Senior Strategist - Temporary to Hire

Fact & Fiction is seeking a Senior Strategist to join our team on a temporary basis, with the potential to transition to a full-time role. As an expert on client business, and with deep understanding of the audience, you have an innate ability to solve problems by turning a world of possibilities into a clear, concise and inspiring direction. As our name expresses, you find the places where brand truth and consumer truth overlap to help make work that works 

Day to day, you are the voice of the consumer, working hand in hand with creative to develop groundbreaking ideas that push boundaries while make perfect logical sense. You can nerd out on data and research, but recognize these are the starting lines of insightful thinking.  

You’re well versed in consumer trends, loving to deconstruct a challenge to find clarity in truth. You’ve proved that you have the chops to be a senior resource, yet you’re not afraid to get in the weeds with the team to build the “thing.” You live and breathe the search for insight, know best practices in building brands (and content) and have a strong point of view. Your problem-solving attitude drives team ambition to be better—always. You’re a key member of a family of doers, and your willingness to show up when it counts is a reliable trait.  

To be eligible to hire full-time, candidates must be within commuting distance to Boulder, CO or Kansas City, excited about collaborating in person two days per week in a hybrid working environment. 

Works With: 

• Internal: account, creative, production, comms/media 

• External: client team, partner agencies, research and reporting partners 

• Reports to: Derek Anderson, Head of Brand, Kyle Taylor, Founder  

A Day in the Life 

• Establishing trust with the team and the client to extract and understand client’s business and marketing objectives, target audience 

• Inspiring and guiding the creative development process, including briefing and feedback in response to consumer truths 

• Finding actionable insight content across multiple mediums, from social and digital to brand and print  

• Conducting research into brand, audience, analytics, industry and competition 

• Devising and leading qualitative research (stakeholder interviews, focus groups, etc.) 

• Commissioning and managing external research  

• Analyzing and presenting findings from primary and secondary research to support preparation of brand communication strategies and creative briefs 

• Managing internal or external analytics reporting 

• Staying connected to culture including current and emerging trends 

• Maintaining a detailed awareness of market trends affecting our accounts, and developments in the wider advertising and communications industry 

• Supporting new business with preparation for pitch materials and direction 

Those Who Succeed Are... 

• Relentlessly curious 

• Equally passionate about insight and execution 

• Proactive in their approach, figuring out how to make it happen without waiting to be told 

• Thinking big picture and can solving down to the small details 

• Adept in lateral, analytical and strategic thinking, applying creative thinking to business problems 

• Experienced in differentiating core advertising ideas from their executional treatments, astute in assessing when these meet the brief and how they will influence behavior 

• Capable of guiding and nurturing creative work to meet client needs 

• Strong, persuasive communicators, able to simplify research and strategic thinking  

• Able to give and receive feedback that supports the development of the agency’s creative work and improve effectiveness of ideas 

• Knowledgeable about client business and overall market 

• Focused on the personal and professional development of their team 

• Dedicated to delivering work on-time and on-brand 

• TL:DR: Go above and beyond. Work hard. Be nice. Stay hungry. 

Where You Come From, Where You Will Go  

• Typically promoted from more junior, mid-level planning or research role  

• The senior strategist may then progress into a director role, dependent upon the effectiveness of their ability to: manage direct reports, establish an influence on the larger strategy discipline, persuade through strong presentation skills and assert points of view with clients that lend to strong creative output. 

Here’s what you need to get our attention 

• 7 years experience 

• Diverse interests outside of work 

• Heart and “give a damn” 

Here's what will make us call you for sure. 

• Agency experience, from CPG to service industry 

• Case studies that show the effectiveness of your work 

• Experience working closely with creative and production resources 

• Relentless hunger for finding unique insight and customer truth 

• Passion for storytelling 

• Positivity  

• A high degree of drive and accountability 

• Entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility to be part of a growing agency