Strategy Director

Saatchi & Saatchi Canada; Toronto; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Saatchi & Saatchi Canada is seeking a Strategy Director to lead strategic planning and inspire bold brand ideas. You will manage end-to-end brand projects, guide research, and architect insights that shape integrated campaigns across channels.

You will collaborate with creative, accounts and media teams, while mentoring junior strategists and growing client relationships. A strong storytelling mindset and PowerPoint fluency are essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in marketing with strong agency strategy experience.
• Proven track record transforming client brands through strategic planning.
• Ability to own multiple brands and lead projects end-to-end.
• Strong storytelling and concise brief-writing skills.
• Familiarity with insight tools, media channels and analytics.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic planning process to develop powerful brand ideas.
• Provide input into research methodology across quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Guide integrated campaigns with a strategic perspective.
• Create consumer profiles revealing behaviors, attitudes, and usage.
• Lead and support creative brief writing and ideation sessions.
• Inspire creative teams with bold, distinct ideas and strategic direction.
• Build strong client relationships and act as trusted advisor.
• Facilitate workshops and strategic planning sessions with clients and teams.
• Scout cultural trends and distill implications for action.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with accounts, creative, and media teams.

Skills

Brand strategy

Strategic planning

Leadership

Storytelling

PowerPoint

Client relations

Tools

PowerPoint

Job description

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.