Marketing Lead(South Africa)

Who we are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need.

From chat-bots to chat-shows and TV dramas to tech, our content is reaching millions of girls in Africa and Asia to make choices and changes in their lives. Igniting their confidence to act differently at a time that can define their future.

We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts, and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, relationships and so much more. And we use innovative technology so we can reach girls at scale. We arm girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible, so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and livelihood.

When a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, her community, her country. That’s the Girl Effect.

Girl Effect in South Africa

Girl Effect has been present in South Africa for the last 7 years through its global digital brand ‘Springster’, and its AI powered chatbot for girls - ‘Big Sis’. 

Springster was launched as a series of mobi-sites under the Facebook Free Basics program and later pivoted to social media. It has made girl-friendly content accessible to girls for free, reaching  6.1M users  across the African continent.

Big Sis, Girl Effect’s chatbot in South Africa, offers girls a virtual friend to talk to about their health concerns and curiosities.  Launched 3 years ago, Big Sis has scaled to 75,000 conversations, started over 1.2 messages sent/received, proven impact across behavioural drivers, and been shortlisted for multiple awards. 

Campaigns run on the Springster and Big Sis ecosystem have also been able to successfully direct girls to services.  

Girl Effect continues  to invest in South Africa   - we are launching new campaigns around sexual  and reproductive health and mental well being, connecting girls to services and expanding Big Sis’s AI models to understand the language  young people use to express mental health and SRHR issues so that we may respond appropriately, timely, and efficiently at scale. 

And now, we have a new opportunity to bring hope and inspiration to an entire generation of South African youth. We are building a national scale youth brand that will help young South Africans to rise up and take charge of their dreams, take different actions and make informed choices about their sexual health and economic prospects. 

Context of the role  

In light of the above, Girl Effect is looking for someone to lead the strategizing, development, marketing and distribution of content, products, and branded  experiences for  adolescent girls and young women in South Africa. 

The role will report into the South Africa Create Lead and require both strategic and operational knowledge around marketing - communication strategies, brand building, promotional tactics across the digital, mass media and offline ecosystem, including for hard to reach audiences. 

Our new brand in South Africa will be a national scale youth brand encompassing digital and mass media, as well as offline products and environments,  and the role will require a deep understanding  of youth culture, mass media as well as digital/social media trends. The Marketing Lead delivers the brand experience that millions of young people from vulnerable  backgrounds want, love and need when it comes to their health and skilling choices.  

What you will do 

As the Marketing Lead for South Africa, you will be responsible for developing and executing the marketing strategy for our new brand across all of its products. This might need you to work with an external agency or bring SEO and  ad-ops support inhouse - making  sure that we are  using the right people, processes and  principles to produce great marketing and distribution results. 

 In this context, the  role will need to be able to move, sometimes rapidly, from detailed, hands-on execution and supervision of execution to high-level discussions on the strategic direction of our work. 

The Marketing Lead will work closely with the Create Lead and the Global Marketing Lead to develop the strategy, applying best practices and recommendations from the global team. They will also support the Create Lead in understanding how the distribution and marketing strategy will need to inform  the selection of the  right channels, formats and creative concepts. They will also work closely with our Evidence team to ensure that we are designing our campaigns in a way that we can best capture learnings around specific areas for ex: the ‘value for money’ data for on-ground vs digital.  You responsibilities on a day to day basis may include: 

• Building a marketing and distribution strategy for our brand and its products in South Africa - taking inputs from research, youth, brand agency, Create Lead, Global Marketing Lead and other stakeholders. Ensuring that the marketing strategy is aligned to the brand and program objectives. 
• Building marketing capacity -whether via an agency or in-house- and onboarding, training and managing any in-house consultants - in order to deliver the marketing strategy. 
• Supporting the Create Lead in ensuring that engaging, strategically  relevant content is regularly being delivered across all the decided  touchpoints - mass and social media, communities, offline integrations, and chatbot etc  - weekly, monthly, and annual content calendar design and delivery 
• Creating a marketing and rollout calendar and ensuring that it is socialized across stakeholders and kept updated.
• Monitoring and tracking data, working closely with Global Digital Marketing Manager,  to ensure that learnings are being incorporated into the marketing design. 
• Developing and socializing marketing reports and learnings.
• Working closely with the Data Analytics team to ensure successful tracking and visualization of data in our dashboards
• Working closely with the external brand agency- that is helping build the new brand for SA. 
• Building on and evolving innovative ways in which to create and deliver content and  product experiences that will deliver on the goals of the SA brand and country strategy
•  Understanding the learnings and data presented by the Impact team, and work to  improve the brand’s marketing  - being a key part of the MERL (monitoring, evaluation and learning)  process 

Who you are 

• An inspiring leader 
• A creator
• A creative and flexible thinker 
• A relentlessly curious explorer and data-geek 
• A collaborator and communicator 
• A cheerleader for the power of digital technologies
• A natural empath who never forgets human needs and desires 
• A strategic thinker 
• A tech enthusiast and digital native 

Work Experience & Education 

• Minimum 7-10  years of experience in Marketing, with at least 3-4 of those years having been spent in Digital marketing.  
• 5+ years of experience directly managing members of marketing/creative teams, helping them run ad operations and optimize promotions, bring concepts to life, refining and evolving them 
• Demonstrable experience around having developed and successfully executed marketing strategies and campaigns for a variety of brands and products. 
• Strong interest and knowledge about content and marketing trends across digital, movies, TV, series, short  and long form content 
• An excellent portfolio that demonstrates deep integrated thinking and strong brand  building capabilities
• Ability to interact meaningfully with people of diverse backgrounds, personalities, and  expertise (e.g. subject matter expert in Kenya and creative executive in Mumbai and legal  department in London), backed by data when possible 
• Strong working relationships within the SA  creative community 
• Should be excited by technology and exploring content through products like chatbots,  communities, blogs, etc. 
• Ability to juggle multiple projects efficiently in a fast-paced environment while delivering  outstanding results 

What else you should know

As we continue to scale and grow - we are hugely ambitious for our future and we are looking for people who are driven to change the world for girls.

Our teams are a diverse mix across sectors (non-profit and commercial) and specialisms (from Brand and Creative through to Gender and Insight). You’ll learn and grow in an environment that will challenge you to think and work with a fresh perspective. In turn, you can expect to work somewhere where you will be stretched and developed in your role, a place where you can build your career and work with talented, engaged people committed to our cause.

Girl Effect is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to recruiting candidates with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all those we work with and for, especially children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment, uphold standards in our safeguarding policy and our code of conduct. In particular:

• To take reasonable steps to prevent any harm caused by Girl Effect
• To report any safeguarding concerns through the reporting pathways

This role is being recruited on a 12-month fixed term contract basis.

This role is subject to a standard background check.

Application closing date – 1st May 2024