Associate Strategy Director

Who we are looking for:

Wunderman Thompson is seeking an Associate Strategy Director with brand planning and communications planning expertise to join our Strategy & Planning team.

Our Strategy & Planning team brings together brand, business, market, and customer perspectives to identify opportunities for our clients, set priorities, and define a path forward. We create strategic plans for brand communications, marketing programs, and digital experiences, all fueled by customer research, our own proprietary data, and keeping an ever-present pulse on culture. We operate as one Midwest team, with strategists in our offices in Chicago, Minneapolis and beyond.

As an Associate Strategy Director, this person’s primary responsibility will be to own strategy projects from end-to-end for a major global energy company with multiple iconic American brands in its portfolio. Key to our agency’s relationship with this energy company is our passion for evolving their business for a changing world and a new set of consumer values. This person will also work closely with their department leader on new business efforts, agency thought leadership, and an array of project-based initiatives that come up across other accounts. As the owner of strategy on the energy business, the Associate Strategy Director will operate largely independently from end to end: guiding clients on setting priorities, acting as a leading voice in interagency collaboration (with media and multicultural partners), identifying insights and research needs, and developing strategic platforms and creative briefs.

What you’ll do:

• Steer | As the steward of our clients’ brands and businesses, you’ll define opportunities for our brands to add value to their audience’s lives. In some projects, you will guide how the brand should present (e.g. brand positioning, campaigns, comms strategy), while in others, you will guide how the brand should behave (e.g. digital experiences, products, platforms). You’ll earn your colleagues’ trust through your voice of clarity and collaboration, and you’ll earn your clients’ trust through consistent dialog and proactive thinking. 
• Create | You’ll create strategic frameworks, marketing programs, and communications plans. But because the lifeblood of our agency is inspiration, you’ll also curate the best of innovation, cultural trends, and creative work from around the world. Interpreting what’s evolving, you’ll make meaning out of it for your clients and colleagues. 
• Research | You’ll uncover insights by seeking out the truths of our customers’ lives, the shifts of our cultural landscape, and the dynamics of our clients’ categories through primary and secondary research. Strategy is all about opportunities, and insight is the key to determining priorities within that. Even though primary qual/quant research is not possible in every project, this question-led mindset of curiosity is critical to rich insights and strategies.

Who you are:

• A listener | Your thoughtfulness begins with seeking out other people’s perspectives – be it clients, customers, or colleagues.
• A learner | You enter this role wanting to expand your skillset, embracing the power of data and technology.
• A doer | You create things. Instead of just philosophizing, you make plans to take action on your strategies.
• A partner | You acknowledge your strategies are only as effective as the work that pays them off. You partner with creators, working hand in hand to shape our outputs.

What you’ll need: 

• We measure experience by actual experiences more than by years. We often find that this level has a minimum of 7 years of. experience in a creative agency, digital agency, or research environment with most of those spent in client-facing roles. 
• Communications planning and brand planning experience. 
• Client service mentality.

What we offer: 

• Passionate, driven people | We champion a culture of people that do extraordinary work.
• Consciously cultivated culture | We aim to embody the behaviors to build an inclusive community that is in it together, bringing both positivity and active listening into the workplace as we simultaneously strive to empower creative bravery. 
• Competitive benefits | What we offer full time hires ranges from the full spectrum of group health coverage options (medical, dental, vision) to a generous 401k match (100% dollar-for-dollar match, up to 5% of salary contribution), and a variety of paid time off offerings that reflect our investment in all aspects of your overall life balance and wellness. 
• Growth-minded opportunities | We aim to nurture a culture of real-time feedback, growth-oriented mindset, and plenty of training opportunities through Wunderman Thompson and WPP, so you can continue to grow personally and professionally.