Strategy Business Director

Group M Worldwide Inc.; London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job description

Strategy Business Director

Group: Mindshare Worldwide

Reports to: Strategy Partner

Mindshare is a global media agency designed to make media exciting, fun, and life-changing. For the last 20 years, our values of Speed, Teamwork, and Provocation have guided our 10,000 people who work with some of the world’s best brands and companies. Located in 116 offices across 86 countries, we are the largest media agency in GroupM, WPP’s media investment management arm, which is the #1 media holding group globally. Mindshare Worldwide is the headquarters for Mindshare based in London. We are a team of 400+ people, co-ordinating media campaigns for our global clients.

Learn about our culture and values and meet some of our people here.

Want to see some of our award-winning work? Click here.

What We Can Offer You

At Mindshare Worldwide, we offer a competitive salary package, with 25 days holiday increasing with service to a maximum of 30 days, with the option to buy an extra 5 days per year. We also have an enhanced pension scheme, Bupa healthcare, a monthly wellbeing fund, and early finishes on a Friday during summer. These are just some of the great benefits we offer.

Based ten minutes from London Bridge tube station, our office has a rooftop with 360 views of London – a great space to hang out with colleagues and friends!

We also offer an extensive training programme to help guide your career development whilst you’re with us. There’s a wide range of options to suit everyone at all levels of your career.

Our Values & Behaviours

Our attitude is reflected in our core values of Empathy, Energy, and Impact, which drive our people and our business. We want Mindshare Worldwide to be a place where everyone feels that they belong, everyone can be themselves, and everyone has the same opportunities to develop their careers. Over the last 12 months, we have made important steps in progressing on our journey to a truly inclusive organisation. We have launched The Collective and have seen the birth of a range of Employee Resource Groups who have shown some amazing and inspiring work.

The Role

Nestlé is one of the largest FMCG companies in the world, representing one of the Top 10 clients across WPP and GroupM. They operate in over 100 countries and have over 2000 brands. The global client is based in Vevey, Switzerland; however, they have local offices in all major markets.

The global agency team is based in our London office with a focus on global client relationship, strategic direction, and transformational practices. The team is made up of client leadership, strategy lead, digital transformation lead, data and tech specialists, partnership lead, and supportive operations.

The Strategy Business Director will be working hand-in-hand with the Strategy Partner, and will be responsible for driving media strategy development, media planning best practice, consumer engagement strategies, and thought leadership for some of Nestlé’s core categories globally. Reporting to the Strategy Partner, the successful candidate will collaborate with people from a range of specialists in the agency to develop insightful, impactful strategies that help the client business grow.

The Strategy Business Director will be connected into the wider WW Strategy Team working across a wide range of multinational clients and driving Good Growth through designing unified brand experiences across markets that adapt to cultural and human differences and leverage the power of media platforms to engage with audiences across cultures, countries, and continents.

The Ideal Candidate

You are a unique strategist looking to find your new home amongst others who want to create new spaces for media to engage humans & transform their experiences with brands. As an individual, you are:

• Curious: about humans, what makes them tick, what makes them connect. About channels, new, old and changing, always asking how we can break the mould of how things may have been.
• Creative: always looking for new and exciting ways to bring brands to audiences. For the extra ‘spark’ or stretch in the plan that may not be expected.
• Challenging: themselves and others to consider if there is a new way, a better way, or an uncharted way to solve business challenges.
• Collaborative: a desire & ability to collaborate with different skills, personalities, and ways of thinking. To bring people together to find new ways to design, deliver strategies and hold ourselves accountable to them.

You are a confident communicator, experienced in advising and working with senior client, partner, and agency stakeholders. A proactive, excellence-driven approach to delivering and exceeding client expectations is essential. You will always be looking for opportunities to drive the business forward, both from an agency and client perspective.

Essential Skills + Experience:

• Proven track record of leading data and insights-driven media & communication strategy particularly in agency environment.
• Strong understanding of the connection and impact of brand-building and performance-focused end-to-end media strategies.
• Independent self-starter with excellent communication & interpersonal skills including evidence of presentation design and delivery at a senior client level.
• Proven track record of partnering with and supporting clients in distilling business challenges into concise media strategic briefs.
• Experience in leading the design and delivery of media strategies across multiple markets with clear understanding of the influence this has on multi-market vs. local strategic requirements.
• Strong storyteller with the ability to formulate clear, actionable recommendations on complex business problems.
• Ability to lead, manage, and inspire teams across cultures, continents & capabilities.
• Experience in designing partnership & innovation roadmaps to support longer-term needs for clients.
• Experience using syndicated research tools, consumer research methodologies & techniques e.g. TGI, eMarketer, WARC, etc.

Desirable Skills + Experience:

• Solid understanding of the economic dynamics and integrated media strategies needed to drive growth across in B2C & B2B environments.
• Experience in advising on communication strategies encompassing: Consumer Experience, 360 Media environment (inc Digital, Social, PR, Events).
• Experience with FMCG brands and cross-channel media planning experience would be a bonus but not essential.

Responsibilities:

• Be the single point of contact for senior clients and lead media strategy development, media planning best practice, consumer engagement strategies and thought leadership.
• Design and deliver media strategies across multiple markets, understanding the influence and connection of central/global vs. local strategic requirements.
• Build a Trusted Advisor relationship with key senior Nestlé clients through strategic recommendations and proactive thinking.
• Identify and cultivate organic growth from existing clients with growth targets from agency senior management, in collaboration with Strategy Partner.
• Develop strong relationships and drive collaboration with WPP creative agency teams to drive integration of media and messaging and create awards-worthy campaigns.
• Drive collaboration with MS WW specialist teams, e.g. Data Strategy + Insights, Digital Transformation, Innovation + Invention, Commerce etc., to continually elevate the solutions we bring to Nestlé and the impact of our work.
• Collaborate with Nestlé stakeholders in shaping the briefs, and create clear, accountable KPIs and success metrics for our work, ensuring we hold ourselves accountable to achieving them.
• Thought leadership & inspiration for clients, identifying new opportunities to define and engage with core audiences, and showcasing new media/platform offerings.
• Host or attend forums to build relationships, mobilise and share best practice across our network, e.g. media days, conferences, awards ceremonies, weekly calls, quarterly get-togethers, etc.