Manager Strategy

OUR COMPANY

Initiative is different to other media agencies.

We are not trapped by a legacy structure primarily centered on paid advertising. Instead, we are liberated by a new world structure designed to deliver the best work for clients.

We understand the marketing world is complex, wrought with challenges and ever-changing at blistering pace. To navigate this world we believe in two fundamental principles of what great marketing, great brands and great media can achieve; connecting people to something bigger, and connecting people to themselves. By connecting to something bigger, uniting people in culture around shared experiences – brands build Fame. By connecting people to themselves, their individual needs and guiding them on their journey – brands build customer Flow.

We believe brands need Fame and Flow to grow. This is the entire framework our organisation and approaching to marketing communications is designed around.

Fame is more than awareness or relevance. Famous brands are sticky, memorable and talked about. Fame lodges your brand deep into the consumer mindset and thereby drives favourable brand choices when it matters the most. Flow moves consumers through the purchase process in the most seamless way. Flow happens when experience design, personalised content and precision media work in tandem to help consumers navigate the complex decision-making process leading to purchase. Critically they cannot exist in siloes - or in fragmented teams - but when correctly calibrated they reinforce and amplify each other.

Fame and Flow is our DNA and differentiator, and it’s what sets us apart from all other agencies – and of course, forms the foundation for how we look at bringing new talent and skill sets into the business.

OUR BEHAVIORS

Initiative respects that everyone has something unique to contribute to the agency.

We are a bunch of eclectic and brilliant misfits with diverse backgrounds that represent the unique fabric of consumers and culture.

We want you to be yourself. We want to hear your opinions. We want to see your passion and energy.

If you disagree with something you see or hear then speak up. We will never punish or penalize you for bringing something important to our attention.

If you believe you can improve something in the agency then speak up. We will always listen to your ideas and suggestions.

We will not tolerate harassment, bullying or corporate politics. We will not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We expect you to be responsible on social media and remember that you represent the agency and should not bring us into disrepute.

We are committed to your learning and development. The agency will organize regular training to enhance and accelerate your career – we expect you to prioritize training and actively participate.

OUR VALUES AT INITIATIVE HEALTH

Why do we exist?

• To enhance the health of global citizens by delivering marketing excellence to leading & ambitious health brands

How do we behave?

Core Values

• Integrity
• Ambition
• Approachability
• Collaboration

Aspirational Values

• Disruptive
• Diverse
• Have a positive role in society
• Balance

Permission to Play Values

• Respect
• Trust
• Accountable
• Thoughtful

DISCIPLINE OVERVIEW: 

Above all else, Initiative’s Strategists take the Initiative.

This team generate smart and strategic thinking that inspire and inform the conditions needed for each brand to grow. They understand the relationship between Fame and Flow and do not classify themselves as an either-or type Strategist. To succeed at Initiative, understanding the digital landscape and performance aspects which heavily influence ‘Flow’ are as well versed as their big, broadcast, fame-building thinking.

Future-focused and independent, Strategists sit as an entrepreneurial, agile unit of consumer, creative, digital and analytical experts who are cast and deployed according to the brief and skillset vs. Client. They take a holistic view to drive smarter, better and broader ‘media’ thinking that generates more interesting and rich territories for a brand to explore. They work in creative collaboration with all teams - Client Advice, Communications Design and Partnerships - to inspire and inform the creation and design of culturally led brand experiences.

ROLE OVERVIEW: 

We are growing our team of health experts and are looking for a talented Strategy Manager to join Initiative Health. As a Strategy Manager you are leading the development of global strategic recommendations that solve client challenges.

Supporting the Strategy Group Director to build HCP (healthcare practitioner) and HCC (healthcare consumer) audience strategies, client playbooks and thought-leadership that helps direct our markets to create great plans.

This role is focused on supporting a significant global health account where you will lead, produce and make sense of the key cultural, consumer and market intelligence required to design the best possible holistic communications strategies that deliver on client tasks.

You are responsible for helping create the global strategic recommendations and engaging with the client in an advisory capacity in conjunction with the Strategy Team. It is not your responsibility to manage the client relationship & you will – by Brief – report to the Client Lead to deliver brilliant strategic thinking for the client team. Creative thinking and sound presentation skills are critical in delivering success in this role. 

You should produce work that drives re-appraisal of communications and what media can do in the world, and your work should be seen as one of the key levers working to drive the agency forward.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Client

• Demonstrate understanding of the clients' key business and challenges
• Be considered a valuable leader during client meetings when sharing strategic direction
• Deliver innovative thinking that inspires leading edge solutions for the pharma industry – contributing the creation of best in class work as standard (both internally & externally)
• Arming the client team with knowledge & expertise to speak confidently about the strategic direction where required
• Creating global playbooks and frameworks to help educate local brand marketers on media best practices
• Measurable client & strategy business KPIs

Internal

• Identify, develop & oversee the delivery of unique and innovative strategies to deliver the client’s desired results
• Help create internal best practice incl thought leadership
• Demonstrate a good understanding of HCP and HCC audiences & their behaviors
• Clearly demonstrate how the strategy delivers on the business need and focus on results and measurement
• Bring fresh thinking & inspiration into the Strategic Process to help the teams springboard to better Strategic thinking
• Adoption, promotion & facilitation of the Fame & Flow Process/Tools to help teams find new insights that unlock growth
• Deliver executable, relevant, on brand platforms with the potential for fame/award entry
• Write cohesive communications architectures that deliver on the platform and give guidance for how the campaign will deliver against objectives
• Positively collaborate with SBU and independent creative partners, contributing to their/our client work
• Use qualitative and quantitative communications channel & cultural tool research to develop applicable insights into the audience connection with the brand

Behaviours

• Team orientated first and foremost
• Ability to work independently where required
• Proactive solution finder
• Diligent finisher
• Motivated to ‘roll sleeves up’ and get stuck in
• Pride in company outputs and team performance
• Commercially minded
• High level of attention to detail
• Good communicator and presenter

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s):

• Client
  • Positive client relationships; understands clients' business and challenges
  • Aids in elevating Initiative’s profile with clients
  • Deliver innovative thinking that enable award-winning &/or breakthrough work, helping to orchestrate, identify & write and win awards submissions
  • Measurable client & strategy business KPIs met

• Internal
  • Support in writing thought leadership, case studies and best in class examples of work
  • Inclusion of Strategy management in client business
  • Able to translate the client's business goals into Strategic Communications Tasks
  • Able to deliver a strategy with insight, audience & targeting info with first thoughts & a POV on the potential strategic platform and communications architecture
  • Day-to-day active working knowledge of the Fame & Flow planning process
  • Positive feedback on ability to collaborate with other agencies, partners, teams & SBUs
  • Able to brief the CD team with executable, on brand platforms that inspire
  • Collaborates with all teams to steward campaign strategic rigor
  • Proactively seeks to understand campaign results in real-time to feed learnings back into the Loop
  • Lives Initiative behaviors whilst also demonstrating solid time and management skills

About You:

• 3-4 years in integrated planning role in media, creative, innovation or communications discipline (digital, content, invention, social, activation) – healthcare expertise is a bonus
• Ability to think differently: creative & adaptive, entrepreneurial, independently-minded; deeply immersed in cultural understanding and driven by a desire to know more the world / to better understand people’s motivations & behaviors in the shifting landscape

Employee Transparency 

At IPG Mediabrands, we celebrate differences and believe this makes us stronger. IPG Mediabrands are equal-opportunity employers committed to championing an inclusive culture that provides a sense of belonging for all our employees. We do not discriminate against any applicant based on age, disability, race, colour, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, belief, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law. 

Please reach out to our Talent Inclusion Specialist Jess at [email protected] if you would like to have a confidential conversation regarding any adjustments that would ensure our recruitment process is accessible for you. Please note requesting a reasonable adjustment will not affect your application. 

The Perks 

We aim to provide all our people with a supportive and fun work environment where you can develop your full potential and benefit from the broad range of opportunities within the agency. When you join us, we want to make sure you feel valued – and that you are rewarded for your fantastic work. So, we also offer a range of benefits:

• Flexi–leave, with 25 days annual leave to be taken as minimum. In addition to your holiday entitlement, the office usually closes between Christmas & New Year 
• Free breakfast and free lunch
• Early finish Fridays
• Core Hours (Mon-Thurs, flexible start/finish times)
• Retail discounts
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice car scheme 
• Wellbeing programme, including Headspace & flu jabs 
• Interest free season ticket loan
• Paid time off for Volunteering
• Group Income Protection
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance or Health Cash Plan (dependent on level)
• Group Personal Pension Plan with matched contributions from 3-6%
• Generous Parental Leave & Pay
• Independent mortgage advice
• Financial education
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free eye tests
• Flexible benefits including Dental, Travel insurance, Cycle to Work, Gym Discounts and many more!