Senior Strategist

San Francisco, CA, US (Hybrid)

✓ Dental Insurance ✓ Disability Insurance ✓ Health Insurance ✓ Life Insurance

Description

SENIOR STRATEGIST (ALSO OPEN TO SEATTLE, WA)

Who We Are

Mekanism is an award-winning, independent, full-service advertising agency made up of creative entrepreneurs. With offices in San Francisco, New York and Seattle, we are collaborative business partners with some of the world’s best brands including Alaska Airlines, Harmless Harvest, and Charles Schwab. Our creative approach to brand building is best described as “The Soul & Science of Storytelling” - communicating a brand’s purpose with ideas informed by data and rooted in human truths.

What is a Mekanista you ask? 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 family, respect and not taking ourselves too seriously.

Mekanism has been named to Ad Age’s “Agency A List” and twice to their “Best Places to Work”. We have also been listed on Creativity’s “The Creative 50” and have been recognized by Effie as one of the “Most Effective Independent Agencies”. We have been profiled by The New York Times, Fast Company and ABC’s Nightline.

Role

Mekanism’s Strategy Department is made up of creative-minded brand leaders who understand people as much as we understand business. Our belief is that Strategy is the practice of being openly obsessive to help brands and businesses become the most iconic version of themselves.We are part anthropologist, part business thinker, part planner, part new business insights creator and part trend watcher. It is our job to connect the dots between human behavior, creative development and business strategy.

The role of a Senior Brand Strategist is about taking ownership. They are a collaborative, fact-driven, creative thinker with great human and business instincts. This position is designed to be in support to, and in partnership with, the full spectrum of strategic and creative thinkers at the agency - from fellow Brand Strategists, to Social, Connections Strategists, to creative teams and client teams. You’re gonna get your money’s worth here! Our goal in the Brand Strategy department is to be the starting point for groundbreaking, culture-shaping, award-winning, 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 Senior Brand Strategist is responsible for managing multiple internal, new business and client projects and is expected to effectively collaborate with Mekanism’s internal teams. The Senior Brand Strategist will take the reins on projects large and small, for active clients and on new business opportunities. They will become the trusted voice on the strategy and the work, earning the respect and trust of their clients. They will collaborate actively with all other Mekanistas in true back-and-forth fashion. And mainly, they will work to develop strategies that are truly insightful, break a rule, and inspire teeth-gnashing, award-winning creative work.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Creative Brief Development

Partner with the Brand Management to transform client briefs into strong creative briefs for our creative leads, taking research, information and insights and distilling them down into a singular strategic idea for creative teams to operate from.
Support Strategy Director and Chief Strategy Officer in development of creative briefs and distillation of information into inspiration.
Mind melt with our Platforms team and Performance team to bring brand strategies and creative platforms to life through smart channel thinking with clear performance objectives.

Research and Insights

Primary Research: concept, write discussion guides, write and program surveys, segmentation studies, etc. as necessary; manage 3rd party vendors for the above.
Secondary Research: Find unique, unexpected insights and stories about our clients, our consumers and the way the world is changing around them; from reddit threads to annual reports to TikTok trends - get creative to find points of inspiration.
Synthesize the above into simple, actionable, inspirational strategies that our creative team “push off” of and our clients can clearly understand.

Brand Strategy Leadership

For select clients, lead all high-level, long-term brand strategy and evolution, medium-term communications and campaign planning and shorter-term engagement strategies to accomplish communication objectives.
Develop opportunities for proactive brand workshops to evolve client thinking, brand positioning/purpose and align on business/campaign goals.
Consult and connect with Platform & Performance teams on brand/social/sales analytics conversations, ensuring our work is always aligned with the metrics of our clients.

Grow Strategy Offering

Proactively work with Business Management Dept. to analyze our client’s businesses and needs and recommend revenue-driving opportunities for strategic projects; develop proposals (with Brand Managers) for the work, including processes, tools, deliverables and timeframes.
Run research and strategy projects in partnership with Strategy Director including (but not limited to): competitive analysis, Brand DNA creation, positioning pyramids, brand tone of voice/ verbal identity and Brand Book creation.

Help Make 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

Embody the Mekanism Values

Believe in bold
Bring your weird
Practice optimism
Have each other’s backs
Pursue what’s next
Give a sh*t

Core Requirements

You must be curious, confident, and articulate, as well as have excellent instincts 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 think of yourself as openly obsessive, nerdy even, with a passion for creativity, culture, understanding how people think/interact, brands, and problem solving.
You should have, but not be constricted by, a process for building brands and finding insights.
You must have excellent instincts both broadly across industries and deeply within any given capability or function.
You should have 4-6 years of relevant advertising/marketing experience. Graduate degree in communications, advertising, brand planning or business a plus.

Salary: $90,000

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