Group Head of Brand and Communications Strategy

Company Description

About Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe, known for its world-renowned creativity, best in class technology, digital and consulting expertise, is the world’s third largest communications group in the world. With more than 80,000 people in over 100 countries, the Groupe has four Solution hubs: Creative with Publicis Communications, Media with Publicis Media, Digital business transformation with Publicis Sapient, and Health & Wellbeing with Publicis Health.

Since 2014 and the acquisition of Sapient, Publicis Groupe has undergone a profound transformation by scaling a new model connecting data, creativity and technology. We have continued on that journey with the 2019 acquisition of Epsilon to further scale our data led offering and provide true momentum to our clients own transformation.

This model, with a country led approach, is called the “Power of One” and gathers all the capabilities of the Groupe under one roof, putting clients at the core of the organisation.

It breaks down the silos between Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Publicis Sapient, and Publicis Health making them work seamlessly and efficiently to help clients transform marketing and business at scale.

Never has our vision and drive for Power of One been as demonstrable as in the role of the Global and Regional Client lead. The Publicis Groupe is a brand led organisation powered by data driven global Practices and has our clients at the absolute core of our business. The role of a RCL is essential for driving growth, for understanding and leading our clients own transformation through delivering the true scale our agencies capabilities. A RCL sets the vision, builds a culture of collaboration and curates a team of experts from our whole Groupe to deliver on that promise. They are true leaders with responsibility for revenue, profitability and leading the relationship with our clients. We could not be more committed to delivering excellence and we articulate our approach to that as the following;

Clients Come First; The entire Publicis Groupe transformation was designed to put clients at the center of all we do. Their needs and objectives drive the solutions we provide in order to help them win and grow.

We are Seamless; We have created the powerful role of the Regional Client Leader. One person who acts as one point of access and one point of accountability to tap an 80,000-deep pool of talent - free from silos, legacy, and convention.

We are Frictionless; We have unified P&Ls and removed all operational barriers that enable true collaboration.

We are Modular; The core benefit of our new organization is not only in the depth and range of capability but, more importantly, in our ability to configure situationally; the ability to configure around individual client needs and an open architecture to plug & play world class partners when needed. Modularity is critical as it enables a future proof way for this organization support innovation now and keep pace the changes that show no sign of stopping.

We are United; By fusing together our creative, intelligence, and technology expertise, we are able to provide clients with transformative ideas and consumer experiences, unlike any other agency or holding company in the marketplace.

Job Description

• Develop, write/craft and present inspiring strategies and narratives that will elevate the creative work and deliver on the business objectives.
• Partner with business leaders and creative directors to create work that delivers on brand and business objectives. 

• Take strategic lead and responsibility for all our brands. Be a strategic lead for the junior level strategists and a coach and guide for seniors and directors.
• Build relationships with clients to ensure we are seen as a strategic partners and brand custodians.
• Build relationships and visibility beyond the agency. Write articles, give talks, share opinion. Hone special skills and specific perspectives on branding and communication.
• Inspire, mentor and supervise the strategists within your teams. Ensure their development as they learn the fundamentals.
• Partner with creative and business leaders to lead the strategic process through brief generation, research design, implementation and analysis, intelligence support, etc.

• Create and moderate workshops to generate brand strategy and innovative brand behaviour.
• Contribute to “intellectual property” of agency through documenting and sharing specific projects and initiatives.
• Take a proactive role in improving the department 
• Produce / craft award case studies for effectiveness and creativity competitions

Qualifications

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU AS A DIRECTOR:

• Lead by example
• Foster an environment built on opportunity, trust, respect and transparency
• Make sure your team/department goals are aligned with our mission and clients’ business
• Foster cross-departmental relationships
• Meet with your team/department on a regular basis

• Provide regular, consistent feedback (including reviews) and clear expectations to your team
• Hire and develop people who embody the spirit of Challenge, Collaboration, Culture and Compassion

FUNDAMENTALS 

Research:

• Effectively manage all research relating to the audience, brand and media channels.

• Understand the audience, the brand and new media opportunities better than anyone else.
• Monitor cultural and social trends, and their impact on consumers' attitudes, behaviour and perceptions, using a variety of market and research data.
• Master consumer databases, conduct consumer focus groups, and work with intelligence, data tools to unearth insights that will lead to inspiring strategies and brilliant creative.
• Able to turn research data and insights into compelling stories Develop innovative ways to research the brand, category, culture and audience
• Knowledgeable with marketing terminology, common KPIs, consumer purchase funnels, and navigation within cleint company environment

Brand/ Relationship:

• Help create and steward the belief and behaviour of the brands
• Have a strong understanding of the brand positioning and ensure that key stakeholders including creative teams, account teams, and even clients have just as strong an understanding.
• Establish good relations with creatives, brand leaders, media partners, and clients, as well as planners on other accounts.
• Strong team player whose opinion is valued and respected by creatives and brand leaders at the agency, and by clients in both the marketing and research areas.

Strategic/Creative Briefs: 

• Craft inspiring briefs and briefings to lead creative to the unique and breakthrough solutions
• Ensure all briefs within business unit are inspirational and rigorous
• Provide the creative team with a clearly defined brief that contains concise information on the product, audience and strategy enabling them to develop creative ideas that may be applied to a variety of media channels that will promote the idea most effectively.

Communication/Presentations:

• Compelling presenter and genius storyteller
• Asker of sharp questions. Ability to field questions, comments and criticisms concisely and productively
• Effectively communicate their ideas, POVs, and strategies to clients and the team
• Good eye for detail and strong grammar skills, business writing skills
• Coherent and clear written and verbal presentation skills

• Unflappable when things get tricky

Effectiveness:

• Be clear about the objectives and KPIs for all work we do for clients
• Analyse and interpret customer response in order to evaluate the effectiveness of work
• Create and maintain a dynamic model for how the work we do has an impact in the marketplace

• Use effectiveness to continually improve output

Digital:

• Understand social and digital ecosystem; how consumers use each platform and how a brand should participate in an authentic way
• Navigate digital analytics and help us tell more persuasive stories with the facts

REQUIREMENTS

• 10+ years experience in advertising, marketing or related field demonstrating creative work or qualitative research and/or equivalent combination of education and experience required
• Evidence of success in developing brands and delivering them to market
• Excellent interpersonal, organization and written communication skills.
• Proven leadership abilities
• Power-user skills in Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Keynote and Google Apps.
• Familiarity with wide range of research and intelligence sources

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Additional Information

Our employee benefits package comprises the following:

👉 Generous leave entitlements, including birthday leave, rest day and family care leave.

👉 Office closure for World Mental Health Day 10th October.

👉 Additional Company closure for all 4 major festive Celebrations

👉 Cashless comprehensive medical coverage, including access to a panel clinic, dental and optical care.

👉 Life and personal accident insurance and group hospitalization and surgery.

👉 A hybrid working schedule and with Friday disconnects.

👉 Rest Relax & Recharge - office closure last week of December every year.

👉 Phone Allowance