Cultural Strategy Manager

Publicis Groupe; Toronto; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading communications group seeks a senior strategist who blends creativity with data to shape brand narratives across diverse media landscapes. This role entails leading holistic connections planning and engaging in cultural observations to create impactful media strategies. Candidates should possess a strong understanding of cultural trends and extensive experience in brand strategy, making this a pivotal opportunity in a recognized agency environment.

Qualifications

• 6-8+ years of experience in Communications Planning or Brand Strategy.
• Deep understanding of cultural trends and media consumption behaviors.
• Experience with audience and cultural intelligence tools like GWI and Google Trends.

Responsibilities

• Lead connections planning for major brands across media experiences.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners to bring plans to life.
• Monitor cultural trends and identify opportunities for brand integration.

Skills

Creative thinking

Cultural awareness

Data-driven media planning

Audience targeting

Collaborative skills

Education

Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Cultural Studies, or Media Studies

Tools

Audience intelligence tools

Data analysis tools

Job description

Company Description

Starcom is a part of Publicis Media within Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s leading communications groups. Our team spans across our Windsor, Toronto and Montreal offices. We truly love the world of Media and Advertising. We see the planning and buying process as art. However, it is an art that is always best when backed by the science of empirical data.

One of our core tenants of media planning and buying is thathuman experiences drive impact through tangible results. Not only do we seek to deeply understand our clients’ business and what truly motivates consumers, but we seek to design experiences that drive meaningful consumer actions our clients care about –Move People, Move Business.

You will be joining a well recognised agency with credentials:

• Great Places to Work certified two years in a row
• Only communications company to be ranked in LinkedIn’s Top 25 Great Places to Work
• 2022 Media Agency of the Year
• 2023 Media Agency of the Year finalist
• 2025 Media Agency of the Year finalist

As part of Publicis Media Canada we are proud to be Great Places to Work certified and recognized with Best Workplaces for Today’s Youth. We provide continuing opportunities for career growth by fostering a diverse work environment that respects and supports individual contributions and opinions.

Job Description

The ideal candidate is a cultural anthropologist at heart. They draw from multiple communications disciplines with equal parts planner, strategist, cultural observer, and activation architect.

You are a big creative thinker, that will sit at the intersection of innovative ideas, consumer insights, media platforms, and real-time cultural shifts. You’ll lead the orchestration of media and creative touchpoints across the full consumer journey, while embedding cultural intelligence into every stage of planning.

The world moves fast and so do cultural conversations. Your job is to ensure brands are not only showing up where their audiences are, but participating in culture in ways that feel credible, timely, and meaningful.

We are considering this role as a natural evolution to the strategist. There is an opportunity within this role to help shape its future, beyond the needs that exist today for our clients. We want someone to help build a team of strategists for the future towards authentic brand integration into Canadian culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead holistic connections planning for major brands, translating marketing objectives into fully integrated, consumer-first media experiences.

• Generate big activation ideas for brands and know the importance of selling them through with a balance of strategy and excitement

• Define communications tasks and map channel roles across paid, earned, owned and shared media.

• Collaborate closely with vendor, internal and external partner agencies to bring experience plans to life.

• Lead ongoing cultural monitoring across verticals like travel, entertainment, gaming, music, film, fashion, art and emerging internet subcultures and find opportunities for agency brands to authentically integrate their comms

• Master of AI tools for the benefit of strategic refinement and creative idea generation

• Leverage audience, insights and social listening tools, platform and first-party data to identify meaningful cultural tensions and emerging audience behaviors.

• Serve as an internal cultural resource educating clients and internal planning teams on emerging shifts in behavior, platform dynamics, and creator ecosystems.

• Develop creator collaboration strategies, identify tastemakers, influencers, and emerging voices relevant to client brands.

• Define campaign KPIs that track cultural relevance, earned media value, audience engagement, and cultural resonance.

• Lead post-campaign cultural performance reporting to inform ongoing strategic development.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to clients and internal planning teams, providing thought leadership on both media strategy and cultural participation, including developing and writing of agency POVs

• Lead inter-agency collaborations, creative briefings, workshops, brainstorms, and client presentations.

• Support new business pitches with cutting-edge cultural insights and experience planning thinking.

Qualifications

• Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Cultural Studies, Media Studies or related field in cultural pillars of gaming, entertainment (film / tv), fashion, wellness, or the creator community

• 6-8+ years of experience in Communications Planning, Brand Strategy, Media Strategy, or Cultural Strategy roles

• Deep understanding of cultural trends, internet communities, creator ecosystems, and modern media consumption behaviors

• Strong grasp of data-driven media planning, audience targeting, and cross-channel media strategy

• Hands-on experience with audience and cultural intelligence tools is a plus: eg. GWI, NetBase, Vividata, Google Trends, Pinterest, etc..

• Experience working directly with creative teams, media planners, clients, and platform partners

• Fully fluent in English; French fluency a bonus

Professional Skills

• Creative thinker and persuasive storyteller

• Deep curiosity about culture, creators, platforms, and human behavior

• Highly collaborative, relationship-driven, and proactive

• Able to distill complex data into sharp insights and clear narratives

• Strong presenter and workshop leader

Additional Information

Starcom is an equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. We create and nurture a vibrant work environment that celebrates, values and leverages all aspects of diversity and inclusiveness, attracts world-class talent and serves as the industry benchmark for best practices.We encourage applications from all qualified individuals and will provide appropriate accommodation for candidates with disabilities or accessibility needs throughout the recruitment process, upon request. Please contact our recruiter for any questions, accommodations or specific requests.We thankall candidates for their interest in Starcom however, only those candidatesselected for an interview will be contacted