Sr. Strategist

Senior Strategist

Company Description

Arc is the leading creative engine within Publicis’s group of commerce agencies. In an era of unprecedented change, where shopping happens anywhere and everywhere, we believe that brands not present at the moment of desire will be resisted. Which is why everything we do is in service of creating Irresistible Commerce — breakthrough creative solutions fueled by data-driven insights. It’s a proven approach that’s earned us recognition as WARC’s #1 Specialty Retail Agency, along with accolades from Adweek, ANA Reggie Awards, and Effies. And we do it all in an irresistible culture that’s put Arc on the AdAge Best Places to Work list.

Job Description:

As a Senior Strategist your main job is to take ownership of strategic projects and be seen as the day-to-day lead all while continuing to master your craft. This position is all about being more proactive, entrepreneurial and present both internally and with your clients. You’ll be expected to take the lead on multiple projects and manage up to the strategy lead as needed. As a more senior member of the team, you will also have more opportunities to contribute to the health of the agency via new business pitches and thought-leadership.

Responsibilities:

This role will support multiple brands and categories across one of our leading CPG clients. You’ll be working in a Publicis Power of One model alongside counterparts responsible for national media, commerce media, and data strategy. We’re looking for an enthusiastic self-starter who is innately curious about shoppers and their behavior. You love getting your hands dirty in data, and have experience translating it into stories to fuel creative output. You’re a proactive brand steward for the businesses you support and work well with other strategy folks. You’re comfortable writing a brief and appreciative of feedback that helps you push your thinking farther. This role is based in Chicago for face time with clients, creatives, and agency partners.

Skills To Master:

• Crafting Compelling Stories: Storytelling is essential in both inspiring and selling great work. Being a master storyteller is essential as you develop creative briefs and lead briefing meetings in an inspirational manner with little to no oversite. You will be expected to not only find the right data, but distill this data into actionable, business driving insights.
• Self-Starting: As you take on more responsibility within this role, independently managing and prioritizing tasks/projects will be essential to your growth. You will be expected to attend and contribute during client briefings, take the lead on creative brief writing and presenting.
• Making A Visible Impact: Being a “senior” member of the team signals that you will be expected to have a strong presence on the team. This means being a key contributor to not only the strategic product, but also helping shape the creative product. From having a strong presence in brainstorms and internal reviews to supporting, nurturing and challenging the work, your job is to ensure creative solutions deliver on business objectives and strategy.
• Category Expertise: Making sound strategic decisions and having a strong POV will go a long way in cementing your status as a valued team member. As a Senior Strategist, you should know the ins and outs of the business, shopper and have a relentless curiosity around changing category/consumer behavior.
• Thought-Leadership: Part of taking an ownership role on the business means identifying opportunities to organically grow your business. You will also be expected to take ownership in developing white papers, POVs and agency thought pieces that position Arc as the Irresistible Commerce experts.
• Research Chops: Key contributor in the design and execution of research (qual quant) projects including: owning vendor relationships, writing screeners, crafting discussion guides, moderating, distilling insights into actionable outputs.

How To Thrive:

Contribute: Things can move pretty fast around here and as Arc looks to grow its business, there will be ample opportunities to be a part of that growth. Seek out those opportunities to contribute whether that be contributing to a new business pitch, training the team on a new research tool/capability or writing a thought piece on behalf of the agency.

Be Pro-Active: Anticipating the needs of your team and clients will be imperative to your success in this role. You should be proactively thinking about the business and sharing information and POVs with team members and clients that are inspiring and thought-provoking.

Manage Up: While this role will provide ample opportunity to work more independently and take ownership of projects, use your manager as a sounding board. This means knowing when to elevate a problem, ask for guidance, get a second set of eyes on something, but always come to the table with a proposed solution.

Mentor the Next Generation: As a newly minted Senior Strategist, you have a fresh perspective on what it takes to make the next leap in your career. Seek out the Associate Strategists and Strategists on the team and be their sounding board, as you were in their shoes not too long ago!

Collaborate: The best strategy isn’t developed in a vacuum. Forging strong relationships with your business leadership and creative partners will make for a stronger team dynamic and more irresistible solutions.

Qualifications

• 4 years experience in strategic planning
• Experience in commerce/shopper marketing, ideally CPG
• Experience researching trends, interpreting data, and generating clear, actionable strategies
• Curious, enthusiastic teammate willing to support a range of project types and categories/brands
• Eager to work in a fluid agency model alongside partners from other agencies

Additional information

As part of the Publicis Groupe, we believe in the Power of One. And that starts with our people! To do powerful things, we offer powerful resources. Our best-in-class wellness and benefits offerings include:

• In office expectations are three days a week; Mondays are mandatory and you cannot have two consecutive work from home days.
• Paid Family Care for parents and caregivers for 12 weeks or more
• Monetary assistance and support for Adoption, Surrogacy and Fertility
• Monetary assistance and support for pet adoption
• Employee Assistance Programs and Health/Wellness/Comfort reimbursements to help you invest in your future and work/life balance
• Tuition Assistance
• Paid time off that includes Flexible Time off Vacation, Annual Sick Days, Volunteer Days, Holiday and Identity days, and more
• Matching Gifts programs
• Flexible working arrangements
• ‘Work Your World’ Program encouraging employees to work from anywhere Publicis Groupe has an office for up to 6 weeks a year (based upon eligibility)
• Business Resource Groups that support multiple affinities and alliances
• The benefits offerings listed are available to eligible U.S.-based employees, are reviewed on an annual basis, and are governed by the terms of the applicable plan documents

Arc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our employment decisions are made without regard to actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, medical condition as defined by applicable state law, genetic information, marital status, military service and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances.