Brand Strategist

Brook Street are currently working on behalf of our Global IT client to recruit a Brand Strategist. This a contract role lasting for 4-6 months based in Central London.

Team/Department Mission
Do you have a desire to work intimately with the top brands in the world? You could be part of a small creative team chartered with breaking new ground, winning business and driving revenue in the digital marketplace for the portfolio of advertising and content platforms within the company.

The Multinational Advertising Solutions team has become a top resource for brand marketers to reach the company's huge consumer audience in new ways via engaging and rich creative experiences that tap into consumer passions for entertainment, sports, lifestyle, music, movies, video and much more.
Working in partnership with sales and account teams across the advertising business, the team concepts and executes compelling multi-market, multi-screen creative solutions and advertising initiatives for our clients and partner agencies.

Role Purpose
The Brand Strategist plays a crucial client/agency facing role within the Advertising Solutions team. Their goal is to drive incremental revenue for the business by servicing key advertiser requests with a genuine creative approach, showcasing innovation and supporting the sales organization in its creative sales function to achieve the team's revenue targets.

They work closely with agencies/clients to build strong relationships, win their trust and understand their objectives. Using this knowledge, the Brand Strategist finds new, creative and innovative solutions that reach client objectives through core audience aggregation technologies.

The Brand Strategist has end-to-end responsibility, along with Account Executives, for these solutions from client briefings to creative brainstorming to negotiation and sales. They are surrounded by a supportive and energetic team including Content Strategists, Designers, Project Managers, Engineers, and Product Specialists who collaborate to help the Brand Strategist develop ground-breaking ideas and drive industry-leading solutions.

The Brand Strategist plays an essential creative role in achieving the team's mission by working within the Advertising Solutions team and with other business groups across the company during the ideation phase. The implementation of these solutions is then managed by a Creative Solutions Project Manager for execution.

In addition to creating, selling and executing the solutions, the Brand Strategist will work closely with the research team for insight and learnings, as well as the Trade Marketing and public relations teams to ensure these programs receive industry coverage and buzz amongst our key customers and consumers. This position will be responsible for advocating and informing internal groups (lines of business, product teams, etc.) about learnings from these programs and how we have been able to couple advertiser needs alongside consumer experiences.

Key Accountabilities
* Winning the trust of clients and agencies, and inspiring them to choose this company as their partner.
* Collaboration with different teams and clients during the ideation phase using the client brief, creating pitch presentations for client and agency working sessions.
* Coordination and managing brainstorm sessions. Expanding, grouping and checking the ideas against the brief, checking feasibility and then presenting to clients.
* In-depth knowledge of digital trends and marketing campaigns across EMEA-wide markets
* In-depth knowledge of the company's online digital offerings with an ability to tie in new customized solutions with new product development, and where applicable, complete the feedback loop.
* Coordinating, collaborating and building rapport with people across internal groups and time zones during the ideation phase including next steps and deliverables.
* Bringing clarity and defined strategies to counter the ambiguity of the pitching process.
* Proactively assess and/or investigate potential red flags which could render an idea unfeasible.
* Driving creativity using strong communication and presentation skills to hone ideas into multiple clear concepts for the clients to choose from.
* Presenting to and inspiring clients with confidence, clarity and passion.
* Presenting internally/externally once projects are complete, when required.
* Assisting with evangelist duties for creative offerings across EMEA. Interpreting the media landscape - the creative agencies ecosystem - advertising demands and ensure the company is competitive with client concepts and creative ideas to drive creativity and online perception.

Key Success Criteria
The Brand Strategist must lead and deliver the solutions in line with the sales objectives.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

1) Essential Experience
Creativity and marketing know-how, collaborating across a broad group of internal and external groups, creating innovative and breakthrough digital experiences for customers and advertisers. Experience working in a multinational environment with an understanding of multi-market complexities.
In-depth knowledge and experience working with account planning teams in media agencies. From creative and brand strategy, client insight, pitching processes. An understanding of creative and media agency ecosystems and sourcing key stakeholders. Well established industry connections.

2) Technical/Functional Skills
Use of Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel, and other Microsoft platforms. Strong understanding of visual storytelling.

3) Qualifications
The ideal candidate has a results-driven background with a strong creative streak. They will have polished and exceptionally high-level of verbal/written presentation skills and a genuine customer orientation.

Candidates will have a proven background in brand advertising/marketing on either the publisher, agency or client side, with a proven track record of innovation and collaboration. They should also have a well-rounded set of experiences that show they know how to apply new and innovative technology to marketing challenges and see those through from start to finish.

Candidates should have experience working directly with marketing managers at top brands and agencies and should feel comfortable holding their own in briefings, brainstorms and pitches. This role requires the individual to be passionate about coming up with new, compelling creative ideas that enhance a user's digital experience.

The Brand Strategist role is an integral position within the team and will be held to a high bar to create new paradigms for online marketing the role is not simply about following what others have done, but finding new ways to integrate with the company's evolving set of products and the sophisticated set of requests that our advertisers are bringing to us.

The Brand Strategist must also be an effective communicator - capable of possessing unique presentation and pitching skills, delivering these to senior internal and external executives.

Education:
Bachelor's degree required (eg in Business, Media, Brand Marketing, Creative Storytelling, Communication or Computer Science) or MBA/other similar post graduate qualification preferred.

As a Brook Street contractor you will be entitled to 25 days holiday per annum, 8 days paid Bank Holidays, discounted gym membership, use of the onsite health facility, access to online learning and training, free parking and an excellent subsidised restaurant. In addition, subject to qualification criteria, you will have the potential opportunity to earn bonus.

Salary: £55,000 - £57,000 per annum
Location: London

For more information on this role or to apply, please send your up to date CV to Michelle. A covering letter will also be required detailing why you feel you are a suitable candidate for this role

Shortlisting Deadline: 9:30am Thursday 13th March 2014