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Role overview
We are currently seeking an Associate Strategy Director to join our growing Strategy and Insights function. The ideal candidate will be able to comfortably work in one or more other areas of strategy spanning the full spectrum of communications from corporate and external affairs to creative and brand strategy, digital and content strategy.
As an Associate Strategy Director your role is to bring clarity to the complex. You will plan, guide, and oversee the work of the team, and be ready to provide counsel and robust strategic advice to clients and teams across public affairs, public relations, corporate and consumer communications as well as on creative consumer/ integrated campaigns. You will need to have had experience managing junior strategists, analysts and/ or researchers, as you will be supporting with the day-to-day management of the team.
You will be responsible for helping to ensure that the business is delivering transformative strategies - informed by solid evidence and data driven insights – to our clients always keeping an eye on business impact and the ultimate business objective, as well as the context in which our clients operate and the wider societal impact of our work with them.
You will be expected to work in a dynamic and collaborative environment that has been designed to foster creative thinking, and you will be expected to always be a champion of strategic and creative thinking to be comfortable to constructively challenge and be challenged by some of the brightest minds in the industry.
You will be reporting into the Senior Director for Strategy & Insights, acting as an advisor and helping to lead and grow the team.
The Team
We are a team of strategists with a deep passion for data and creativity and we sit at the heart of the business acting as a strategic planning function designed to empower and enable teams to unlock strategic and creative thinking - based on solid evidence, data-driven insights, and compelling narratives.
We work with the latest technologies, research methods, strategic frameworks, and tried and tested creative ideation models – and we routinely train the team and wider business to ensure we stay up to date with these.
We combine this with our teams’ specialist knowledge, sector and stakeholder intelligence to ensure we deliver transformative strategies for our clients.
We work with every team across corporate, advocacy/ public affairs and international relations, healthcare communication and market access, consumer and creative communications.
We support the Group across geographies too from London, Dublin, Brussels, Abu Dhabi and Dubai – and we work closely with our partners in the ecosystem and the Avenir Group.
Primary responsibilities
Understand the client’s audiences, objectives, and priorities and business imperatives, and lead the definition of clever and inspiring strategic and creative solutions to meet these needs
Provide strategic direction on public affairs and corporate communications initiatives, identifying the problem statement, key value proposition/ edge, consumer/ stakeholder needs, and mapping out a series of compelling narratives and creative routes to address the brief
Identify key opportunities to drive client value and collaborate with clients and client teams to bring them to life, including designing new methodologies and frameworks where possible - earn the trust of clients and build strong relationships with them
Work with teams including corporate consultants, public affairs specialists and creatives to deliver strategies, to sense-check messaging and creative outputs against the brief and to champion creativity
Work with technology and research partners effectively from scoping and design, to briefing and managing the solution delivery and collaboration efficiently
Oversee the design, project management and delivery of qualitative and quantitative research and/ or digital analytics plans to meet client and team needs
Confidently present research and analysis findings, insights and strategic recommendation to clients, and potential clients at senior levels
Plan and facilitate client workshops be they creative brainstorms or corporate strategy workshops
Manage the development and performance of junior and midweight strategists, analysts and researchers, including mentoring and providing training and support as needed taking charge of major projects
Be comfortable working on a number of different projects at the same time, normally in different subject areas and with different teams across varied geographies
Communicate effectively with key internal and external stakeholders and craft compelling narratives in presentations to clients
Own your area of strategy and become the go-to person in the agency for that work
Be proactive, provoke debate, and identify and drive the agenda for the future (by always staying up to date with news, politics, consumer and societal trends, etc.)
Skills and experience
Have research/ analytics experience and a point of view on the role of data and analytics in strategic planning and creative concepting and execution
Have strong experience in strategic planning from brief interrogation, to brainstorm facilitation and writing compelling strategy arguments or creative briefs in at least one area of strategy
Have experience (and maybe training too) in campaign effectiveness / measurement, be mindful about our ability to prove the solutions we present to clients, including strong numeracy skills
Have knowledge and experience of planning technologies including market intelligence, media and social media analysis, trend platforms, survey and social panels etc. We will not expect you to have worked with all of them but have proficiency in a couple and good working knowledge of the rest/ what is available. Ideally have good supplier relationships too, not mandatory. And definitely with a sharp attention to detail.
Have an insatiable curiosity, ability to observe and wonder about trends and patterns that define our industry, the industries of our clients and (why not) society at large
Be a fluent critical thinker with a creative mindset – always questioning the world around, and coming up with “impossible” solutions that have a grounding in data/ can be proven to work in the real world
Be a compelling communicator (written and verbal), able to translate complex issues into clear, simple and sellable propositions
Be a collaborative team player who can work well with different teams across the group and advise them on how to solve client challenges, be ready to inspire, challenge and persuade at all levels
Have a superb level of time management and ability to prioritise projects, be comfortable working with changing priorities at pace (agency fluidity)
Be driven to deliver excellent work for your teams and your clients, always striving for best-in-class