An analytical mind with a creative edge makes for a super senior strategist. If you’re reading this, you probably possess both of these attributes. This fabulous opening could be just what you’ve been looking for to turn up your career path a notch. We’re on the lookout for a senior strategist to join the dynamic team at a leading, awarded, independent and integrated advertising agency in Cape Town. This is an unparalleled opportunity to work on some diverse and truly exciting retail accounts that are leading the field in innovative advertising and marketing. This role is suited to someone direct who doesn’t hide behind overly complex models and jargon. This is for someone who gets excited about understanding what makes people tick. Got the gift of finding simplicity in the complexities? Show us!

Responsibilities

• Nurturing and growing the Strategic Planners in the department to deliver beyond their ability and being a source of inspiration for them
• Developing strategies that serve as a benchmark
• Representing the planning function on the agency management team
• Lead strategy on new business pitches
• Maintain a sound relationship between the planning department and other departments within the agency
• Being the conduit of the latest planning information
• Conducting market research on changing customer needs and expectations, providing information on business trends i.e. strategies being adopted by other organisations including benchmarking and best practice, provide industry trend analyses, competitor research
• Proactively suggest new means of developing and understanding the brand
• Ability to clearly articulate a strategic vision in a confident and persuasive manner to clients and teams
• Analysis and application of data in areas such as demographics, socio-economics and the market for the client’s product
• Commissioning research as required to inform the strategy using both qualitative methods such as focus group discussions and structured interviews and quantitative methods such as demographic profiling and questionnaires;
• Monitoring cultural and social trends, and their impact on consumers’ attitudes, behaviour and perceptions
• Reconciling the differences between consumers’ current perception of the brand and the way in which the client wishes the brand to be perceived
• Marketing insight, in looking for actionable insights
• Meeting clients to learn the background to the brand.
• Providing the creative team with a clearly defined brief that contains concise information on the product, audience and strategy
• Presenting eventual conclusions and ideas to clients and other staff to sell your idea
• Preparing and presenting full communication strategies in a coherent and in-depth manner to positively impact the thinking of all parties involved in the communication activities

Requirements

The successful candidate must have/be:

• Tertiary qualification- ideally a marketing-related Degree
• Seven+ years of proven experience in strategy of which at least 2two years should be in a leadership role, managing junior strategists within an agency
• Proven track record of creative solutions to big and small problems
• Proven experience in developing strategies
• Experience in presenting strategies to client
• A sound understanding of marketing disciplines, and knowledge of branding/brand positioning/brand valuation theory
• An eclectic approach to problem solving, with the ability to be both rigorously analytical as well as intuitive
• An extensive browser in all fields with an ability to draw on diverse experiences and sources of knowledge in providing insights
• A sound understanding of qualitative and quantitative research
• Critical thinking skills – analytical, creative and lateral

Company Description

Viv Gordon Placements (VGP) is a specialist recruitment agency in the advertising, marketing, media, public relations and publishing industries.

Posted on 25 Aug 08:19