Associate Director, Strategy

PUBLICIS GROUPE•El Segundo, CA

66d•$105,165 - $130,290•Hybrid

About The Position

This person will be the voice for car racing enthusiast culture in the agency. You must be in love with cars, going fast, getting your hands dirty under the hood and be a regular at Cars and Coffee events. You will be ingrained into the different subcultures of car culture, especially Drifting, NASCAR and Rally. Additionally, you will be an inspirational thinker and fearless collaborator who's comfortable sharing POVs and leading strategic conversations with internal teams and clients. We're looking for someone who is comfortable taking the initiative to create new ideas within the car enthusiast communities, be the lead on projects, and elevate the strategic thinking and creative work.

Requirements

6+ years of experience working in advertising, marketing, brand building, or other transferable experience with relevant skill sets (i.e., journalism, sociology, etc.).
Hybrid role with three days in office (Tuesday-Thursday)
Role is based in Los Angeles, CA or Dallas, TX
Proven thought-leadership and ability to contribute strategic thinking
Should either be an auto enthusiast or be willing to immerse in auto enthusiasm
Experience with qual/quant research methods (tracking studies, focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic research - any type of interviewing skills) with the ability to identify true insights
Strong verbal and non-verbal communication skills
Presentation skills (written and verbal) should be best in class
Innate curiosity to want to understand people, culture and the world, overall, and, most importantly, a burning desire to dig into what makes them tick
Must possess open-mindedness to new ideas and ways of looking at things
Ability to collaborate effectively in cross-team settings

Responsibilities

Smart & innovative ways to understand communities deeply
A deep understanding of research.
Help teams turn consumer research and culture into powerful insights.
Identify new tools and ways to use AI to uncover insights & cultural trends.
Be continuously tapped into brands' communities - tracking culture, trends, and identifying opportunities for strategy and creative teams to activate.
Be a trusted partner and source of inspiration for creative teams through relationships more than presentations.
Be able to turn the complex into a story and present it to clients, paving the way for better work to be sold.
Love strategy. Love briefs. Love briefings.
Love writing and telling stories.
Seek ways to tell the simplest, most meaningful and relevant stories possible.
Challenge and elevate strategic thinking and approaches.
Ability to collaborate effectively with media, data, and comms planning teams.
Proactively identify opportunities and ways to bring thought leadership to agency teams and clients with regards to brand, messaging, and consumer and cultural trends.
Sometimes the most creative thing you will do on a given day is remove a barrier or figure out how to go around it. And that's ok. Creativity comes in many forms.
Strategic management of all creative projects, from brief to execution
Need to be able to spin a lot of plates at the same time.
Should be comfortable leading projects with minimal supervision