Saatchi & Saatchi Canada - FT Perm Template

Publicis Groupe Holdings B.V; Toronto; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Saatchi & Saatchi Toronto is seeking a Strategy Director to lead strategic planning, craft powerful brand ideas, and grow trusted advisor relationships with clients. You’ll guide researchers, shape campaigns, and mentor junior team members while elevating creative work.

You’ll apply storytelling and data-driven insights to uncover opportunities, frame overarching narratives, and collaborate with creative and media teams to deliver impactful results for clients across a range of brands.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of marketing experience, preferably in agency strategic planning with a track record of transformational, modern marketing growth.
• Able to lead a portfolio of brands and run projects as owner rather than advisor.
• Strong brand planning with clear positionings and focused messaging.
• Clear storyteller and brief-writer with ability to surface meaningful insights.
• Familiar with insight tools, media tech, channels and terminology.
• Results-driven with a focus on effectiveness measurement.
• Deep integrated planning experience emphasizing storytelling and journey mapping.
• Comfort with data and analytics to craft measurement plans and actionable learnings.
• Excellent relationships with creative, account and media leaders/teams.
• Able to design and facilitate workshop activities for creative problem solving.
• Expertise in multiple business strategy tools and methods.
• Some experience in digital strategy, including social strategy.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
• Willing to learn new tools; proficient with PowerPoint.
• Self-motivated but highly collaborative; values diverse thought.
• Passionate about the world outside the agency, contributing to agency life and culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic planning process to arrive at powerful brand ideas.
• Provide educated input into research methodology across quantitative and qualitative.
• Lead the strategic thinking on integrated campaigns.
• Create compelling consumer profiles that provide insight into behaviors, attitudes, lifestyle, and usage.
• Lead and support creative brief writing.
• Provide inspiration and ideas to creative teams during the development process; act as partner and sounding board.
• Champion bold, distinct, and effective creative.
• Plan and facilitate integrated planning sessions and ideations internally or with external participants.
• Proactively scout cultural trends, channel opportunities, competitive activity and distill into actionable implications.
• Build excellent relationships internally with accounts, creative and media teams and externally with clients, partner agencies and vendors.

Skills

Brand planning

Strategic planning

Storytelling & briefs

Data & analytics

Integrated planning

Workshop facilitation

Client relationship building

Digital strategy

PowerPoint proficiency

Job description

Company description

Saatchi & Saatchi is an advertising agency with the belief that creativity, data, media and technology should all work together, and we use that to influence human behavior and drive success for clients. S&S is one of the world's largest agency networks with 114 offices and more than 6000 employees globally. Here in our Toronto office we work with some of the countries most valued brands including Toyota, Lexus, Quesada and Mondelez just to name a few. We’re an award winning agency in both creativity and effectiveness, so it’s really important for us here to convert that innovation and the great ideas into real tangible business results for the organization.

Overview

Saatchi & Saatchi is looking to add a Strategy Director to their happy team.

We’re seeking a seasoned agency strategist with smarts and enthusiasm who genuinely wants to help clients succeed and produce great work while also contributing to growing the agency.

You’ll work on a wide range of strategic projects, including research, brand strategy, comms planning, creative briefing, and reporting. The strategy director will help us grow relationships with our clients and become their trusted advisor. You’ll collaboratively lead teams to deliver bold and effective work. You’ll also support junior team members as you also continue to grow.

You effectively apply tools, techniques, intuition and experience to uncover, articulate and architect clear and compelling strategies and unexpected brand ideas that carve out a distinct place for brands in the marketplace. You provide a business-relevant perspective on communication challenges. This typically involves developing an understanding of the market and competitive factors, cultural trends and deep consumer understanding. You identify and prioritize opportunities and can help frame the overarching story of a project. You have a persuasive style that inspires confidence in clients and great work from creative teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic planning process to arrive at powerful brand ideas.
• Provide educated input into research methodology across quantitative and qualitative.
• Lead the strategic thinking on integrated campaigns.
• Create compelling consumer profiles that provide insight into consumer behaviors, attitudes, lifestyle, and usage to provide meaningful insights.
• Lead and support creative brief writing.
• Provide inspiration and ideas to creative teams as they begin the creative development process; act as a partner and sounding board during the creative process.
• Champion bold, distinct and effective creative.
• Plan and facilitate integrated planning sessions and ideations both internally and/or with external participants.
• Proactively conduct in-depth scouting into cultural trends, channel opportunities, competitive activity and distill into actionable implications and recommendations.
• Build excellent relationships internally, with accounts, creative and media teams and externally, with clients, partner agencies and vendors.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of marketing experience, preferably the majority of which spent on strategic planning in agency, with a proven track record of transformational, modern marketing work that has grown clients' business.
• Adept and interested in proactively leading a portfolio of brands and running projects (i.e., being an owner vs. an advisor).
• Strong at brand planning, able to create clear sharp positionings and focused messaging. Can contribute to the crystallization of identity and architecture.
• Clear, tight storyteller and brief-writer. Can identify meaningful, singular, useable insights/tensions.
• Familiar with widely used and emerging insight tools and media technology, channels, and terminology.
• Results-driven individual who believes in effectiveness measurement.
• Deep integrated planning experience with emphasis on storytelling, including journey mapping.
• Comfort with data and analytics, able to craft a measurement plan and perform analysis that yields actionable learnings.
• Strong reputation for relationships with creative, account and media leaders and/or teams.
• Ability to design and facilitate workshop activities to engage the client team in a creative problem-solving process.
• Expertise in multiple business strategy tools, frameworks and methods.
• Some experience in digital strategy, including social strategy.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to learn new tools and a comfort with old ones, especially PowerPoint.
• Self-motivated but highly collaborative, seeks input and is comfortable receiving it, and welcomes diversity of thought. (We're a collaborative, supportive and transparent bunch so lone wolves need not apply.)
• You’re as passionate about the world outside our walls as you are within them.
• Contributing to agency life and culture is important to you.

Additional information

Saatchi is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome and encourage applications from all interested parties. Accommodations are available, upon request, for all stages of the interview and employment process for those with a disability or medical need during any stage of the recruitment process. We thank all candidates for their interest inPublicisMedia, however, only those candidates selected for an interviewwill be contacted.