Skip to main content
Posted May 05, 2023
McKinney

Director of Strategy

McKinney
Dallas, TX, USA ⚠ [Archived] No Longer Accepting Applicants

Overview

As the Strategy lead for Samsung influencer, your remit will be 100% dedicated to Samsung as the demands of the business are akin to several accounts in one. This role is part of a high performance team working in a fast paced, creative environment on one of the highest ad spend global businesses on the planet, and in partnership with Cheil. Tight turnarounds, the ability to flex between managing and doing the work, and the need for additional time and energy at key project milestones add to the intensity and invigoration of this role. This role will function with great independence, and has the ability to make a substantial impact on a key client.

The Director of Strategy is a shepherd for the influencer marketing discipline within the larger Samsung team. Your job is to untap potential wherever you see the opportunity: for our clients, for the agency, even for the community and industry we work in. To do this, you must have a strong point of view, tempered with flexibility and empathy, and you must apply strategic principles to every decision you make.

Responsibilities

This is what the job entails, versus what the job requires, which is listed below as Competencies.

Vision Setting

  • Primarily, set the strategy of the Samsung brand, through the lens of influencer marketing. It’s not just about the briefs in front of you, but also the untapped opportunities. This person sets the strategic vision and acts as a steward of the brand, always considering ways to bring that strategy to life across the brand experience.
  • Secondarily, work with the CSO and Director of Strategy, Influencer to set a vision for the strategy department and the agency on influencer marketing, and make a plan to see it through to manifestation.

Managing

  • Part of untapping potential is seeing it and uncovering it in others we work with. It is your job to do that for your direct reports, of course, but also for the Samsung team as a whole—looking at the mix of passion, talent and areas of improvement.
  • Helping the team build skills and practices that strengthen the growth mindset so that we’re not just teaching and exemplifying hard skills, but also encouraging our fellow strategists to be life-long learners.

Relationship Building

  • You lead by example and set the tone for cross-functional and cross-agency integration. Building rapport quickly with clients and agency partners is important, and helpful to get everyone moving in the same direction. This is also a team effort, inclusive of Cheil and the client team, so anticipating your partners’ needs and how to get them on the same page is a critical skill to exemplify.
  • The further you advance, the more your job overlaps and blends with your creative and account partners—you should have the kind of respectful relationship with your partners that allows you to provide strategic input on the client relationship and creative direction.
  • You should be looking at your client’s business from a higher altitude to help identify business opportunities, even when/where your clients may not see them. Because of your strong client relationship, they look to you for this guidance and partnership.

Inspiring

  • Staying up to date on industry and competitive trends and actively involved in conducting research to influence possible opportunities to client’s business to leadership.
  • Collecting and organizing best-in-class examples of recent influencer marketing activation to inspire and provide thought starters to greater teams.

Leading While Doing

  • Do the work that needs to be done to lead the brands you lead. Sometimes, that means delegating responsibilities and playing a support role to lift others up. Other times, that means rolling up your sleeves and showing how it’s done, especially as it relates to crafting presentations, sifting through data, etc.
  • Constantly (re)evaluate what you can do to optimize the work, the growth of our people, the relationships with our clients and the work process that ties it all together.

Your measure of success as a Director of Strategy is the depth and breadth of your impact on Samsung so they see their investment in influencer marketing through McKinney as unassailable.

Competencies

Now that you know what the role entails, here’s what you need to be able to do to thrive in it.

  • Perseverance. Demonstrates resolve and resilience that can inspire the team at large. The client has high expectations and last minute pivots are not uncommon.
  • Thought leadership. Has a clear creative point of view and the ability to evaluate work, make lateral connections between ideas, and provide pointed direction to make the creative better. At the same time, can balance a strong pov with client feedback.
  • Data/Results Acumen. Critical to partner with data strategy on reporting, implications, and campaign learnings for future.
  • Efficient problem solving. It’s not enough to be a resourceful and nimble thinker, you have to be able to do it on myriad projects, juggling multiple priorities at a time. To do this, you have to know questions to ask, how to ask them, and of whom to ask them to get what is needed, fast.
  • Innovation. Demonstrates a special interest and expertise in B2C consumer electronic brands, and being in the know of up and coming technology.
  • Managing. Can speak to past experience managing multiple direct reports with varied skills, growth goals, strengths and needs.
  • Systems Thinking. Able to organize strategic ideas and marketing imperatives into clear frameworks to help guide creatives and clients alike.
  • Interpersonal Savvy. Demonstrates high EQ and the ability to relate to all kinds of people—on the team and off, inside the agency and out—as well as build rapport that can be leveraged to create consensus and diffuse tense situations.
  • Writing and Storytelling. Has proven persuasive narrative, logic, and presentation skills.
  • Research Acumen. Can speak to a breadth of research experience, including non-traditional research methodologies.
  • Growth Orientation. Eager to learn from experiences—both wins and losses—and can speak to examples of how s/he has taken learnings from one experience into the next.

Experience

  • Minimum 12+ years of strategy work at a creative agency, with the vast majority focused on digital/social strategy experience, and the most recent 3-5 years focused on influencer/creator strategy specifically.