Associate Director, Strategic Planning

MMGY Global•Overland Park, KS

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

At MMGY Global, we believe nothing shapes your view of the world like travel. So every day, we share our clients’ stories from a perspective that inspires people to see the world differently. Our personalized service and strategy connect media, consumers and influencers across the globe, taking people to new places and changing their views for the better. At MMGY, we inspire people to go places. We have an immediate opening for a Associate Director, Strategic Planning, based in our Overland Park, KS office. The Associate Director, Strategic Planning serves as the voice and heart of the consumer, leading collaboration and communication across the integrated planning practice within MMGY. Partnering with the Account Management teams, they will translate research into insights and strategic guidance across a variety of clients, ultimately ensuring that tactical executions are tied directly to client goals and objectives. The Associate Director will also work with our Travel Intelligence research team to ensure client research is designed to achieve client objectives and leverage proprietary research to support insights. As a key leader of MMGY’s Strategic Planning practice, they will have a thorough understanding of industry trends, consumer behavior, and our clients’ vertical business. Internally, the Associate Director, Strategic Planning is responsible for inspiring cross-channel teams in strategic thinking to contribute to their client work. Additionally, they guide the training and career development of supporting strategists.

Requirements

8+ years of experience advertising or related field.
Thorough knowledge of integrated marketing channels including media, web, social media, PR, experiential, creative, analytics and CRM.
Ability to precisely balance creative and analytical thinking.
Intense curiosity and a desire to actively seek out and consume trends and data.
Ability to distill and analyze research, sees the big picture, and possesses a finely tuned eye for details.
Ability to clearly document large, complex ecosystems, noting connections between channels across various journey stages.
Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, verbally and in writing.
Strong presentation skills.
Results oriented, self-motivated and able to inspire others.
Ability to balance multiple priorities, develop and meet deadlines.
Ability to work both independently and as part of a team with a range of personalities.
Persuasive, diplomatic negotiator.
Strong work ethic and drive, reliable, energetic.
Smart business acumen with attention to facts and figures.
Demonstrates a high level of professionalism and respect.
Exhibits discretion with confidential information.
Proficient in Microsoft Office and Google business applications.

Nice To Haves

Some proficiency in Spanish (verbal and written) preferred.

Responsibilities

Translate client needs and desires into strong, focused strategic imperatives that will guide cross-channel strategic direction.
Stay abreast of travel industry trends and institutional dynamics as well as the larger cultural zeitgeist and be proactive in recommending key initiatives to pursue for relevant clients.
Synthesize and distill information from various data sources to mine key insights, driving the development of key strategic foundation artifacts including project and creative briefs.
Clearly and concisely communicate the common themes connecting current cultural and industry trends and seamlessly weave them with the aligning client and competitive brand values, resulting in a unique point-of-view to inspire cross-channel concepts.
Evaluate and filter all creative development through a strategic lens to ensure alignment with strategic direction.
Partner with Media and Social channel leads to map out seasonal plans and ensure coverage across priority audiences, messaging, imagery, and customer journey phases.
Serve as the connective tissue between cross-channel teams to ensure alignment of tactical efforts to strategic “north star”, facilitating channel planning brainstorms and documenting ecosystem changes as they develop.
Partners with cross-channel subject matter experts and Account Management leads to plan, facilitate, and execute ongoing client planning.
Assist in developing insightful and informative internal documentation providing cross-channel resources with a peek into key industry and cultural trends to spur proactive planning for clients and strengthen most valued partner relationships.
Work with department lead to establish Strategic Planning artifact templates and ensure that their purpose, content, and process are clearly understood across client teams.
Manage the professional growth and development of supporting Strategists, evaluating their work, listening to and addressing concerns, and setting and evaluating growth.