Strategy Director

Role Summary

The Strategy Director will lead the agency’s strategic capabilities, with an acute understanding of how communications and culture, technology and platforms, intersect in the mind of the consumer. Additionally, He/she must be able to analyze data and insights to create compelling solutions for today’s digital first audiences.

He/she will be required to work closely with senior agency teams across account management, creative, technology and media to formulate a compelling on & offline strategy for our client’s businesses. This role is also pivotal in solutioning for platform and products to power agency's own product strategy in areas of – social listening, CX and other data tools.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Strategic Planning and Implementation: Make & present annual, quarterly or periodic strategy presentations for the different client business units in a global work environment. Lead and drive thought & development of various media marketing plans
•  Marketing Planning: Define & own marketing calendars and promotional strategies to meet the organizational objective. Work on the 30-60-90 days & long-term plans
•  Data Analytics:  Define data analytics approach & mindset for the business & activate necessary actions for business growth. Analyze the customer patterns for higher returns. Set goals, interpret metrics, and implement projects that will improve business performance, visibility, and revenue
•  Business & Category Monitoring: Constantly keep track of prospects and bringing marketing insights by analyzing competitions marketing, category trends & other macro & micro aspects
•  Sponsorships and Partnerships: Identify, evaluate, and make recommendations for client’s participation in sponsorships & other brand partnerships as relevant
•  Growth Hackathons: Organize and lead periodic growth hackathons with key clients as may be agreed upon with the business lead to position Ogilvy as indispensable strategic and creative partner.
•   Business Development: Contribute to new business development including pitches with strategic planning.

KPIs

• In three months: Expected to have full understanding of our client business association & your role. role. Understand the different stakeholders within the agency and start building a relationship with them. Ability to lead strategic discussions with clients and internal stakeholders
• In six months: Be visible as key POC of your team within the agency as well as with clients. Proactively drive the strategic initiatives & response to the client requirements & briefs. Have a full understanding of what is happening on the client’s business & work accordingly. Ability to start leading long term & short-term strategic planning for the client and pitches
• In twelve months: Be the seamless bridge between local clients & regional/global agency team for strategic planning initiatives. Develop case studies for internal use and for local, regional and international awards across the key disciplines in the agency.

Professional, Technical Skills & Previous Experienced Required

• Must have at least 10-12 years of experience in a strategic discipline, with a digital, communications or consulting background
• Product strategy and design thinking is a requirement, with a significant amount of this experience devoted to work in digital environments.
• Brand and communications planning experience is a must, as is business strategy
• Understands how business, brands and customers interact, with deep knowledge of the role that technology plays in this relationship.
• Experience in insight and idea generation, can judge ideas for their distinctiveness, relevance and effectiveness.
• Ability to translate strategic recommendations into actionable experiences, products, and
• Familiarity with a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, ability to design and implement measurement plans.
• Can clearly and persuasively frame and communicate strategic recommendations to senior audiences, internally and externally.
• Team player with strong leadership skills, able to manage people across multiple projects under high pressure.
• Organized, professional, proactive, clear & concise communication style, simple language & high cultural awareness.
• Track record of nurturing and mentoring younger strategists/ analysts

Company Overview

Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency on the continent catering to 40 countries with a team of ~900 people across Central, East and West Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi - Kenya, Ogilvy Africa manages a portfolio of over 100 brands for clients such as AB Inbev, Airtel, Africa CDC, Bill & Melinda Gates, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Distell, Equity Bank, Exxon Mobil, Kenya Airways, Mastercard Foundation, Mondelez, NCBA, Nestle, Philips, PWC, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Standard Chartered, Total, Tullow, UNICEF, Unilever, Visa, Vodafone and WWF amongst others.

We offer services across the full spectrum of marketing domains including advertising (on and offline), Customer Engagement & Commerce, Digital Transformation, Shopper Marketing, Media, PR & Influence; all under one unified setup. We’ve also created proprietary marketing products in areas such as real-time marketing, social intelligence, virtual experiences, influencer management, e-commerce enablement and content hubs. Our unique operating model, One Ogilvy, allows clients and brands to cut the complexity of agency structures and create seamless omni-channel experiences for their consumers, across touchpoints. Fueled by the holy trinity of content, data and technology; Ogilvy Africa strives to be the best-practice agency model, for Developing & Emerging markets.

In our 20+ years in Africa, we have won the highest number of regional and global awards for the region including Cannes Lions, Clio awards, Dubai Lynx Festival, SABRE Awards (Global and Africa); to name a few.

Ogilvy is a leading global creative network of WPP. Launched by David Ogilvy over 70 years ago, it’s referred-to as the Agency of Giants, by several industry experts.

Ogilvy Africa Beliefs

• People need regular OS upgrades: Even the best OS will be obsolete tomorrow unless its constantly upgraded. Same is true for people.
• We need more cows than milk men: We are a culture of practitioners, not managers. We contribute before we comment.
• Creative about creativity: Creativity is, and will always be, our differentiator. Creativity now includes holy trinity of Data -Content -Tech.
• Diversity is a competitive advantage: New profiles, new skills, new styles of leadership make us a stronger company.
• Collaborative advantage > Competitive advantage: Find partners who are on top of their game at the skillset we need. It’s the only way to scale at the speed without pretending to have all the answers.
• Team > Individual: You get a lot more done when everyone stops worrying about who gets credit at the end. Teams Succeed; individuals fail.
• Fail often, fail fast: We see entrepreneurs in all our people and encourage a culture of pilots. Test, succeed and scale; or fail-fast learn, learn from the failure, and start something new.