Barkley’s Comms Planning is part of Barkley’s integrated Strategy department, paired with the General Strategy and Business Intelligence teams. Your most important deliverable is ensuring that ideas flow from the brand to the audience in ways that signal a brand’s understanding of their audience and will have the greatest impact.You are responsible for overarching communications plans that are focused on user behaviors. This includes developing prescriptive behavioral and platform insights, ideas, and opportunities for creative, media planning, social planning, email, and brand actions. You’ll spend some time in research tools (Simmons, RivalIQ, etc) as well as working with our integrated strategy partners (General Strategy and Business Development) to supplement data by building surveys.The Senior Comms Planning Strategist is the voice of audiences’ behaviors and leader of opportunities. You understand the importance and implications of what the research tells us about our audience’s comms preferences and can turn that into a communications framework as well as pin-pointed actions and ideas.Finally but equally important, you will help our department continue to mature by proactively bringing ideas and solutions for growth. As a newer discipline within Barkley, we are continuing to formalize our processes and deliverables. Optimism, focus, positivity, and persistence are essential.   You will report to either a director or VP, depending on the book of business.

You May be Right for this Role If

• You’ve been working in Brand Strategy and are looking to go deeper into Strategy specialty work
• You’re highly insightful: Able to look deeply at the client ask, trying to identify the ‘ask behind the ask’ and approach the challenge with optimistic alternative and solutions, when necessary
• You are proactive and motivated with a strong sense of urgency and desire to grow
• You are a systems thinker: You like to tinker and optimize the grand schematic of a campaign and its working parts
• You use research as a springboard for creative manifestations of ideas; flowing these ideas into the real world in ways defined audiences will find engaging and exciting
• You are curious and get excited about how everyday things and how media delivery channels can become ideas 
• You look beyond messaging; Your focus is often on demonstrating brand POVs via channel and platform opportunities
• You like to take a microscope to audiences and go deep on understanding how they consume and interact with brands
• You love to collaborate with brand strategists, creatives, media, and channel experts to inform and inspire how ideas live in the world
• You've mastered 1-2 channels or specialties (media, social, email, etc) and are looking to widen your aperture to impact holistic channel strategy and integration

Background 

• 4+ years of experience (agency or not) in strategy, social, PR, comms, CRM; This role will have a heavy emphasis on working closely with media planning and buying, creative directors, and social media teams. Cross-team experience is a plus. 
• Degree in marketing, communications, business, psychology, advertising, media, other

Job Description

Your primary focus will be creating insights from data, and turning those insights into creative channel opportunities and communications ideas. You help determine the where, when, and how communication ideas and their forms flow from brand to consumer.

Comms Planning works with our integrated strategy team, guiding and inspiring media and creative teams by focusing on:

• Insights: How people act, shop, communicate, daily
  Where, how, and when ideas show up. Paid, earned, owned. What’s in/out
• How people learn and flow through your brand and idea.
• CTAs, digital flows to drive conversion, measurement

Essential Duties

• Must exhibit a distinct POV for brands’ communications practices
• You lead multiple projects. 
• You have a tight POV and produce strong narratives 
• Have confident, strong presentation skills
• You must demonstrate autonomy on your deliverables while also being a forceful collaborator 
• Forge strong integrated working relationships with internal teams and external partners
• Grow Barkley business by being a valuable partner to clients and internal teams, hungrily looking for new scope opportunities with current clients while fulfilling scopes as written
• Co-own audience building with strategy partners and media
• Co-author Barkley’s integrated Strategy artifacts 
• Develop and own channel/comms ideas 
• Advocates for the role of comms planning in the bigger picture of Barkley processes and actively represents our team on large initiatives in place of upper management and leadership when they’re unavailable
• Contribute to Barkley’s internal marketing efforts
• May be called upon to contribute to and/or participate in new business pitches
• May/not eventually manage/lead a small team