Strategy Lead

Are you curious about human behaviour, and always looking for inspiration from a collection of sources beyond the norm? Do you wish to challenge the status quo and bring strategies to life in exceptional ways? Wavemaker UK is looking for a curious and provocative strategy partner to join our department. Wavemaker UK is experiencing exceptional growth, offering interesting brand challenges for strategists to take on, and bringing our ethos of Positive Provocation to all the unrivalled work that passes through our doors at Sea Containers.

We believe that there is no better time to be a strategist than today, and no better place to develop and grow in strategy than in Wavemaker. Media evolves, content shifts, and technology advances faster than ever before. From experience, we know that brands need solid plans and well-thought-out strategies that will grow their business amidst these changes. We also believe that you want to be part of these transformations, through your keen eye for details, your passion for creative work, and your desire to be involved in the story of growing brands.

In this role, you will drive strategic thinking across:

• Client Work: Own the comms strategy development for your client briefs, which includes identifying audiences, growth opportunities, building the cultural context, understanding the brand position amongst competitors, all to develop a differentiating comms strategy and media behaviour. Key role is to challenge conventional thinking and ensure we are answering the right problem, and that the business challenge is the one we should be answering. A strategy lead should be able to run workshops, brainstorms, liaise with creative agencies, PR agencies and any other agencies involved, as well as drive collaboration across teams to ensure your strategy comes to life.
• Pitches: Own and develop the comms strategy for the pitch brief, building a robust understanding of the audience, working with audience science to build any bespoke research (i.e. focus groups or otherwise), and ensuring the strategy comes through in activation and any big ideas.
• Thought leadership: Write thought leadership for the agency, attend conferences and talks, and network within the industry to have a finger on the pulse.
• Agency: Coach and mentor junior agency members who have a strategic nous. Make the work better by optimising ways we respond to briefs, the way we plan, the way we brainstorm ideas, etc. Encourage a culture of discussion and debate about the industry and culture at large, bringing outside inspiration in.
• Awards: Surface the award-winning work on your clients, and spearhead the storytelling for each entry, chasing after the results to make the entry as strong as possible.
• Team: Be engaged and involved in team meetings and initiatives, including participating in debates, brainstorms, and inspiration outings. Lean in and help on accounts needing resource during team absences or during client clashes.

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role, it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

• Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
• Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
• Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.

Core skills:

• Storytelling & Persuasion: The ability to develop a compelling narrative and use multiple storytelling techniques to sell in a strategy, idea, media argument, etc., whether from scratch or taking the existing components from teams and building a compelling and exciting red thread end to end.
• Marketing & Media Industry Theory and Thinking: Having knowledge and understanding of the core Media and broader Marketing principles as well as the key literature and thinking that guides the best practices in Media and Comms.
• Creativity: The ability to weave creativity into every aspect - whether it’s thinking differently about a problem, bringing new combinations of data, insight or even media formats together, and pushing the boundaries of the thinking and the ideas to take brands to a new place.
• Critical Thinking: The objective analysis and evaluation of a business, media or human challenge in order to identify insights and form a point of view.

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

We believe the best work happens when we’re together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That’s why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location.