Strategy Director
Location:12 Bishop's Bridge Rd, Greater, London W2 6AA
Reports to: Managing Partner
About DDB Remedy:
We're a bunch of creative, Intelligent, friendly, Interesting, Interested, diverse and happy people (and dogs). Surprising and delighting our clients and ourselves is what gets us out of bed In the morning.
We have a simple belief — Unexpected Works. Meaning that the best idea is the one you that you could never see coming. And the only way to get there is through genuine creativity. The kind of creativity that scares and excites us at the same time because it’s so different. We even get goosebumps just thinking about it. This kind of work takes guts, luckily, we’ve got plenty of that here.
We’re one of the leading Healthcare Communications agencies and our goal is simple, to improve people’s health and wellbeing. We develop strategic solutions, create identities, produce beautiful content, and create experiences for HCPs, patients, salesforces, and consumers across multiple channels.
We’re proud of what we do, creating unexpected work that makes a difference.
Our commitment:
DDB Remedy is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate individuality and diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment and a sense of belonging for all employees without regard to race, age, sex, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
Everyone has the right to be themselves. That’s why we cherish 4 important ‘freedoms’, that protect our rights to be creative, to experiment, to be who we are and to feel included and safe at work. These inform our every word, every action and every result, every day. They are Freedom from fear, Freedom to fail, Freedom from Chaos and Freedom to be.
For us, inclusivity and diversity aren’t “nice-to-have” – they’re central to our business strategy. The more inclusive we are, the more people feel they can bring their whole selves to work, the better our work will be.
We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities and for candidates in our application process. If you need assistance or adjustment due to a disability, please contact us.
About you:
About you. Firstly, you will be a roll your sleeves up, get stuck in, team first kind of person. You will not only uncover key insights on the audience but have insight too. You will bring confidence within the agency and to the client that you can not only make stuff happen – but define what needs to happen in the future. You will want to shape how the brand plan will deliver on the strategy today – and where we take the brand tomorrow.
You will be as comfortable asking clients ‘what if…’ as making sure that we make work that works. You find thinking in silos stifling and, while you will want your voice to be heard, arrogant lone wolf behaviours aren’t you.
You are brave – you will be happy to present your ideas and our ideas. But you will be a good listener too – to really understand the question behind the question
You’ll want a brilliant product whether that is a big creative idea, a content plan, a research discussion guide or a workshop output.
If you had a maxim for life it might be “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Position Summary:
- Leads on brand and communication planning across a group of assigned accounts
- Be a key point of contact for clients, actively lead in client discussions
- Produce and interrogate data from multiple sources and build a coherent argument to support the client business strategy
- Develop creative briefs and briefing to inspire best in class product
- Work closely with creative to co-create and evaluate to drive best creativity
- Have an informed enthusiasm for the possibilities opened by new technology and methods of communicating
- Depending on experience – may manage other strat team members
- Consideration will be given to those who have come up through content strategy route or brand pharma
Key Capabilities:
- Exceptional pharma and brand marketing knowledge which engenders trust and strong relationship with clients
- Ability to quickly find and synthesize key insights
- Ability to think creatively is a must, but also inspires and leads on new ways of doing things
- Finds opportunities and is solution focused
- Champions what is best for the brand, the client, and the agency
- Understands what the brand needs now – but also able to shape the future
- Ability to manage pressure and deadlines
- Consummate team player
- Confident communicator and leader – speaks positively of others (both clients and colleagues)
- Acts as a sounding board on the strategic direction and long term vision for the assigned accounts
- Champions the role of strategy in the agency.
- Understands the need for strategy which embraces the needs of multichannel marketing
Position Requirements:
Creativity
- Looks beyond the commonly accepted approach and seeks opportunities for modifying or adapting existing practices. Where possible, pursues new ideas or innovative approaches
- Has a passion and respect for the creative thinking process and role of planner as creative catalyst within it
- Ability to translate strategic insight and thinking into a clear completing direction for creative development
- Ensure campaign and brand strategy allows for the greatest opportunity for creative ideas
- Help lead creative development, ensure teams are moving in the right direction and that the
- Ensures work is ‘on brief’ ; Reviews key strategic deliverables on the team's accounts e.g. creative campaign strategies
- Confident in leading the strategy for Network Brands/Pitches, ensuring the thinking and creative is strong, compelling and effective
- Combines ideas in unique ways or demonstrates good creative judgement/intuition and can discuss issues with sensitivity
Productivity
- Follows processes to ensure flawless execution
- Completes work in a timely and professional manner
- Organizes own work to achieve maximum productivity in line with account requirements
- Exceedingly responsive to clients’ and stakeholders’ needs
- Drives efficiency of department and develops new products
Relationships/Communication
- Take responsibility for the relationship with senior clients, and builds relationships across the client business (e.g. medical affairs in addition to commercial)
- Practises and models collaboration within department and other teams
- Recognizes and handles difficult relationships with courage and confidence
- Has an empathy with the creative thinking process
- Uses strong verbal, written and facilitation skills to effectively communicate internally and with clients
Knowledge and Skills
- Has a thorough understanding of the client’s business and contributes to client’s broader business strategy
- Embraces the Omnicom tools
- Can originate brand and campaign strategy, in response to different objectives
- Ability to develop short term and longer-term strategies; campaign/ quarterly/ annual and multiple year planning
- Deliver an authoritative view on communications strategy, based on channel knowledge and understanding of how best to engage the consumer, and leverage the creative ideas
- Writes succinct, single minded, fresh and interesting creative briefs for any objective
- Has a great technical research understanding and can turn insight into ideas
- Actively identifies and improves agency processes and ways of working
- Champions an integrated way of working in pursuit of behaviour changing ideas
Management and Leadership
- Is seen as a role model by peers and others – providing continuous support across all departments, especially account management and copy
- Demonstrates ethical behavior and good judgement
- Helps to create environments where the Four Freedoms are supported – Freedom to Fail, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Chaos, Freedom to Be
- Provides feedback in a timely manner to all team members
- Effectively mentors/line manages team members
- Demonstrates ability to face problems head on, acting when needed
