Strategy Director London

Where creatives are problem solvers, JDO Strategists are problem finders, investigators with tenacious minds that obsess over the most minute details to identify the real problem at the heart of a client’s brief.

Balancing objectivity and empathy, they dive into the deep end to unearth valuable insights that can unlock the potential, not only of what is creatively possible for our client’s brands, but also what is practical and purposeful.

Employing intelligence, intuition, and resourcefulness, they see things, other people do not, connecting the dots and distilling the information in a way that is both easy-to-understand and inspirational to creatives and clients alike.

And they can tell a brilliant story - one that are grounded in logic and weaved with
a touch of magic, and able to cohesively carry the brand’s essence across the full consumer experience.

DESIRED SKILLS

+8 years of branding experience that spans different markets, categories and industries; ideally must include working with brands in the alcohol, personal care/beauty and luxury sectors.

A proven track record of success working with both established and entrepreneurial brands in delivering strategically driven creative strategies with an emphasis on 2D/3D packaging, identity and innovation.

Ability to simplify the complex through rigour, clarity and inspiration.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Strategy Director will report to the Global Head of Strategy.

Immerse Yourself: Conduct extensive desk and in-field research to identify emerging trends and what is influencing them; administer interviews and run audits to get under the skin of the consumer, the category and the company; use your keen eye to identify emerging trends and unearth key insights.

Connect the Dots: Analyse and interpret research, data and trends identify implications for our clients’ brands.

Light the Bulb: Apply your research and analysis to develop big ideas that inspire creativity and affect real change for our clients’ businesses and brands.

Help Them See it : Bring trends, consumer profiles and strategic perspectives visually to life to fuel brave creativity.

Write it Down : Craft clear and compelling creative briefs that ignite ferocious creativity; Weave brand narratives that bring together logic and magic; create presentations that inform and influence.

Break it Down: Working with the wider strategy team to develop strategic solutions to support brand growth, including portfolio architecture, propositions and positioning, the articulation of values and vision, and more.

Work Together: Build unbreakable bonds with the JDO team, championing the process by providing strong strategic rationales that anchor and elevate their creative solutions.

Inspire the Troops: Keep the JDO’s global team on the pulse of what is happening in the design, market, and consumer worlds, whilst building our strategic competencies, and improving skillsets and capabilities to solve problems comprehensively.

Cultivate Relationships: Establish strong bonds internally and externally, cultivating trust through rapport with senior stakeholders, elevating the conversation and JDO’s reputation.

Nurture Talent: Seek out and nurture the strategic talent, supporting the growth and development of the Strategy team by managing and monitoring direct reports’ personal development through objective setting.

Commercially savvy: Have a grasp of allocated client targets and performance of projects to drive efficiencies, monitoring direct reports’ utilisation.

Value driver: Support in building strategy as a key revenue driver for the agency, always seeking opportunities to add value and widen our remit through thought leadership or client farming initiatives.

JDO Strategy

We are an eclectic team comprised of unique individuals that weave logic with magic to craft creative strategies that inspire, influence and ignite change. Our favourite question is ‘why’, and our belief in better drives our search for more effective methods and methodologies that will lead to more transformative ideas.

Beyond the skillset and the mindset necessary to deliver useful strategies that add value to our clients’ businesses, each member our team possesses:

Cultural curiosity , meaning a genuine interest in the world around them,
how things work and what it all means.

Healthy scepticism , meaning they never take things at face value, questioning
and interrogating everything on the quest for truth and deeper understanding.

Individuality , meaning a ‘one-of-a-kind’ personality that adds different dynamic
to our team with their own unique strengths and perspectives.

Collaborative , meaning the need to work constructively together with both our
internal, multi-discipline teams as well as external with our clients.

JDO UK

JDO UK is comprised of two studios – our HQ in the beautiful historical town of Royal Tunbridge Wells and the other in heart of Central London. Though each member of our team is officially based at one of these studios, we all work together as a united front.

In moving between these two locations, JDO team members benefit from a periodic
change of scene, whilst also giving us the opportunity to cross pollinate ideas and
support one other to deliver the strongest creativity possible.

JDO’s international team of designers, brand strategists and client partnership consultants band together to deliver creative excellence to the world’s most
loved and influential brands.

With a scope of services that includes branding & creative strategy, packaging and product design, innovation & sustainability solutions, as well as experiential and campaign activation, JDO forges brand worlds that ignite connection, provoke emotion and keep brands relevant across an ever-changing landscape.

At JDO, we believe…

• That complex problems can be smartly solved with ingenious, elegant design
• That clients are our partners in creating positive change for our communities, our culture and our planet
• That work should nurture wellbeing as well as pay our bills
• That the people you work with are as important as the brands you work on
• That diversity and inclusivity are not trends, but the future

We believe in equal opportunity

We embrace individuality and diversity and employ irrespective of background, age, ethnicity, colour, gender, disability, sexual or religious orientation and marital status. We invest heavily in our people and help them drive their personal development. We offer very competitive salaries, exceptional benefits and WFH flexibility.