Senior Strategist Job at Publicis Groupe

Overview

• The Strategist is a strategic practitioner responsible for developing effective, inspiring and actionable strategy across client briefs, proactive opportunities and new-business projects. 
• The role uses research, consumer understanding, culture, data and structured thinking to translate business objectives into strong strategic direction and compelling creative briefs. 
• The Strategist works closely with senior strategy leadership, clients, creatives, media and partner agencies to ensure ideas are grounded in insight, connected across channels and aligned to clear objectives. 
• A critical part of the role is to be a proactive thinker and collaborator — not simply an order taker — who can manage multiple workstreams, add value at every stage and grow toward greater strategic leadership. 

Responsibilities

STRATEGIC THINKING & DIRECTION 

• Develop fit-for-purpose strategic solutions to client briefs, including challenging the perceived deliverable where the problem requires a different answer. 
• Translate business objectives, audience understanding and research into clear strategic direction. 
• Use appropriate frameworks, tools and structured thinking to solve marketing and broader business problems. 
• Support development of integrated strategies across brand, communications, digital, content and customer experience. 
• Bring a provocative, curious point of view and add value beyond simply executing instructions. 

CLIENT & BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP 

• Work with clients to understand their aims, objectives, business context and brand challenges. 
• Build confidence through strong preparation, accurate thinking and clear presentation. 
• Participate in client briefings, workshops and strategic working sessions. 
• Present ideas, findings and strategic recommendations clearly and confidently. 
• Develop a practical understanding of each client's business and category so recommendations are relevant and commercially grounded. 

CONSUMER, CULTURE & MARKET INTELLIGENCE 

• Analyse existing data, market reports, trends and research to identify meaningful consumer and cultural insight. 
• Develop, manage and analyse research projects where required. 
• Understand primary and secondary research and appropriate methods such as surveys, focus groups and desk research. 
• Interpret cultural and social trends relevant to client business. 
• Understand how macro and micro-economic factors influence consumer attitudes and behaviour. 

DATA, AI & FUTURE-FIT STRATEGY 

• Use AI responsibly to support research, synthesis, knowledge retrieval, scenario exploration and strategic development. 
• Develop confidence working with digital data, performance metrics and web-based research tools. 
• Use data as an input to thinking, moving beyond description toward strategic implication. 
• Build working knowledge of digital transformation, customer journeys, personalisation and emerging technology. 
• Apply human judgement to AI-assisted work and check sources, assumptions and outputs critically. 

INTEGRATED STRATEGY & COLLABORATION 

• Work collaboratively with Creative, Media, Client Leadership, Data, Technology and other agency disciplines. 
• Liaise with strategic counterparts at partner agencies to maintain alignment to the overarching strategy. 
• Help ensure discipline-specific work remains connected to the approved strategic direction. 
• Contribute to integrated planning across multiple channels, including digital. 
• Collaborate without ego while also being able to work effectively independently. 

BRIEFING & UPSTREAM PLANNING 

• Challenge and craft briefs to ensure the right information is available and clarified upfront. 
• Translate strategy into concise, inspiring creative briefs that provide a strong springboard for creative thinking. 
• Support senior strategists in defining the business problem, audience, desired behaviour, proposition and measures of success. 
• Attend internal briefing and review sessions and provide strategic guidance where appropriate. 
• Connect individual briefs to broader client priorities and campaign context. 

CREATIVE & EFFECTIVENESS PARTNERSHIP 

• Work with creative teams to develop ideas that are aligned to the strategy and audience insight. 
• Review creative output prior to client review and flag where work has moved away from the strategic direction. 
• Provide rational strategic feedback while understanding what is essential to protect and where there is room to adapt. 
• Ensure SMART objectives and measurements are considered in strategic recommendations. 
• Monitor campaigns, analyse results and suggest changes or improvements where necessary. 

GROWTH, INNOVATION & NEW BUSINESS 

• Contribute to proactive ideas and new-business pitches. 
• Support research, strategic framing and presentation development for growth opportunities. 
• Use resourcefulness and structured thinking to tackle unusual or non-traditional briefs. 
• Share trends, category developments and strategic opportunities with the wider team. 
• Look for ways strategic thinking can unlock additional value for clients. 

TALENT & PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 

• Take ownership of your development and actively seek feedback from senior strategy leadership. 
• Build your ability to simplify complexity, identify insight, craft compelling presentations and influence audiences. 
• Share learning, useful references and new strategic approaches with the wider team. 
• Demonstrate initiative, curiosity, accountability and a willingness to push your own ambition. 
• Support a collaborative strategy culture where ideas and perspectives are openly shared. 

STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION & FUTURE WAYS OF WORKING 

• Be open to new ways of researching, briefing, collaborating and developing strategy. 
• Use future-fit tools and platforms that improve knowledge access, quality, collaboration and speed. 
• Contribute ideas that improve strategic processes and remove unnecessary friction. 
• Develop practical fluency in AI, digital platforms and emerging strategic methods. 
• Support a culture that manages change by actively initiating improvement. 

OPERATIONAL PARTNERSHIP 

• Manage multiple workstreams in an organised and reliable way. 
• Plan workload proactively, meet deadlines and raise risks early. 
• Use agency resources responsibly and make effective use of available tools and support. 
• Participate in agreed project-management, briefing and review processes. 
• Maintain attention to detail, accuracy and strong follow-through. 

PERFORMANCE, EFFECTIVENESS & ACCOUNTABILITY 

• Take personal responsibility for the quality and accuracy of assigned strategic work. 
• Show initiative, proactivity and achievement orientation. 
• Communicate effectively and build strong working relationships across clients and teams. 
• Remain open to constructive feedback and use it to improve the work. 
• Ensure strategic output contributes to stronger creative work and more effective client outcomes. 

MEASURES OF SUCCESS 

• Clear, well-researched and fit-for-purpose strategic recommendations. 
• Briefs that clarify the problem and provide an inspiring creative springboard. 
• Consistent ability to manage at least three workstreams with strong organisation and follow-through. 
• Strong collaboration with clients, creatives, media and partner agencies. 
• Evidence that strategy remains accurately reflected in creative work. 
• Improving confidence in client presentation and strategic storytelling. 
• Appropriate use of objectives, measurement, data and campaign learning. 
• Visible initiative, curiosity, self-management and contribution to the wider strategy team. 

CRITICAL CAPABILITIES 

• Strategic thinking and problem-solving. 
• Consumer, cultural and market research. 
• Research synthesis and insight generation. 
• Creative briefing and strategic storytelling. 
• Integrated communications and digital planning. 
• Effectiveness and measurement understanding. 
• Data and AI literacy. 
• Client communication and presentation. 
• Cross-discipline collaboration. 
• Project and workload management. 
• Commercial awareness. 
• Curiosity, initiative and self-management. 

Qualifications

• University degree or relevant tertiary qualification with strong academic achievement. 
• Experience working in advertising, marketing, media or communications across multiple channels including digital. 
• Strong research and analytical capability with the ability to synthesise different inputs into a clear point of view. 
• Working understanding of the commercial context of communications and the need to measure and track effectiveness. 
• Strong client-facing communication and presentation skills. 
• Strong project-management and organisational capability. 
• Advanced working knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and web-based applications; Keynote or equivalent presentation tools advantageous. 
• Strong written and verbal English communication skills. 
• Experience with new-business pitches, industry awards or major brands is advantageous.