Director, Strategy - Healthcare/Pharma

Position Summary

As a Strategy Director, you are responsible for the creation of the strategic direction a brand will take in communications to achieve their business goals. You are responsible for helping to strategize, produce and make sense of the key cultural, consumer and market intelligence required to design the best possible holistic communications plan to deliver on that task. This work should be held up as best practice both within the agency and externally – recognized by winning awards and client scores.

You have a passion for people, brands and ideas and an insatiable curiosity for culture in every sense. You believe that brands can & should mean in the world, and are driven by the desire to understand the changing world and people’s subsequent shifting motivations and behaviors.

You are responsible for creating the strategic recommendations and engaging with the client in an advisory capacity. It is not your responsibility to manage the client relationship & you will – by Brief – report to the Client Lead to deliver brilliant strategic thinking for the client team. Creative thinking, sound presentation skills & leadership behaviors are critical in delivering success in this role.

You should produce work that drives re-appraisal of communications and what media can do in the world, and your work should be seen as driving the agency forward.

You are responsible for ensuring that the Strategists’ work is strong and sound. That it has considered all consumer, category and culture trends, helping them to think about new ways to respond to a brief and encouraging them to work – with you – alongside the Analytics, Communications Design and Client teams to deliver better, smarter and more innovative work.

Key Responsibilities

Client

• Arming the client team with knowledge & expertise to speak confidently about the strategic direction where required
• Being considered a valuable contributor during client meetings with the ability to challenge others’ opinions in the right forum/manner
• Measurable client & strategy business KPIs
• Delivering innovative thinking that inspires leading edge solutions and award-winning breakthrough work – best in class work as standard (internally & externally)
• Maintaining excellent client relationships & understanding of the clients' key business and challenges

Internal

• Clearly demonstrate how the strategy delivers on the business need and focus on results and measurement
• Use qualitative and quantitative communications channel & cultural tool research to develop applicable insights into the consumer connection with the brand
• Write cohesive communications architectures that deliver on the platform and give guidance for how the brand will play in culture
• Bring fresh thinking & inspiration into the Strategic Process to help the teams springboard to better Strategic thinking
• Partner with Analytics to develop new tools, inputting into the development of new & cutting edge proprietary planning, research and reporting models for Initiative
• Lead ideation team sessions in conjunction with the Communications Design team and relevant SBUs to generate creative & compelling communications ideas
• Positively collaborate with SBU and independent creative partners, contributing to their/our client work
• Drive usage of the Cultural Analytical Process/Tools to help teams find new insights that unlock growth
• Lead Infinity Planning for the team and client base
• Identify, develop & oversee the delivery of unique and innovative strategies to deliver the client’s desired results
• Demonstrate a good understanding of consumers & their behaviors
• Train, guide & assist the Strategy & Client teams in development and packaging of ideas
• Deliver executable, relevant, on brand platforms with the potential for fame/award entry

Commercial

• Contribute to Agency & Client revenue opportunities through Strategic output
• Prioritization:
• Proactively work with all partners (vendors, academic institutions, creative consultancies) to unlock new growth opportunities for the client &/or the agency

1. 20% Client
2. 70% Internal
3. 10% Commercial

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s):

Client

• Measurable client & strategy business KPIs met
• Positive client relationships; understands clients' business and challenges
• Deliver innovative thinking that enable award-winning &/or breakthrough work, helping to orchestrate, identify & write and win awards submissions
• Aids in elevating Initiative’s profile with clients

Internal

• Inclusion of Strategy management in client business
• Able to deliver a full strategy with insight, audience profiling, targeting info, strategic platform and communications architecture
• Able to translate the client's business goals into Strategic Communications Tasks
• Collaborates with all teams to steward campaign strategic rigor
• Deep working knowledge & usage of the Infinity Planning Process
• Lead team member providing quality control/best practice in the presentation of ideas
• Positive feedback on ability to collaborate with other agencies, partners, teams & SBUs
• Able to brief the CD team with executable, on brand platforms that inspire

Commercial

• Contributor to client KPI delivery through the provision of best practice, best in class thinking & insight/idea generation that can propel a brand through culture
• New Business (for Director level and up)
• Participation in active contribution to new business as required (local market)

Desired Skills & Experience

• 8+ years in integrated planning role in media, creative, innovation or communications discipline (digital, content, invention, social, activation)
• Ability to think differently: creative & adaptive, entrepreneurial, independently-minded; deeply immersed in cultural understanding and driven by a desire to know more the world / to better understand people’s motivations & behaviors in the shifting landscape

About Us

Initiative is different to other media agencies.

We are not trapped by a legacy structure primarily centered on paid advertising. Instead, we are liberated by a new world structure designed to deliver highly differentiated and highly effective communications strategies for our clients.

We are the world’s fastest growing media agency built upon the strongest strategic capability of any agency in the market. Core to this strategic proposition is the belief that the faster a brand can move through culture the more relevant it can become.

We call this Cultural Velocity ™.

Our process is designed to create ideas that move through culture through unique insight, market leading analytics and strategic media brilliance.

Our new world model is comprised of “craft centers” – Client Advice and Management, Strategy, Communications Design, Partnership and Culture, Insights & Analytics.

Employment Transparency

It is the policy of Mediabrands, division of the Interpublic group, to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, citizenship, genetic information, veteran status, disability, or any other basis prohibited by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

The employer will make reasonable accommodations in compliance with the American with Disabilities Act of 1990. The job description will be reviewed periodically as duties and responsibilities change with business necessity. Essential and other job functions are subject to modification. Reasonable accommodations may be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

For applicants to jobs in the United States: In compliance with the current Americans with Disabilities Act and state and local laws, if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation to apply for a position with Mediabrands, please email [email protected].