Media Planner

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AIM B2B by Custom Media KK is an award-winning, full-service B2B agency helping global brands reach decision-makers across Japan and APAC through data-driven, creative marketing — in high-growth industries like AI, clean energy, fintech, healthcare, manufacturing, and technology. We work across strategy, storytelling, PR, content, and digital.

Our Studio is growing, and we're looking for a hands-on Media Planner to plan, buy and manage media for our B2B clients in Japan — digital, trade, print, and out-of-home — and to carry each campaign from the plan through to the performance report.

Our clients spend real budget in a market where the media landscape is local. The trade titles, the publisher relationships, and the negotiation all happen in Japanese, while the client sits in California or Munich and reads the report in English. This role is the bridge. You'll hold a rate conversation with a Japanese publisher in the morning and explain the plan to a regional head of marketing or a global CMO in the afternoon.

This is a senior individual contributor seat. You own the media engine end to end and work directly with Studio, Creative, and the account teams. You will not manage a team.

- 3–6 years in media planning or buying, agency-side or publisher/media-side. What matters is that you've owned a plan and a budget, not how long it took.
- Business-level Japanese and business-level English. Japanese with vendors and publishers, English with clients and the team — both every day.
- Hands-on platform experience: Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Meta, and at least working familiarity with programmatic. You'll be in the accounts yourself; this is not an oversight role.
- Practical experience buying Japanese media — trade titles, industry press, transit or OOH, or the Nikkei ecosystem — and a working knowledge of how the deadlines and material specifications actually run here.
- Enough GA4 and Google Tag Manager to verify your own numbers and recognise when a report is wrong. Designing the measurement stack is not part of this role.
- Clear written English: a plan somebody else can defend, and a report a client can act on.
- Comfortable refusing an incomplete brief — early, politely, and with what you need instead.
- A proactive, high-ownership operator who can run independently and work closely with Studio and the account teams.
- Able to use AI tools well and ethically across research, competitive scanning, analysis, and reporting — with accuracy, confidentiality, and client data protection intact.

Nice to have:

- B2B experience with long sales cycles or technical products — manufacturing, SaaS, fintech, clean energy, healthcare, or professional services.
- Experience working with global HQ marketing teams and local Japan stakeholders at the same time.
- A current platform certification (Google, Meta, or LinkedIn).
- Experience briefing freelance or offshore support against a written standard.

- Build the media strategy against the client's business objective, not the channel request — the mix, the weighting, and the dates, so the budget has a shape somebody can defend.
- Own the relationships with Japanese publishers, trade titles, and OOH vendors. Negotiate the rates in Japanese and place the orders.
- Keep current on rate cards, circulation, audience, and seasonal windows — and challenge a rate increase before it reaches the client.
- State the expected delivery for every placement before the campaign starts, and keep the record of every request, order, and confirmation so a dispute has evidence behind it.
- Build and load campaigns across Google, LinkedIn, Meta and other platforms, managing pacing, bids, and audiences so budgets deliver instead of expiring.
- QA every campaign before the start date, check publisher proofs, and resubmit when material is rejected so the placement runs in the issue it was booked in.
- Brief Creative with material specifications and deadlines, and maintain the material-deadline calendar for every booked placement so a deadline becomes a warning rather than a lost issue.
- Verify that tracking is firing correctly on live campaigns — tags, events, conversions — before anything is reported, and flag a broken or missing measurement setup so it gets fixed rather than reported around.
- Confirm placements ran as ordered, collect tear sheets and proof of posting, and reconcile delivered against booked so a shortfall becomes a credit rather than a surprise.
- Produce the performance report on the agreed cycle and template, explain what the numbers mean, and recommend what to change next cycle. We don't send data exports and call them reports.
- Join client and prospect calls as the media expert, and write the media plan, scope, and hours behind proposals that include paid media — including saying before the sale when a budget can't reach the target.
- Hold the brief-in standard: no plan, build, or booking starts without an objective, audience, budget, dates, assets, and success measure.
- Write the campaign assembly checklist and hand repeat production to support or freelance resources, so volume doesn't stop at one person's hours.
- Give Studio a current view each quarter of which channels in our sectors are worth the money, so we sell what we can defend.

A bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, business, media, or a related field.

We'll consider equivalent professional experience in place of the degree — if what you've actually done stands in for it, say so in your cover letter.

If you're a media planner who wants to own the engine rather than sit above it — and you like that this market runs in two languages — we'd like to hear from you.

Please apply with a cover letter to careers@custom-media.com explaining why you are the right person for this role. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview. No phone calls, please.

We're an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and are committed to an inclusive workplace for all.

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9:30am to 6:30pm Monday to Friday
Work from home and / or office flexibility

* Work with leading B2B brands in revolutionary industries
* Be part of a dynamic, collaborative team passionate about storytelling and marketing innovation.
* Enjoy a flexible, hybrid/remote work environment.
* Opportunities for professional growth and continuous learning.
* Attractive salary negotiable based on experience.
* Transport allowance, work from home allowance.
* Paid vacations, social insurance and benefits.
* Full exposure to all aspects of our business.
* Network of established professionals and senior leaders.
* Friendly, comfortable environment at a central office in Kamiyacho.

Saturdays and Sundays, National Holidays, Paid Vacation

Hybrid (remote + office)

Country / Region

Japan

Prefecture (State)

Tokyo

Location (Address)

Minato-ku

Toranomon 5-13-1

Toranomon 40MT Building 7F

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Apply Send to a friend

Custom Media is an award-winning, full-service B2B agency that connects Japan with the world, delivering data-driven, creative marketing solutions to help our clients in revolutionary industries—AI, Clean Energy, Fintech, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Technology—shape the future.

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