VP Strategy & Planning

M BOOTH CAREERS

Who We Are:

At M Booth, we are a culture-first communications agency that attracts the best people and the best brands to a workplace that’s alive with courage, ideas, respect, and humanity. We are relentlessly passionate about our clients and their business, whether that means staying at the forefront of the digital and social evolution, sharpening our earned storytelling skills, or unleashing game-changing insights that result in campaigns that win in the marketplace.

We are a hybrid workforce and believe that inspiration, relevance, and leadership are about how you do it, not where you do it from.  We continue to be a work from anywhere agency and are leaning into a hub model in NYC and around the country. We encourage all our employees to “Be IRL” – this code stands for being Inspired Relevant Leaders. Now, more than ever, our interactions and our relationships are mission critical to our community and our success. They build a culture that enables all of us to do great things and grow together. We invite you into our world of creativity, ideation, and communication. Come Be Inspired…come work with us at M Booth.

M Booth has an immediate opportunity for a VP Strategy & Planning to join our growing Creative team. A few things to know before applying:

We are seeking a dynamic Creative Strategist who thrives at the intersection of culture and innovation. This role demands an individual with a keen understanding of current trends, cultural nuances, and audience insights, paired with the ability to develop strategic solutions that resonate deeply. The ideal candidate will be an imaginative thinker, adept at transforming cultural moments into compelling narratives that drive engagement and brand loyalty. If you are passionate about exploring the pulse of contemporary culture and possess the strategic brilliance to elevate creative initiatives, we want you on our team!

STRATEGY/PLANNING

• Partner with account leadership to support the overall management of client business relationships including strategy development, creation of briefs, briefing teams, campaign performance monitoring and ongoing client communications. 
• Possess an inherent interest in consumer behavior and examine the way that brands communicate in order to find the intersection of brands, culture, and creativity. 
• Collect, analyze, and interpret information from a variety of sources: market data, quantitative research data, cultural and social trends monitoring, qualitative interviews/conversations, observational research. 
• Work with the creative and account management team to ensure all client deliverables are flawlessly executed and on strategy. 
• Encourage proactivity, creativity and collaboration between the strategy and creative teams to ensure the sharing of work and innovative thinking.
• Orchestrate brand planning, strategic planning, and analytical activity in concert with the creative and account management teams to establish disruptive ideas.
• Truly collaborate with groups of clients, account managers and creative in the development of inspiring creative briefs that translate insights into innovative and strategic campaign strategies.

• Oversee the crafting and evaluation of primary and secondary research plans to segment audiences, and understand the cultural, societal, business and media context impacting a business to uncover business insights
• Leads engagement with confidence and commitment to high quality, data-driven strategic brand recommendations, tactical plans and programs

• 10+ years of strategy experience at creative agencies and/or specialist agencies (experiential/pr/digital, partnerships etc.) or brand-side or maybe both!
• 6+ years of senior leadership experience over a wide portfolio of diverse clients
• Substantial experience developing brand strategy across multiple categories
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to develop a clear, compelling POV that sells strategy (internally and externally).
• The soft skills of strategy: emotional intelligence, curiosity, empathy, and collaboration.
• A strong portfolio of breakthrough strategies that cross categories and drive results. Experience as both a maker of great work and an instigator of it.
• Extensive experience with a variety of research tools and methodologies.

• You are a champion of creative excellence, you know good work when you see it, and have spent time working closely with copywriters, designers, and art directors
• Have a natural instinct to identify integrated marketing opportunities with the ability to influence cross functionally

• A seasoned brand builder and client-facing planning lead with a strong track record of managing complex accounts and pitches
• They possess exceptional strategic storytelling skills and the ability to guide insight generation and campaign development
• Serves as consultant to client on market research design, methodologies, and analysis
• Strong strategic voice, driving clarification, direction, and leadership of internal and/or client meetings
• Lead strategic planning responsibilities on multiple brands, integrated accounts, with autonomy and proficiency
• Partner with other agency departments to ensure pull through of insights and strategy
• Leads full suite of brand strategy deliverables (positioning, bedrock, creative briefs/briefings, message strategy, tactical planning) 
• Market research expertise and consulting; drive insight mining/ideation to uncover strategic opportunities and inform and strengthen creative
• Expert in planning tools and core competencies, driving proper use; positioning, insight generation and creative brief writing
• Leadership of new business; immersion insight gathering, storytelling, strategy development and tactic pull through

CREATIVE

• You cut through to the core of a complex business problem, bringing truthful insights & fresh, creative approaches
• You are a modern storyteller, fluently speaking the language of integrated, multi-platform, campaigns
• You’re intuitive, and can seamlessly adjust to multiple audiences & varied priorities from agency & client leadership teams
• You speak the language of decks, are an enviable storyteller, and memorable, charismatic presenter
• Understand the value of strategic insights, experiences and storytelling to create and sell your teams’ ideas
• Deftly navigate multiple internal disciplines & cross agency teams
• Appreciate and advocate for craft across capabilities, including production and tech

• Lead teams’ conceptual and strategic thinking across multiple platforms
• Shape creative ideas & impactful presentations
• Inspire & direct creatives on a fast-moving business, giving actionable feedback and mentoring them to become their best
• Build trust with clients, understanding their business to find opportunities

What You’ll Bring:

• 10+ years of creative experience
• 6+ years experience as a creative lead
• Portfolio of advertising, video and social content work
• Ability to run photo and video shoots with small to large budgets
• Experience making creative that gets media coverage
• Creative conceptor
• Strong collaborator
• Category experience in internal comms and healthcare/CPG 
• Winning new business track record
• Fluent in digital
• Ability to make beautiful work across style guides for multiple clients
• Understanding of social platforms and how to drive engagement on these platforms
• Great with feedback and revisions
• NOTE: candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S

• In this role, you will work with our highly collaborative team of strategists, copywriters, art directors and CDs to co-create concepts and meet client demands
• Concepting and executing 360 campaigns
• Managing and mentor ad hoc creative teams
• Common projects include branding, ads, social content and PR activations
• Find and present cultural insights that inform your work
• Present your work to internal teams and external clients at all levels
• Manage your day to meet strict deadlines, and prioritize requests

What We’ll Bring:

Here are a few highlights of the benefits we offer at M Booth:

• A workplace that’s alive with courage, ideas, respect and humanity
• Professional growth and development programs to help advance your career
• Comprehensive health care and wellness plans for your entire family
• A 401(k) Savings Plan and Flexible Spending Accounts
• Paid holidays, Unlimited Paid Time Off (Personal, Sick, Vacation), and Summer Fridays
• Additional Perks: Family Leave, Well-Being Programs, and Commuter Benefits

        Salary: $140,000 - $150,000

Our Flexible Work Policy: 

We believe that our best work happens in a hybrid working environment. If you are in the NYC (or commutable surrounding distance) hub we want to see you in person 2 days a week. That could mean in our office, in our client's office, on the road with them or attending an industry event. 

For those outside the NYC hub, you will be asked to be in person too. Examples of this may include client meetings, events or team meetings. There will also be in person opportunities for you to connect with others who live in your hub to collaborate and work together. 

M Booth & Associates is an equal opportunity employer. All candidates will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

If you plan on working remotely, we can accept applicants from the following states:

Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington D.C.

M Booth & Associates is an equal opportunity employer. All candidates will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity