Senior Creative Strategist, Global

Karla Otto is a renowned public relations and communications agency with offices across 15 locations in the UK, EMEA, US and Asia. Established in 1982 by Karla Otto herself, the agency has since grown to become a global leader in luxury brand PR and events.

With offices in major fashion capitals such as Milan, London, New York, and Los Angeles, Karla Otto represents some of the most prestigious fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands in the industry.

In 2017, Karla Otto and K2 merged to form The Independents, a global group of agencies for industry leaders across luxury and lifestyle. Currently this group comprises of 17 agencies: Bureau Betak & Bureau Future, Bureau Beatrice, Karla Otto, K2, The Qode, Lefty, Prodject and CTZAR, Atelier LUM, INCA Productions, Atelier Athem, Kennedy, Sunshine, Kitten Production, Kitty Events and Lucien Pages Communication

Our network of expert strategists, designers, planners and publicists work tirelessly to deliver exceptional results and establish long-term partnerships with our clients. We are passionate about the world of fashion, beauty, and luxury, with everyone bringing their unique expertise and insights to the table. We are driven by a shared commitment to excellence and a deep understanding of the ever-evolving industry landscape.

To help support our future growth as an agency, we are looking for a Senior Creative Strategist to join our team based in our London office.

The Senior Creative Strategist, Global will be a member of Karla Otto’s integrated global team comprising experts in strategy, creative, talent, experiences, and communications who work with clients in the luxury fashion, beauty, hospitality, design, and lifestyle industries. This creative and strategic individual will be highly collaborative and required to build strong relationships across multiple departments to leverage all Karla Otto divisions.

The right candidate will also be responsible for the creative production of brand experiences, including ideating, planning, and executing engaging and innovative projects such as influencer trips, immersive events, and unique activations. These experiences should resonate with target audiences and generate significant brand impact, both online and offline.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic and creative thinker with a sharp visual eye who has strong copywriting skills and extensive experience creating pitch decks. They will never be short on ideas and enjoy working collaboratively across various teams and functions. They will be skilled in creating impressive pitch decks in response to client briefs and RFPs and enjoy packaging and selling in their ideas, verbally and visually. With the relevant teams, they will also be required to implement and execute certain projects to a very high standard, delivering brilliant work that generates value for both our clients and the agency.

The successful candidate will be a well-rounded marketer who is both creative and analytical and has strong experience in social media and brand communications. A strong passion for and knowledge of current global digital trends is essential, as well as an interest in fashion, communities, talent, the wider cultural/social landscape, and complementary verticals (i.e., music, art, etc.). They will be tasked with creating concepts and branded content for various platforms and programming offline spaces to drive buzz online.

Client Focus

• Lead pitches, answering client RFPs, and winning new business.
• Brilliant articulation of concepts in visual, written, and verbal form.
• Work with the supporting team to ideate and concept ideas that execute a brand’s vision and successfully deliver it to their target audiences and growth targets, including searching and screening for relevant influencers against brief guidelines and commercial targets, and commissioning/negotiating terms for talent to execute branded content.
• Lead brand-appropriate strategies, including the targeting and positioning of brand(s), channel selection, and syndication/engagement tactics.
• Deliver accurate budgets required for the execution of proposed projects and manage expenditure accordingly.
• Be able to adapt and drive working processes and workflows depending on the client to ensure success.
• Demonstrate the value of programs and review and report on the effectiveness of campaigns in an effort to maximize results and provide key future learnings to continually optimize CPM, impressions, etc.
• Liaise closely with internal and external teams, proactively managing workflow and resolving issues, reacting to client and consumer feedback, etc.
• Remain ahead of all news and developments in brand marketing and communication strategy to advise clients on new opportunities and emerging strategies, as well as competitors and opportunities relevant to the digital and luxury space.
• Strong attention to detail and numerical proficiency, e.g., overseeing administrative tasks like invoicing and collaborating with the Karla Otto finance team.
• Lead the creative production of brand experiences, including conceptualising, planning, and executing innovative events, influencer trips, and activations that align with client goals and deliver significant brand impact.

Internal Focus

• Win internal trust, and build and develop long term relationships with local market teams in Karla Otto’s global network of offices.
• Collaborate with Karla Otto’s Influencer & Celebrity teams, and group partner Lefty, on influencer/talent services and strategy.
• Collaborate with Karla Otto’s Insights team to integrate inights into client strategies, and encourage data-driven approaches.
• Focus on new business acquisition, with a large focus on creating pitch decks, pitching, developing scope of works, etc.
• Development and day-to-day management of the supporting team
• Stay ahead of emerging trends, content styles, platform advances and share learnings
• Strong network and/or knowledge of global creatives across all industry vertials from brand, production and talent.
• Analyze brand marketing and communication campaigns and translate results into recommendations and plans for revising social media, content marketing, and social advertising campaigns
• Lead research around trends in social media tools, applications, channels, design and strategy
• Support implementation of the agency’s own mission statement
• Liaise closely with internal and teams, proactively managing workflow and resolving issues, reacting to client and consumer feedback etc.
• Support teams across the agency’s various international locations within a creative and copywriting capacity when needed
• Manage, support and mentor junior team members including helping on administrative tasks where needed
• Support Senior Director, Senior Vice President and other senior team members, where required
• Oversee administrative tasks where required.

KEY ATTRIBUTES

• Past agency / client experience is required
• A minimum of 6 years of direct experience is required
• Fluent in English and additional languages are advantageous
• Excellent copywriting, communication and presentation skills
• Proficient in both the creative and analytical side of marketing, able to demonstrate why their ideas are analytically sound
• Excellent working knowledge of social platforms, predominantly Instagram and TikTok as well as emerging platforms
• High level execution skills and meticulous attention to detail, both aesthetically and organisationally
• Natural planner and organiser
• Collaborative team player but with the ability to work autonomously to deliver to brief and on-time
• A positive, can-do attitude who can work under pressure and likes to solve problems
• A creative, innovative thinker with an open attitude and eagerness to learn new things
• A real team player who will excel in a dynamic and fast-paced environment
• Ability to juggle multiple projects and work to stringent deadlines
• Leadership, coaching and management of junior team members
• Good listening and diplomacy skills
• Strong knowledge of and experience with Influencer Marketing monitoring / tracking tools
• Proficiency in InDesign, Keynote, PowerPoint
• Strong numerical proficiency, including the use of Excel