Brand Marketing Strategist

UNC-Chapel Hill•Chapel Hill, NC

About The Position

Reporting to the Director of Marketing Strategy, the Brand Marketing Strategist is a strategic and execution-focused member of the University Communications and Marketing team responsible for developing, managing and evaluating integrated marketing campaigns that advance Carolina’s institutional priorities, strengthen the University’s brand and engage priority audiences. The position plays a lead role in moving campaigns from insight and strategy through creative development, activation, execution and measurement. The role also provides experienced marketing counsel to campus partners as needed. The position develops campaign strategies, briefs, channel plans, timelines, budgets and measurement frameworks; coordinates cross-functional teams and external partners; and ensures campaigns are executed cohesively across paid, owned and earned channels. A key responsibility is the ideation and execution of brand activations that bring Carolina’s brand campaigns to life through experiences, events, partnerships, content opportunities and other audience-facing moments. The strategist identifies opportunities to extend campaign platforms beyond traditional advertising, develops activation concepts, coordinates production and partners, and evaluates results to inform future work. The position requires strong judgment, initiative, project leadership, creative problem-solving and the ability to manage complex campaigns with multiple stakeholders, deadlines and dependencies.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience developing and managing integrated marketing campaigns from strategy and concept development through execution, optimization and measurement.
Ability to translate institutional goals, audience insights and brand strategy into clear campaign strategies, creative briefs, activation concepts, channel plans and actionable work.
Strong understanding of the full marketing mix across paid, owned and earned channels, including digital, social, content, experiential and partnership-based marketing.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex campaigns and coordinate cross-functional teams, creative resources, vendors, agencies and other partners.
Strong creative and strategic thinking skills, including the ability to ideate compelling brand activations and translate concepts into executable plans.
Exceptional project management, organization, prioritization and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent campaigns and deadlines.
Ability to establish campaign objectives, key performance indicators and measurement approaches; analyze results; and use data and audience insights to recommend optimization and future strategy.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to present recommendations, facilitate discussions and build productive relationships with senior leaders and a wide range of stakeholders.
Ability to provide strategic marketing counsel, manage expectations, identify risks and opportunities, and exercise sound judgment in a complex, decentralized organization.
Ability to work effectively in a fast-changing digital and media environment and adapt strategies based on audience behavior, emerging channels, cultural trends and campaign performance.

Nice To Haves

Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in integrated marketing, brand management, advertising, communications or a related discipline.
Experience leading multi-channel brand or institutional campaigns, preferably within higher education, health care, nonprofit, government or another complex organization.
Experience developing and executing experiential marketing, brand activations, events, partnerships, pop-up experiences or other audience-facing campaign extensions.
Experience managing external agencies, creative partners, vendors and production resources, including budgets, scopes of work and deliverables.
Experience managing a portfolio of internal clients, campus partners, organizational accounts or complex stakeholder groups.
Experience with project management systems, digital marketing platforms, campaign analytics and reporting tools.
Familiarity with the opportunities and challenges of marketing for a large public research university.

Responsibilities

Develop, manage and evaluate integrated marketing campaigns that advance institutional priorities, strengthen the University’s brand and engage priority audiences.
Lead campaigns from insight and strategy through creative development, activation, execution and measurement.
Provide experienced marketing counsel to campus partners.
Develop campaign strategies, briefs, channel plans, timelines, budgets and measurement frameworks.
Coordinate cross-functional teams and external partners.
Ensure campaigns are executed cohesively across paid, owned and earned channels.
Ideate and execute brand activations that bring brand campaigns to life through experiences, events, partnerships, content opportunities and other audience-facing moments.
Identify opportunities to extend campaign platforms beyond traditional advertising.
Develop activation concepts, coordinate production and partners, and evaluate results to inform future work.
Manage complex campaigns with multiple stakeholders, deadlines and dependencies.