Group Strategy Director

Who We Are

We are a well-established independent agency and thriving music business, built to help ambitious brands harness the power of culture to solve their biggest challenges. As a unique mix of experts in culture, technology, and storytelling, we are united by a passion to grow brands in ways that advertising alone can never do. 

We are an entrepreneurial business – not a traditional “ad agency.” That means we value resourcefulness and tenacity just as much as we value creativity and intelligence. In 2022, Translation was awarded the number three spot in Ad Age’s Agency A-List and AdWeek’s Multicultural Agency of the Year. One year before, Translation was awarded Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year. We’re unapologetically ambitious, but we’re also a tight-knit crew.

We are looking for a Group Strategy Director to join Translation! Please note that this role demands four days in office and one day remote. 

What You'll Do

• Overseeing, guiding, and enforcing the planning and execution of incisive brand strategy and culturally influential work
• Helping lead business development opportunities with brand partners by helping drive entrepreneurial ideation that sparks creative solutions
• Applying strategic rigor to the interrogation of, and inspiration for, ongoing and future brand offerings
• Lead the quality, clarity, and accuracy of audience, cultural, and brand insights
• Identify the "real” problem of every business and brand challenge, quickly assessing and defining  the “why” and “how” of every brief
• Expertly guide brand positioning and inform messaging and channel strategy
• Lead day-to-day client and project engagements across key accounts
• Work closely with data strategists, context planners, account directors, and creatives to formulate and execute a vision for how we respond to every brand assignment
• Build positive relationships internally and externally, inspiring work from common intent and shared desired outcomes
• Oversee the output of direct, mid, and  junior team members to ensure it meets client goals and business objectives
• Contribute to the intellectual capital of the company as it relates to the understanding and decoding of audience and cultural insights

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Visionary team leader capable of building strategy as a product and team growth
• Clear and persuasive communication skills with expert storyselling skills
• Self-motivated and able to thrive in a fast-paced and self-directed environment
• A deep pursuit and passion for something that informs your perspective on culture
• Vetted quantitative and research experience and proven data interpretation capabilities
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Have a curious mind and a passion for understanding what drives consumers & culture
• Established/desired practice of informing and measuring the cultural impact of commercial work

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience in a role focusing on strategy and brand development
• A diverse background of strategic skills and disciplines (ie., consumer research, social strategy, comms planning)
• Passion for insights, innovation, and growing client and agency relationships
• Substantial grasp of insight development and designing consumer research studies

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven ability to think creatively about insight discovery, development, and application
• A vetted track record collaborating with cross-functional teams
• Has led design and execution of quantitative and/or qualitative research methodologies
• Considerable grasp of the digital and social media ecosystem

 About UnitedMasters 

UnitedMasters has over 1.5 million artists on its platform and is growing rapidly. Brands like Diageo, Ally, and ESPN come to UnitedMasters to partner with these artists and play a role in moving culture forward. In the past year, UnitedMasters subscribers have grown rapidly. With $170M raised to date and valued at $550M, UnitedMasters is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Apple, Alphabet (aka Google), and Disney amongst others. Over the last year, UnitedMasters artists have used our platform to land sync deals with major brands including the NBA, ESPN, Overtime Elite, Bose, Warner Brother Studios and in the NBA video game 2k. These deals give them additional money for their work and increase their exposure.

Salary Hiring Range: $180,000-$210,000

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide (e.g. bonus, stock options, 401(k) match, etc.)

Individual pay rate decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company.  We expect the majority of the candidates who are offered roles at our company to fall healthily throughout the range based on these factors. 

The range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however we are often open to a wide variety of profiles, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted.  If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated with you as a candidate.

The salary range above is for the NY/CA.  As a company, we have a location based strategy, which means the salary range could be lower or higher than this if the role is hired in another location.
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