Head of Strategy - Open Door

Head of Strategy

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 the Head of Strategy. 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 the Head of Strategy, 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

• Work with the Global Strategy Lead (XCM, Prime Video or RMI) to develop and champion the vision for the OpenDoor Strategy discipline, tools and applications, including the Open Media Studio and DPAM process (Discover, Plan, Activate, Measure).
• 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 behavior, identifying insights that deliver unique and differentiated strategies and plans for every Brand, Retail, Title and Sports campaign brief. Ensure that target audiences have a clear, data-supported rationale and are translatable into actionable audiences.
• Work closely with digital & off-line planning and execution teams to ensure that audiences and strategies work coherently across all elements of the plan and that tactics map back to the strategy. Ensure that the planning teams are aligned with the strategy and your work is elevating their response.
• In particular, you will be working closely with the OpenDoor Head of Planning, and the OpenDoor leads of XCM & Prime Video.
• 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.
• Be a leader in intelligence, insight, and innovation to enhance, enrich, and elevate client knowledge of consumer behavior across category and brand; retail; film, series, and sports IP; channels and platforms; data and technology. Your example should educate and inspire the planning team’s response.
• Ensure that 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 , from acquisition and brand preference to campaign architecture and portfolio planning.
• 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 (Open / DPAM), and training / supporting strategists across the region to ensure consistent high standards.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Extensive experience in strategic planning (also called comms strategy, comms planning, account planning) with a proven track record of success in developing and executing highly effective campaigns.
• Experience leading and developing high-performing strategy teams, including strategic direction, fostering a collaborative environment, and mentoring team members at all levels.
• Advanced understanding of best practice, how brands grow, consumer journeys and funnels, data-driven audience strategy and the roles of media channels (digital and traditional). A robust understanding of media planning best practice is essential, to work alongside The OpenDoor Head of Planning.
• Be able to independently problem solve, applying critical and creative thinking when interrogating data to deliver unique insights and differentiated solutions.
• 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.
• Can confidently answer client questions and liaise with internal teams on best solutions. Uses critical questioning and maintains a broad perspective when analysing information to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and wider impact.
• Consistently deliver communications to influence and educate all levels of seniority, from the C-Suite down, 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.
• Strong data and analytics literacy.
• Solutions-oriented and high levels of organisation.
• 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.
• Leading high performing teams (strategic or planning).

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.

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