Strategist

Title:                                   STRATEGIST

Department:                  COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING

 The Strategist is responsible for providing strategic communication direction for client projects This requires strong strategic skills, a bias toward innovation, an unwavering focus on the consumer, insight, and the ability to support insights with evidence.

The Strategist is required to stay abreast of the competitive landscape (for client assignments and our media agency competitors) as it pertains to brand positioning, creative work, brand tone, channel choices, use of media and ideas within the category (and any analogous categories), and have a clear idea of their brands’ own positioning clarity and appeal/lack of as it relates to the target.

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibilities include, but not limited to:

1.) Communications Planning:

• Ensure that useful, actionable and up-to-date information about the consumer’s use of media and attitudes to commercial activity taking place within those is made available to planning teams and briefed to agency partners when required. This done through a combination of:

• Leveraging quantitative research (such as Consumer Connection Study) , syndicated research (such as MRI, Simmons, ComScore), and cultural mining

• Guiding planning teams on how to find actionable data that helps them develop strong, consumer-focused POVs.

• Contribute meaningfully to the Communications Planning Process through identifying key strategic areas to be addressed by the Plans:

• Marketing tactics and touchpoints to which consumers are most receptive

• Path to purchase and key barriers: physical, competitive, logistical, emotional, etc.

• Relevant touchpoints & moments for the consumer’s decision-making path in the specific category or in-relation to a product’s key benefit

• Key metrics for evaluation

• Synthesizes the key strategic outputs into a strategy which offers clear, actionable recommendations and ideas that tie back to the key insights and overall creative direction

   

   

  2.) Help develop a differentiated product offering centered around media, and including social media:

• Work with senior management to identify client needs, their requirements for excellence, our credibility as a partner, and those opportunities where we can streamline their workflow

• Develop strategy to extend communications planning to social media

• Become familiar with Aegis offerings and innovation pipelines, so we can fully leverage

• Identify and prioritize opportunity areas

• Develop action plans for key priorities

   

Client & Internal Relationships:

• Build and maintain senior client and external agency relationships

• Manage expectations of client in terms of timing and deliverables

• Must demonstrate a posture of ‘extreme collaboration’ to ensure insights are adopted, internalized and executed upon across multiple agencies and by adding genuine value when participating in marketing communications discussions initiated by others

• Partner with Communications Planning on plan developments and identification of any ongoing strategic gaps

• Demonstrate pro-active value to clients by identifying strategic issues before they become a problem

• Stay on top of business and client concerns to head off issues early

• Accurately represent the client’s point of view when reviewing work, leverages this perspective when providing feedback to team and presenting to client, ultimately focused on doing the best work for the Client’s business

• Invest time to investigate opportunities for providing better Client support

• Ensure collaboration among agency departments; foster great teamwork

• Provide appropriate management updates and solicit feedback and direction when appropriate

  Strategic Thinking & Leadership:

• At the forefront of understanding:

• how consumers’ use of media is evolving

• the impact on the consumer of competitive positioning, creative & media activity, relative pricing, and innovation

• the relative role for media in relation to other marketing vehicles’ ability to deliver on certain objectives more effectively than media

• creative media and marketing executions that are seen as ‘best-in-class’

• the significance of new technologies or cultural shifts for our clients (appropriateness, relevance, market-readiness)

• the role of social media as it relates to the overall communications plan

• Provide and/or guide strategic input for all projects

• Articulate effective strategic rationale and logic flow

• Demonstrate strong analytical and strategic skills to help solve client’s business problems

• Implement efficient and effective solutions to complex problems

• Evaluate communication opportunities and provide sound recommendations as appropriate

• Ensure appropriate staff utilization, as appropriate

• Construct and deliver accurate, honest and timely performance management documents

  Communication Skills:

• Direct the development of client presentations and other important communication, communication that is clear, compelling and persuasive
• Adapt communication style to relevant audience, which can swing from creative partners to senior business executives
• Link communication to audience’s concerns and perspectives
• Move audience to desired action through clear and persuasive delivery of information
• Encourage open, ongoing internal communication
• Brief team in ideation and steer brainstorms

EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED

• Bachelor’s Degree

• 6 - 10 years experience in Media-related business. Ideally in Strategic Planning/Account Planning

• Excellent understanding of social media and new technology

• Familiarity with, and ability to capably review qualitative and quantitative research

• Strong client service experience

• Proven ability to interact with people at all levels of an organization, fostering strong cross-functional teamwork and results

• Strategic thinking ability with balanced analytical and creative approach to tactical planning

• Experience successfully bringing together people from different disciplines, internal and external to achieve desired outcomes

• Understanding of multiple communications channels and their role in brand marketing

• Commitment to delivering creative solutions, and the ability to align team members behind creative solutions

• Creative agency experience a plus

EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED

• Bachelor’s Degree

• 2-4 years experience in Media-related business. Ideally in Strategic Planning/Account Planning

• Excellent understanding of social media and new technology

• Familiarity with, and ability to capably review qualitative and quantitative research

• Strong client service experience

• Proven ability to interact with people at all levels of an organization, fostering strong cross-functional teamwork and results

• Strategic thinking ability with balanced analytical and creative approach to tactical planning

• Experience successfully bringing together people from different disciplines, internal and external to achieve desired outcomes

• Understanding of multiple communications channels and their role in brand marketing

• Commitment to delivering creative solutions, and the ability to align team members behind creative solutions

• Creative agency experience a plus