BPG's CX subject matter expert, architecting practical customer experience solutions across Martech, CRM, personalisation, commerce and AI.
• Lead pitches end to end. Own both integrated agency pitches and standalone CX opportunities, shaping the strategic narrative and technical solution from start to finish.
• Stay close to delivery. Work alongside delivery teams to ensure solutions are commercially viable, technically achievable and successfully implemented.
• Drive internal transformation. Champion customer-centric thinking across the agency, building capability and embedding CX into the way every discipline works.
• Own organic growth. Proactively identify expansion opportunities, drive account growth, strengthen client relationships and help retain and grow key accounts.

Your background & expertise

• 6+ years' experience in Customer Experience, Digital Strategy, Martech or Digital Transformation, with a strong understanding of customer journeys, CRM, Martech, personalisation, commerce and AI
• Strong technical credibility with the confidence to lead technical workshops, architect CX solutions and engage clients without relying on technical specialists to lead the conversation.
• Proven track record of winning new business and growing existing accounts.
• Confident leading client workshops, pitches and strategic conversations.
• Commercially minded with the ability to turn business challenges into practical CX solutions.
• Hands-on, collaborative and comfortable working across strategy, creative, media, technology and delivery teams.

Location: Dubai / UAE (regional remit across Middle East)
Experience: 3-4 years in media planning (Offline + Digital)
Reports to: Media Manager / Account Director – Americana

Role Overview

We’re looking for a hands-on Senior Media Planner with hybrid OOH and Digital experience to lead media planning for Hardee’s under Americana Restaurants across key Middle East markets (e.g., KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq).

Americana is one of the largest restaurant operators in MENA, managing iconic brands like KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee’s, Krispy Kreme and more. This role will translate Hardee’s business and marketing objectives into integrated, data-driven media plans that leverage both offline and digital channels to drive brand salience, store traffic, delivery orders, and app growth.

Ideal for someone who has solid core planning craft in an agency environment and wants to grow on a high-visibility regional.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategy & Planning

• Translate client briefs and brand strategies into clear media objectives, target audiences, channel roles and KPIs.
• Develop full-funnel media strategies (awareness → consideration → conversion → loyalty) tailored to QSR behaviour across dine-in, drive-thru, delivery aggregators and brand app.
• Build integrated media plans that combine OOH (classic & digital) and digital platforms (Meta, Google, YouTube, Programmatic, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.), following best practices used by leading global networks.
• Recommend media mix and budget allocations by market, flight, and channel, balancing always-on presence with tactical bursts (product launches, seasonal offers, Ramadhan, national days, etc.).

2. OOH Planning (Static & Digital)

• Own OOH strategy and planning across key cities (e.g., Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City, Doha, Cairo, Amman), mapping formats to Hardee’s trade areas and restaurant clusters.
• Evaluate and recommend the right mix of formats: unipoles, rooftops, lampposts, bridges, mall media, transit, DOOH networks, drive-thru and proximity OOH, based on visibility, audience fit and cost efficiency.
• Brief, compare and challenge OOH vendors and media owners; consolidate proposals and negotiate in partnership with the investment/buying team.
• Monitor site quality, posting schedules and compliance in collaboration with vendors, and support post-campaign audits where required.
• Contribute to post-campaign analysis (PCA) using available OOH measurement (traffic counts, location data, DOOH analytics) and link it back to business outcomes where possible.

3. Digital Planning

• Develop audience-first digital plans for each market, balancing reach, frequency and performance KPIs (CTR, VTR, CPC, CPV, CPA, ROAS, store visits).
• Plan and steward campaigns across Meta, Google (Search, YouTube, Display), Programmatic, TikTok, Snapchat and local publishers, working closely with activation/performance teams.
• Define clear channel roles (e.g., YouTube & DOOH for impact, Meta/TikTok/Snap for engagement, Search & Performance Display for conversion, app & CRM remarketing for loyalty).
• Support always-on and tactical performance campaigns (e.g., “burger of the month”, value meals, breakfast, new product launches), ensuring digital plans align with OOH bursts and franchise priorities.
• Partner with performance specialists to review weekly optimisation and ensure learnings are fed back into future plans (creative, audiences, bids, budgets, formats).

4. Cross-Market & Stakeholder Management

• Act as a day-to-day planning contact for Hardee’s regional marketing team and local market leads, ensuring each market’s nuance is reflected in the plan.
• Coordinate with creative agencies, social/content teams, analytics and internal buying teams to deliver cohesive go-to-market plans.
• Prepare and deliver presentations – strategy decks, media rationale, phasing charts, and PCAs – to marketing managers, brand leads and internal leadership.
• Maintain a clear view of competitor activity (QSR and broader F&B) in each market and feed insights into planning recommendations.

5. Measurement, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Define and align on KPIs per campaign: reach, frequency, GRPs, TRPs, impressions, clicks, views, store visits, app installs, orders, etc.
• Work with analytics/performance teams to ensure robust reporting (weekly, monthly, post-campaign) and derive actionable insights.
• Proactively run tests & learnings (e.g., OOH vs DOOH mix, new formats, new platforms, audience splits, creative iterations) and document what should be scaled, fixed or stopped.
• Maintain an updated knowledge of media tools and platforms (OOH planning tools, platform planners, industry reports) and share best practices with the wider team.

Qualifications & Experience

• 3-4 years’ experience in media planning within a media agency or in-house marketing team, with hands-on exposure to both offline and digital planning.

• Experience working on multi-market MENA remits (GCC experience is a strong plus).

• Prior experience on QSR / F&B / retail / FMCG brands is highly preferred.

• Strong working knowledge of:

  o OOH formats and buying landscape in at least 2–3 key GCC markets.

  o Major digital platforms: Meta Ads Manager, Google Ads, YouTube, Google DV360 or other DSPs (nice to have), Google Analytics or equivalent.

• Comfortable working with numbers and data: forecasting reach/frequency, basic econometrics, performance metrics, budget pacing, and Excel-based analyses.

Skills & Competencies

• Integrated thinking: able to connect offline and digital into one seamless consumer journey.
• Analytical mindset: comfortable interpreting data, dashboards, and research to inform decisions.
• Project & time management: can handle multiple markets, campaigns and stakeholders concurrently with strong attention to detail.
• Communication & storytelling: confident in building decks and participate in presenting strategy, rationale and results to clients and internal teams.
• Collaboration: works well with performance, creative, social, and buying teams; open to feedback and iteration.
• Languages: Fluency in English required; Arabic is a strong advantage given the regional scope.