Summary:
The Senior Manager, Media & Connections – Italy and Albania plays a key role in delivering effective, efficient, and insight driven media activation across the full Coca-Cola portfolio in Italy. As part of a Top9 marketing team, this role focuses on localizing and implementing centrally developed media and IMX plans, ensuring that every campaign and investment is tailored to Italian and Albanian consumers, customers, and channel dynamics.
This position requires strong subject matter expertise in media planning & buying, full funnel connections, and performance analytics. The Senior Manager acts as Italy's media specialist — collaborating closely with brand teams, IMX colleagues, agencies, and the system partners (CCH Italy, CCBS Albania) to maximize the impact of the local resources.
The role combines operational excellence with strategic input, supporting the Media and Connections Director in shaping Italy's and Albania's media agenda while leading day-to-day planning, implementation, optimization, and performance tracking.
What You’ll Do for Us
1. Media Planning, Adaptation & Local Execution
- Translate centrally developed connections and IMX plans into market specific media plans that reflect local consumer, shopper, and channel realities.
- Lead detailed media planning across TV, OOH, Audio, Paid Social, Search, Programmatic, Retail Media, and Digital Video.
- Adapt media assets, formats, and timing to maximize relevance and effectiveness in the Italian and Albanian market.
2. Media Buying Support & Agency Partnership
- Manage day-to-day communication and performance routines with media agencies.
- Review and guide implementational plans, ensuring strong KPIs (CPM, CPT, viewability, reach quality).
- Support negotiations for media placements, ensuring efficient, high value buying.
- Ensure Italy and Albania receive maximum value from agency partnerships, vendor agreements, and platform initiatives.
3. CrossFunctional Collaboration
- Partner with:
- Senior Brand Managers
- Customer & Commercial teams
- Shopper/Customer marketing
- IMX (social, digital, creative, assets)
- RGM & Insights
- PACS and Crisis Response teams (for digital governance)
- Bottlers marketing & execution teams
- Ensure all media plans support brand campaigns, customer activation, and commercial growth levers.
4. Measurement, Analytics & Optimization
- Monitor media performance using MMM, brand lift, platform data, competitive reporting, and IMX dashboards.
- Lead postcampaign evaluations, identifying actionable insights and optimization opportunities.
- Build a strong understanding of Italy's media ROI and turn learnings into future planning input.
5. Governance & Responsible Marketing
- Ensure compliance with Responsible Marketing policies, legal restrictions, and digital safety standards.
- Manage budget accuracy, investment tracking, invoice validation, and media stewardship.
- Maintain full financial discipline from planning to reconciliation.
6. Connections Integration & Social Amplification
- Ensure one clear, integrated plan across Paid, Owned, Earned, and Shared media.
- Partner with Social & Influencer teams + local influencer manager for amplification, real time marketing, and content distribution.
- Ensure local media activation aligns with the creative narrative and IMX full funnel strategy.
7. Network Collaboration (Local + Central)
- Localize central media guidance and connect Italy to global/OU playbooks and best practices.
- Collaborate with IMX Europe to ensure alignment with centrally defined priorities and measurement frameworks.
- Lift & shift learnings from other markets and bring global innovation to local execution.
8. Ways of Working & Leadership Behaviours
- Operate with strong ownership, independence, and handson problem solving.
- Influence cross-functional partners without formal authority.
- Balance strategic thinking with operational execution excellence.
- Work collaboratively in a small, agile team environment typical of Top9 markets.
Qualifications & Requirements
- 7-9 years experience in media planning, buying, digital advertising, or connections roles (agency and/or client side).
- Strong knowledge of the Italian media landscape, including digital, programmatic, social, and retail media.
- Experience managing media budgets and optimizing investment performance.
- Strong analytical skills; ability to interpret media KPIs and develop optimization recommendations.
- Experience collaborating with agencies, bottlers, crossfunctional teams, and commercial partners.
- Strong project management, prioritization, and communication skills.
- Comfort working in a fast paced, resource lean environment.
- Fluent in Italian and English; additional languages a plus.
Join the Coca-Cola Company, a global brand that has been innovating and evolving since 1886, and become a part of our inspiring brand strategies. We are currently seeking a Brand Manager who is creative, innovative, and inspirational to refresh the world. This role requires a high level of collaboration, working effectively with various stakeholders including brand team members, agencies, customer teams, innovation, R&D;, and commercial leadership.
If you are strategic, driven, and collaborative, we want to hear from you.
What You'll Do for Us:
- Writing short and/or long-term business/brand plans, identifying business objectives, strategies, key initiatives and performance measurements.
- Developing marketing plans which support strategic initiatives to deliver annual business plan.
- Developing and communicating written briefs for use by agencies and directing their work activities.
- Assessing consumer opportunities that are currently untapped by leveraging consumer research and in-market performance.
- Assisting in developing portfolio strategies across brands/categories.
- Providing on-going business analysis to identify and prioritize brand-building opportunities.
- Developing annual brand business reviews, as well as growth platforms and brand roles.
- Recommending brand budgets and investment allocation.
- Building a clearly defined positioning for new offerings, new categories entrants/brands.
- Leading alignment on the brand initiatives with key functions and bottler marketing, sales and technical teams.
- Project development in conjunction with functions, such as Operating Unit management, Market Managers and bottling system partners.
- Presentations of business results for marketing manager, regional manager and divisions.
- Recommendation and analysis of trends and key initiatives to the management team and bottlers that will drive brand growth.
Qualifications & Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications or Business.
- 6-8 years of experience in brand management.
- Experience with Nielsen or IRI, Bases and other quantitative research tools and a passion for understanding consumer behavior.
- Knowledge of procedures and media used to drive increased volume and brand equity.
- Knowledge of and ability to apply basic marketing concepts.
- Ability to manage and inspire agency performance.
- Making consumers and their needs the primary focus of the business.
- Knowledge of the creative brief development process.
- Ability to evaluate creative concepts and executions based on creativity, strategic alignment and consumer impact.
- Ability to utilize syndicated, custom, and secondary research to identify opportunities to develop brand plans and marketing tactics.
Base Salary: Italy: 56,300 EUR to 82,900 EUR
Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.
Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage: 15%
Annual incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target
What We Can Do For You
- Crossfunctional visibility: Work closely with brand, IMX, shopper, commercial, and bottler partners.
- Professional growth: Build deep expertise in media & connections in a multichannel environment.
- Autonomy & ownership: Lead the media agenda for Italy and Albania within a small, empowered team.
- Access to global capability: Learn from global and regional IMX experts and apply modern media practices locally.
Skills: Agency Management, Communication, Connections Planning, Creativity, Digital Media, Digital Signage, Google Analytics, Group Problem Solving, Marketing Campaigns, Marketing Strategies, Microsoft Office, Negotiation, Paid Search Marketing, Programmatic (Inactive), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Teamwork, Videography, Waterfall Model
Pay Range:
Italy: 56,300 EUR - 82,900 EUR
Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.
Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage:
15
Annual Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.
Location(s):
Italy
City/Cities:
Milan
Travel Required:
00% - 25%
Relocation Provided:
No
Job Posting End Date:
June 17, 2026
Our Purpose and Growth Culture:
We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve.
We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.