Strategy Manager

Starcom; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work Your World - international/canada

Extended long weekends

Wellness & Tech benefits

Birthday leave

Learning & Development platform

Mobility within Publicis Groupe

Job summary

Starcom in Toronto is seeking an experienced Strategy professional to lead holistic brand architectures across paid, earned, owned and shared media. You will translate marketing objectives into integrated experiences and embed cultural intelligence at every planning stage.

With 6-8+ years in strategy, you will harness audience insights, AI tools, and partner networks to drive commercially effective campaigns while fostering cross-functional collaboration and client leadership.

Qualifications

• 6-8+ years in Communications Planning, Brand Strategy, Media Strategy, or Cultural Strategy.
• Hands-on experience with audience and cultural intelligence tools: Vividata, GWI, ComScore, Google Trends, Pinterest.
• Strong data-driven media planning, audience targeting, and cross-channel strategy.
• Excellent client-facing skills and cross-functional collaboration.
• Fully fluent in English; French fluency a bonus.

Responsibilities

• Lead holistic brand strategies across paid, earned, owned and shared media for major brands.
• Leverage audience insights and social listening to identify meaningful behaviors.
• Define jobs to be done and map channel roles across the media mix.
• Lead inter-agency collaborations, workshops, and client presentations.
• Provide thought leadership on media strategy and cultural participation.
• Monitor cultural trends and identify opportunities for authentic integration.
• Support new business pitches with cutting-edge cultural insights.

Skills

Brand strategy

Media planning

Audience insights

Cultural intelligence

Client collaboration

English fluency

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in Business/Marketing/Communications/Cultural Studies or related field

Tools

Vividata

GWI

ComScore

Google Trends

Pinterest

Job description

Full-time (Hybrid)

Company Description

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at center of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, Starcom partners with the world's leading marketers and brands.

Within Canada, 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.

You will be joining a well-recognised agency with credentials:

• Great Places to Work certified three 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

What we Offer

• Work Your World program enabling you to experience working from anywhere in Canada or overseas for up to 6 weeks a year
• Extended long weekends throughout the year with an additional day off each long weekend
• Wellness & Tech benefits to support what’s most important to you
• Birthday leave
• Extensive Learning & Development opportunities, including more than 15,000 learning programs via our online learning platform as well as a Professional Development Allowance
• Local and Global Mobility within the Publicis Groupe network

The Role

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 critical thinker, that will sit at the intersection of innovative ideas, creative considerations, consumer insights, media platforms, and real-time cultural shifts. You’ll lead the orchestration of brand architectures for one of our biggest clients, influencing integrated touchpoints across the full consumer journey, while embedding cultural intelligence into every stage of planning that follows.

The world moves fast and so do we. We deal in ambiguity, translate complex challenges and drive the narrative. Your job is to create clear, actionable direction for brands so they can show up where their audiences are, with bothcultural credibility and commercial effectiveness.

We are considering this role as a natural evolution to the media 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 strengthen a team of leading strategists for the future, towards authentic brand integration into Canadian culture.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Lead holistic connections planning for major brands, translating marketing objectives into fully integrated, brand strategies and consumer-first media experiences.
• Leverage audience, insights and social listening tools, platform and first-party data to identify meaningful and emerging audience behaviors.
• Define jobs to done, communications tasks and map channel roles across paid, earned, owned and shared media.
• Lead inter-agency collaborations, creative briefings, workshops, brainstorms, and client presentations.
• 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 ongoing cultural monitoring across verticals like travel, entertainment, gaming, music, film, fashion, artand emerging internet subcultures and find opportunities for agency brands to authentically integrate their comms
• Serve as an internal cultural resource educating clients and internal planning teams on emerging shifts in behavior, platform dynamics, and creator ecosystems.
• Master of AI tools for the benefit of strategic refinement, analytical research, and idea generation
• Generate big activation ideas for brands and know the importance of selling them through with a balance of strategy and excitement
• Collaborate closely with vendor, internal and external partner agencies to bring experience plans to life.
• 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
• Significant hands-on experience with audience and cultural intelligence tools: eg. Vividata, GWI, ComScore, Google Trends, Pinterest, etc.
• Strong grasp of data-driven media planning, audience targeting, and cross-channel media strategy
• Deep understanding of cultural trends, internet communities, creator ecosystems, and modern media consumption behaviors
• Experience working directly with clients, media planners, creative teams, and platform partners
• Fully fluent in English; French fluency a bonus

Additional Information

Transparency matters to us. The salary range for this position is $70,000 - $80,000 per year. Actual compensation within this range will be based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and applicable certifications. This range reflects what we reasonably expect to offer based on current market data.

AI USE

We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of our hiring process, such as reviewing applications or analyzing resumes. These tools assist our recruitment team but never replace human decision-making. We believe in a human-first approach, where your experience and potential are recognized by people.

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.