Are you a Brand Strategist, with strong experience informing design thinking, strategy and innovation? If job security and working with leading brands, UK and globally, is what you are looking for then this is worth a read! We are helping a very successful and reputable agency, with offices across the UK and internationally, add to their strategy team, with a Senior Brand Strategist. The role is new, and due to growth, will focus on retail and FMCG brands to help them better connect with their customers. The role comes with a competitive salary and range of benefits and will be located in central London with a flexible working arrangement if needed.
Our Client
Our client is a rapidly growing brand design consultancy with a network of 18 offices and 500+ employees worldwide across Europe and the US. Their client base is international, so be ready to visit one of their other offices or take a longer client trip to Moscow, Switzerland, or South Africa even. They are at the forefront of design thinking and sustainability with specialties across pack design, structural/3D design, innovation and strategy and proprietary tools that allow them to assess and make recommendations before the design process begins.
Their people and culture are upbeat and energetic, who work closely together to foster a positive and rewarding culture.
The Role
You will work with the Director of Strategy & Innovation to hone your strategy skills, understand their tools and provide creative inspiration for their Designers; working alongside Client and Design Directors day to day to translate client briefs, ask the right questions, maintain excellence and grow client relationships
You'll develop exceptional brand, design strategy and insight, in collaboration with the Strategy Director, designing research methodologies, source market and consumer insight, develop hypotheses and create robust strategy proposals for approval. Specifically:
Lead brand, design and research, insight project proposals, timelines and costs
Manage junior members of the team and be hands-on to conduct desk research to understand consumer and category landscape, work through data to understand trends, opportunities, threats, identify established and emergent verbal/visual languages.
Identify, define and build strategic solutions to client briefs - from internal meetings through to design reviews, client presentations all the way to delivery of final design.
Lead by example, set the standard for research design and moderation, workshops, ideation, product and brand proposition creation
Ensure the Strategy Team works to best practice
Growing in confidence to become the strategy voice at Design and Client creative reviews
Effectively manage your own time against each project, escalating risk when required
Pro-actively assisting the team, contributing to studio inspiration and design events
About You
We're looking for a strategist with research and innovation experience who has worked with consumer brands and has a 'can-do', bright and collaborative personality. Your drive for excellence will help their clients shine by identifying relevant insights and providing a strategic story to get to great design that shapes their business. Specifically, we are looking for someone with:
Great research methodology knowledge
Robust understanding of innovation, brand strategy and naming
Creative and analytical thinker, with strong attention to detail
Established presentation and moderations skills
Ability to work under pressure
MS Office and Keynote capability
5-10 years' experience across brand, design, research agencies, in strategy roles
Stakeholder management and conflict resolution
Wide research methodology knowledge
Understanding of innovation process
A degree or equivalent, in Marketing, Education, Design, Psychology or related behavioral field
This role comes with a competitive salary, 25 days annual leave (+ UK public holidays and the opportunity to buy 5 more days holiday after your first year), closed over Christmas to New Year, pension scheme, health insurance, office membership to the Tate and VA, friendly faces and kind people that make you feel welcome and support you, exposure to a range of clients, categories, countries (Europe of course but they also work with clients in China and Africa), potential to take your knowledge and experience to the next level by learning and honing new strategy skills and tools, the comfort of a strategy team to bounce ideas of off, the excitement of working with new people on different challenges to expand your mind and develop your thinking, ability to cross over into brand and design thinking if you come from an innovation or research agency. What's not to like!
To apply for the role of Senior Brand Strategist, please send your CV to me as soon as you can!
