Who We Are

We are a fiercely entrepreneurial ad agency that blends creativity and performance to build great brands. We call this approach Soul + Science. With offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Seattle, we serve as collaborative business partners to some of the world’s best brands including Ben & Jerry’s, Jose Cuervo, Alaska Airlines, Charles Schwab and OkCupid, among others.

Being a Mekanista requires a rare combination of being a weird, fearless and wonderful person who enjoys birthday cakes, well-behaved dogs, and shared sensibility of respect and not taking ourselves too seriously.

Mekanism has been named to Ad Age’s A-List and twice to their Best Places to Work list. Most recently, Mekanism was named Independent Agency of the Year by The Drum and a Top 10 Most Effective Independent Agency in the US by the Effie Index. We have been profiled by The New York Times, Fast Company and ABC’s Nightline. Our campaign methodologies are studied by Harvard Business School.

The Role

Mekanism’s Strategy Department is made up of creative-minded brand leaders who understand people as much as we understand business. Our job is to make our internal teams, clients, and ultimately our audiences think, “Holy shit! I never thought about it that way,” connecting dots across human behavior, creative development, and business strategy to light a fresh path forward. We don’t rest until we unearth the most “holy shit” insights and strategies to guide true shifts in culture, human behavior, and our partners’ businesses.

The Strategy Director is an integrated, collaborative, fact-driven, creative thinker with great human and business instincts. They are able to lead strategy end to end, through from insight to strategy, from idea and executions to measurement & optimization on projects and brands. 

They build trusted partnerships with clients and agency teams through a focus on driving kick ass creative work that is also effective. They also bring the capacity for visionary thought leadership and business acumen to approach a variety of challenges.

Our goal in the Brand Strategy department is to be the starting point for groundbreaking creative work and to become the go-to resource for our clients regarding deep, analytical business thinking and strong perspectives on their industry, consumer, marketing and business strategies.  

The Strategy Director  is responsible for leading multiple internal, new business and client projects and is expected to effectively collaborate with Mekanism’s Creative, Platforms, Experience, Performance and Brand Management teams. The Strategy Director will run projects independently and play a critical support role on New Business pitches. 

Key Areas of Responsibility

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Mastery of the fundamentals

• Define business problems and dissect them into clear and specific communications tasks.
• Uncover and articulate behavioral and cultural insights. Shape brand and activation strategies. Inspire great creative ideas with briefs that champion Mek’s Soul & Science approach internally and with clients to ensure creative is driven by strategic rigor.

Lead and own projects, but with a team-building mentality

• Pinpoint what is needed and identify the right next steps for every project. Mind meld with our Platforms, Experience, and Performance teams to bring brand strategies and creative platforms to life through smart channel thinking with clear performance objectives.  Partner with Mek creatives and partner agencies to execute. Present confidently to clients and internal team members to inspire great work that drives results.

Lead and drive breakthrough brand strategies

• Have a birds eye view of the overall business on their brands and campaigns. 
• Lead the strategic charge on brands, represent the strategy function and provide thought leadership to clients, through owning the day to day client relationship. 
• Consult and connect with Platform, Experience, & Performance teams on brand/social/sales analytics conversations, ensuring our work is always aligned with the metrics of our clients. Synthesize the above into simple, actionable, inspirational strategies that our creative team “push off” of and our clients can clearly understand. Craft simple and inspiring narratives around ideas. Use a tingly sixth sense to identify opportunities for pushing brands out of comfort zones and into greatness while growing business. 

Be a visionary & growth driver

• Concept studies, manage 3rd vendors and partner with them to shape unexpected insights and unique perspectives. Support Head of Strategy and Chief Strategy Officer on thought leadership and work in partnership with brand management to identify opportunities to grow the strategy offering for their clients

Help Craft Amazing Work

• Stay involved in and help guide creative ideation and concepting throughout the process, ensuring that we produce breakthrough work that drives our clients businesses forward. Help grow the Mekanism’s client arsenal by working on new business development. Help guide senior and junior team members to develop strategies and support their growth. 

Qualifications

• Industry Experience: You should have 8+ years of relevant advertising/marketing experience. Graduate degree in communications, advertising, brand planning or business a plus. 
• Proven Intuition: At this level you should have well-honed instincts for problem solving and uncovering the most compelling insights and opportunities with regard to human behavior, business strategy and general marketing theory. And you should be able to do this quickly, with minimal supervision. You should exhibit grace under pressure.
• Inspiration & Integration: You should have a passion for creativity, culture, understanding how people think/interact, brands, and problem solving, and working across departments and leadership to make award winning work.
• Opportunity-Centric: You should have a solid understanding of industry happenings, cultural trends, and how Mek fits into the larger picture to grow clients/expand capabilities.
• Client Empathy: Deep understanding of what clients are up against and how best to serve them without sacrificing the integrity of the work. 
• Management Experience: You should have led teams of strategists and interns

Salary: $130,000 - $145,000

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