Senior Brand Strategist

The RY vision is to help create belief in business. We do this by providing communication solutions for our clients which marry evidence and inspiration to meet their objectives.

The role of the strategy team is to provide the evidence and the insights required to ensure our work is best placed to deliver that belief. This particular role requires expertise in branding, senior enough to lead our clients through effective and efficient processes to help them with their purpose, positioning, architecture, identity and messaging. As a senior voice in branding, the role also demands an active contribution to thought leadership and marketing.

Responsibilities

Branding (primary focus)

You will lead the strategy on key branding projects. Split by our delivery framework, this includes:

1. Initiate: Helping project management scope out the strategic elements of the task and assign time and resources to it. This is ultimately the responsibility of Project Management but your input will be crucial to ensuring we are able to deliver the work on budget and on time.
2. Discover: Leading the research phase and getting under the skin of the challenge by interrogating the client’s business and brand; the context (what’s going on in the sector); the customers and other key audiences, and the competition. In leading the Discover phase, you are also responsible for defining the brand platform (purpose / proposition / personality) and for working with the creative team on the creative process to identify the insight and write the creative brief.
3. Explore: Tasks here include working with creatives to identify the big idea that can drive the brand across every experience all audiences have of it. You should be able to understand the whole communications universe the brand inhabits and be able to advise on how the brand can make the biggest impact through both internal and external channels including paid, owned and earned media.
4. Define: You may be required to author the core brand story, devise messaging matrices and advise on tone of voice.

Other disciplines

• As well as leading on branding projects, you will need to be able to contribute significantly to one or two other disciplines such as Employee Experience or Campaigns.
• We also require a high degree of digital literacy for this role, as a deep understanding of how branding and core ideas translate across digital platforms is essential. This includes helping shape cohesive brand experiences across websites, social media, and motion design – ensuring that every digital touchpoint brings the brand to life in a compelling and impactful way.

Pitching

• You will be expected to lead or co-lead branding pitches that present themselves. We have a tried and trusted pitching strategy, ‘Pitch 2 Win’, which you will need to be a strong advocate for.
• You will also be expected to contribute to multi-discipline pitches. For instance, we often pitch for brand / digital opportunities, or employee experience / sustainability briefs.
• We often present our pitches internally at ‘RY connected’ sessions, win or lose, to help the business understand what works, what doesn’t and any other key learnings. You will on occasion be asked to lead these meetings.

Writing

• We also need the Senior Strategist to be a compelling writer, to be able to draft brand narratives and messaging to a high degree of proficiency. Having a flair for copywriting could also mean taking on more creative writing challenges for campaigns, brand activations and corporate narratives.

Research & analysis

• Originate, brief and manage primary research engagements to either serve client projects or to build the reputation of RY. You should be comfortable running focus groups and conducting 1-2-1 interviews.
• Work with a range of research and other agencies (such as media) to ensure that a project is grounded in evidence and that the parameters are set for success.
• Champion measurement across your work and persuade clients to embrace a spirit of continual improvement across all their projects.

Planning and strategy

• Stand as a recognised leader when it comes to the creative process, able to help others on their journey to master insight mining and application of the nested strategy.
• Write and run truly inspiring creative briefing sessions to ensure all participants feel excited and inspired to put their best feet forward in delivering amazing work.
• Be able to compile insightful and accurate portraits of key audiences and their needs and attitudes pertinent to your work.

Subject matter expertise

• Build and maintain a strong reputation in the market as a leader in branding through the thought leadership you lead and contribute to.
• Keep abreast of key issues and trends in the world of branding and help your clients adapt to them as required.
• Understand in depth the key issues, challenges and opportunities facing branding in the sectors you work in for your clients.

Communications

• Be an expert storyteller, able to hold a reader or audience’s attention in both word and voice across multiple channels.
• Be able to know how to sell a new branding project to key stakeholders and then help your clients maximise the impact of the brand at launch.
• Be able to write compelling presentations in PowerPoint and / or InDesign.

Entrepreneurialism

• Work alongside client management to drive effective client planning, bringing clients into the process wherever possible.
• Design and manage great client inspiration meetings, adept at using tools like Miro and populating them with multi-media.
• Bring clients together with other key voices in their sectors to explore opportunities.
• Start to explore how our approaches might be productised to improve profitability and effectiveness.

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