THE AGENCY

We build brands that lead culture by understanding the future of sports, esports and gaming fandom.

Our entire agency process is built on real-time listening with the new breed of fan. We do this by collaborating with our global network of over 11,000 fans. We call this Fan Intelligence®. You can learn more about Fan Intelligence® with a short film here

We pride ourselves on listening better than anyone and our purpose “To Make the World Listen” is fundamental in everything we do.

2021 was our fifth consecutive year of growth, we have long term partnerships with the likes of PlayStation, Sony Electronics, New Balance, and Coca-Cola.

OUR CULTURE…

We are dedicated to making Ear to the Ground an amazing place to work where people grow, develop and thrive. We pride ourselves on our dynamic and exciting culture, excellent support of staff and fantastic benefits package. We have made it our mission to lead the way in being an inspiring, future-thinking, creative agency and are invested in our people because they are the ones that will make that happen.

THE ROLE…

Job Title: Senior Strategy Director / Director of Strategy
Hub: Strategy
Location: Manchester

We operate a ‘Working from Anywhere’ policy so encourage applications from candidates anywhere in the UK. HQ is in Manchester UK, and depending on your permanent location you’d be required to be in the Manchester office 1 - 2 days a week.

Organisation Structure
Reports to: CEO
Responsible for: Strategy Hub

Job Purpose

Driving cultural relevance for some of the biggest and most ambitious brands in the world

Build & develop a world class team of Strategists, Analysts and Digital & Social experts. Lead, develop & deliver on all insight, planning & strategy projects across agency clients. Create best in class creative briefing processes. Ensure Fan Intelligence® is the central part of the insight, strategy & creative process for every brief.

Main Responsibilities and Activities

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Build and lead a world class strategy department with specialist teams

• Oversee the management, scopes & briefing of all insight & strategy projects

• Management of the team to ensure they deliver industry leading insight and strategy

• Maintain and develop process & communication with wider team

INSIGHT & TRENDS

• Lead the team on curating world class insights from our Fan Intelligence® model and wider tools to feed into all client work

• Work with Fan Intelligence team to develop best practice research & insight methods

• Oversee development market trend reports in line with client retainers

STRATEGY CREATION & DELIVERY

• Oversee the delivery of all client strategy briefs & responses from projects ranging from global brand strategies through to more tactical campaign strategy

• Develop best practice model for creative briefing

• Lead team on creative brief writing & delivery to other departments

• Lead a team of Digital & Social experts responsible for the development of communication strategy as well as campaign delivery

• Integrate a collaborative Fan Intelligence approach at all stages

ROAD TESTING & DEVELOPMENT

• Oversee concept testing and refinement within Fan Intelligence network

• Develop process & tools for concept testing

MEASUREMENT

• Oversee Evaluation team

• Continually seek to prove effectiveness of the work and of Fan Intelligence

• Work with CEO to define and roll out a successful value based pricing model

PROJECT PLANNING, RESOURCING & PROCESSES

• Work to continually optimise agency and hub processes

• Review, refine & agree all department briefs

• Own & manage resource of department

Skills & Experience:

Must have:

• 10 years experience in related positions in Branding, Marketing or Advertising Agency

• Experience in the development of brand positioning as well as campaign development

• Experience and understanding of the development of Digital & Social campaign development

• Understanding of measurement and how to prove effectiveness cases

• A strategic thinker with the ability to instil confidence in clients and across internal teams

• Passionate about sports / gaming / music desired

• Must be an excellent verbal and written communicator, comfortable preparing proposals, presentations and speaking in front of groups

• Creative problem solver

• Powerful and concise storytelling skills

• Excellent leadership skills & experience in developing team members

• Passion for managing and mentoring junior members of the team

Hours: Full Time