Associate Strategy Director

Overview:
Union is a creative & performance marketing agency that creates omni-channel campaigns, unleashing creativity on a data-driven world, helping brands produce memorable, measurable and repeatable results.

We are seeking an Associate Strategy Director who is interested in having a meaningful impact on the agency’s growing Strategy discipline. This person must be able to develop a deep understanding of our clients’ businesses and key challenges, and work closely with teams to recommend insights, opportunities and creative strategies for multiple accounts.

The Associate Strategy Director will be responsible for framing complex engagements, defining strategies and formulating recommendations that solve a client’s marketing needs. This person should know how to identify and articulate issues in process, cross-departmental challenges and gaps in the business, then provide ideas on how to fix these issues.

This individual will work with Account Leads to drive an agenda of best practice sharing, innovation and strategic thinking via a clearly defined strategic framework to be applied across multi-channel campaigns. They will also work closely with the Strategy Director to establish consistency in philosophies and approaches for the department.

The Associate Strategy Director will report to the Executive Strategy Director and may support larger client projects as well as“own” specific client projects depending on size and complexity.

Experience in research or another specialized skill set or focus is a plus.

Roles and responsibilities:
Integrated strategy
• Drive, develop and communicate strategic insights, tools and standardized frameworks in support of a client’s marketing strategy and planning
• Support annual/quarterly client planning and forecast updates
• Develop recommendations related to digital marketing investment allocation
• Develop strategic frameworks to document comms tasks and supporting elements (e.g. personas) to guide creative and tactical decisions
• Facilitate workshops or brainstorming meetings internally and with client teams
• Create strategy and creative briefs as needed for internal and client teams
Research and discovery
• Determine and execute on research efforts such as Market & Competitor Audits, Stakeholder Interviews, Customer Interviews, Customer Surveys
• Synthesize insights from primary and secondary research
• Collect findings in documentation to show both data as well as analysis on the finding
Client and project team collaboration
• Work closely with Account and Project Managers to develop processes and workflows to achieve overall client goals
• Identify opportunities for growth in strategic offerings and support for clients
New business support
• Support New Business Development efforts by providing suggested project plans and estimated scope to execute
• Provide strategic insights and thought to support unique point of view on proposed solutions for each client
• Participate as needed in agency presentations
Department
• Help influence new offerings and improvements within the department
• Participate in ongoing training and development to elevate skills and understanding
• Participate in ongoing marketing, digital, brand and trend research

Qualifications:
• 7+ years agency experience in account planning or integrated strategy
• Experience working in digital media as well as research (quant and qual)
• Leader that wants to have a profound impact on an organization’s strategy practice
• Strong organizational, interpersonal and project management skills
• Excellent presentation and communication skills that can capture an audience
• Ability to balance a varied workload, inclusive of supporting the team in the client work as well as working on agency initiatives
• Passion for growth, motivated by new challenges and opportunities
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-departmental teams

What we’re looking for:
Over the years, Union has built an open and fun environment around our six core values; Creativity, Innovation, Collaboration, Kindness, Passion, and Hard Work. Therefore, regardless of the position, we are looking for people to join the team that have:
• Ability to think creatively
• Ability to bring innovative solutions to the table
• Ability & desire to work collaboratively within a team environment
• Genuinely nice and kind personality
• Passion for not just fulfilling an assignment, but in adding value, pushing the boundaries and creating amazing work
• Hard-working & self-motivated mindset
• Ability to juggle multiple projects
• Ability to quickly resolve issues as they arise
• Up-to-date knowledge of current trends
• Meticulous attention to details and overall product quality

Benefits:
• Vacation Paid Time Off
• Summer Fridays
• Health Insurance
• Profit Sharing Program
• Latest MacBook Pro
• Matching 401K
• Professional Development
• Hybrid Work Environment