Group Strategy Director - Open Door

Group Strategy Director - Open Door

ABOUT WPP & OPENDOOR

At WPP, we’re constantly reinventing the future of creativity on an ever-broader canvas, bringing together unrivalled talent, resources and skills to provide an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce and technology.

Over the last decade, we have developed a dedicated global client practice with the mission of accelerating WPP’s impact for our largest clients by bringing them the best of WPP. Each team is custom-built around a client’s specific needs and challenges, providing easy access to the right capabilities. And that’s why we’ve built OpenDoor for Amazon.

OpenDoor is a unique integration of the best of WPP and Amazon – building on their respective strengths and visions. Whether at WPP or at Amazon, every project is an OpenDoor on new possibilities. Anything and everything can be an opportunity for our people to drive impact – for them to innovate, learn, thrive, and occasionally fail too.

The unique OpenDoor partnership model is built to deliver next level Productivity, fueled by our industry-leading approach to People, Platforms, and Process. OpenDoor spans across all WPP agencies and disciplines such as media, business consultancy, communications and brand strategy, tech and commerce, public relations, and production.

OpenDoor’s values are built from Amazon’s own 16 Leadership Principles, and WPP’s core values of Open, Optimistic and Extraordinary. Together, when WPP’s Creative Transformation meets Amazon’s next-level customer centricity, our people come together to challenge and impact what’s done today and build a better future.

By joining OpenDoor, not only are you joining a cross-function team partnering with one of WPP’s top five global clients, but you are also taking a step to challenge yourself and the world around you every day, working in the most unusual way on some of Earth’s most ambitious opportunities in marketing, tech, media, business, and creativity.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are searching for a talented and enthusiastic individual to join our OpenDoor team as Strategy Group Director. This is a Full-Time position based in Sydney. This role plays a crucial part in supporting WPP's mission to deliver consistency, delivery excellence and best in class service for Amazon in every country across its diverse businesses, including XCM (Amazon retail), Prime Video, and RMI.

As Strategy Group Director you will be responsible for bridging the gap between client business and brand goals and the work of the media planning and activation teams. You will be responsible for defining the strategic response to marketing and media briefs, identifying key insights across audience, brand, IP, customer journey and media, formulating portfolio and campaign strategies, leading the creative use of media and helping ensure that all media work is grounded in a clear strategic direction. You will collaborate closely with data, planning, activation and measurement teams, to deliver customer-centric work that is effective, operationally efficient and culturally resonant. You will act as a trusted advisor to senior clients, providing strategic insight and practical guidance that influences their long-term thinking on audience strategy, consumer behaviour, campaign architecture and portfolio strategy, always aligning with their business objectives. 
You will champion a culture of thought leadership, innovation and excellence within the team, driving continuous improvement and pushing the boundaries of what's possible.

RESPONSIBILITIES

•    Develop and champion the vision for the OpenDoor Strategy craft, tools and applications, working closely with the OpenDoor Planning Lead, and the OpenDoor leads of XCM & Prime Video
•    Establish strategy standards, principles and best practices and apply flawlessly to Brand, Retail, Studios and Sports campaign briefs, as well as annual or half-yearly planning, both across the region and in individual locales as briefed.
•    Be an expert in audience strategy and consumer behaviour, identifying insights that deliver unique and differentiated strategies and plans. Ensure that target audiences have a clear, data-supported rationale and are translatable into actionable audiences.
•    Be a leader in intelligence, insight, and innovation to enhance, enrich, and elevate client knowledge of consumer behaviour across category and brand; retail; film, series, and sports IP; channels and platforms; data and technology
•    Ensure that the planning teams are aligned with the strategy and your work is elevating their response
•    Work closely with digital and offline planning and activation teams to ensure audiences and strategies work coherently across all elements of the plan and that tactics map back to strategy 
•    Lead development of uniquely relevant and breakthrough creative solutions and innovations in campaign planning, workshopping with planning and execution teams, and collaborating with WPP and external agency partners.
•    Ensure thought leadership initiatives and past campaign learnings are effectively integrated into the responses to briefs and subsequent campaign strategies.
•    Lead XCM, RMI & Prime Video clients in helping identify opportunities for business growth, and find the right tools, services, products and partners to achieve their demanding ambitions.
•    Become a trusted, go-to partner of XCM & Prime Video clients. Be an essential growth partner to Amazon regional and locale marketing and media teams, influencing strategic direction pre-brief and helping solve the big client questions about business growth
•    Ensure that the quality of strategic thinking is maintained in a busy and high standard environment. This includes innovating new mechanisms for strategy development, ensuring adherence to the operating system and planning processes and training / supporting strategists across the region to ensure consistent high standards.
•    Identify, collate and showcase examples of great work from within the team, both internally and externally
•    Build the OpenDoor’s reputation by contributing to entries for awards and competitions and by contributing to industry thought leadership

QUALIFICATIONS

•    Advanced knowledge and skills within Strategy Consulting with understanding of the impact of work on other areas of the organization 
•    Ideally requires a minimum of 7 years of experience.
•    Extensive experience in strategic planning with a proven track record of success in developing and executing highly effective campaigns
•    Experience leading and developing high-performing strategy functions fostering a collaborative environment, and mentoring team members 
•    Advanced understanding of best practice, how brands grow, consumer journeys and funnels, data-driven audience strategy and the roles of media channels
•    Robust understanding of media planning best practice is essential, to work alongside the OpenDoor Planning Lead
•    Experienced at leading creative media workshops and collaborating with creative partners to identify full integrated messaging + media strategies and ideas
•    A passion for innovation and challenging the status quo with a positive, constructive approach
•    Excellent communication, storytelling, presentation, and interpersonal skills and the ability to lead and mentor a team. Able to design differentiated communications (content focus, style, presentation etc) for various internal and external audiences.
•    Consistently deliver communications to influence and educate all levels of seniority appropriately judging the demands of the situation. Longer-form written narratives are the norm at Amazon (the famous 6-pagers) and gaining (or having fluency) in this type of response is critical.
•    An empathetic and thoughtful leader comfortable with working through detailed, written communications

BONUS POINTS

• Familiarity with Amazon and its ecosystem including, but not limited to, ways of working (e.g. narratives over PowerPoint), their leadership principles and Amazon Ads.
• Ability to work effectively in a matrix organisation.
• Proven capabilities in use of AI for elevating
• Experience in integrated creative and media teams or operations

BENEFITS OF OPENDOOR

• Unparalleled Access: Gain direct experience working with one of the world's most innovative and influential companies.
• Mentorship & Training: Receive guidance from experienced professionals at both WPP and Amazon.
• Cutting-Edge Technology: Utilise industry-leading tools and platforms, including WPP Open.
• Data-Driven Environment: Develop your analytical skills and contribute to data-driven decision making.
• Global Impact: Be part of a team that is shaping the future of marketing on a global scale.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Apply Now and share your CV via the link!

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