Group Director, Communications Strategy; TEMP

Group Director, Communications Strategy (TEMP)

Austin

At GSD&M, we’re on a mission to build First & Only brands, meaning the first to do it and the only ones who can. We’re able to do this because we set a high bar for ourselves and our work. We care about what we put out in the world. We’re humans who like other humans. Our ideas make a difference.

Shift culture. Create a smile. Inspire change. Initiate belly laughs. Deepen our understanding of the world and ourselves. We grow. We learn. We get better. We do it all over again. Because that’s what it takes to build and be First & Only.

• Job Title: Group Director, Communications Strategy (TEMP)
• Department: Media
• Reports to (Position): VP, Media Strategy
• Supervisory Responsibilities: Yes
• FLSA Status: Exempt
• Location: Austin or Remote

Communications Strategy at GSD&M is a human centric, culture obsessed discipline that unearths unique audience insights, media trends, cultural shifts and tech innovations and orchestrates how we bring these to life through our brand, creative and media work.

The Group Director, Communications Strategy (TEMP) role sits at the center of our tightly integrated agency model. The right candidate will be fluent across strategy, media and creative; and able to navigate seamlessly across those disciplines. This person will establish the story and credentials for our Communications Strategy practice and drive consistent understanding of the contributions and output from the Communications Strategy practice both internally and externally.

Additionally, this person will spend hours each day immersing themselves in culture using social channels and real-world observation to keep our teams and our clients one step ahead of cultural trends with a particular emphasis on Sports, Music and Gaming.

• Craft the story and credentials of our Communications Strategy discipline. This includes approaches and outputs that drive consistency within the discipline and align the organization, and our clients, with what best in class Communications Strategy can deliver.
• Bring the consumer's world to life for Strategy, Creative and Media teams through an understanding of how they live; their behaviors with respect to content, connections, and media; influences; life-stage insights; attitudes and motivations.
• Understand consumer’s receptivity to marketing communications, using qualitative and cultural mining, plus the insightful synthesis of quantitative research.
• Learn the client’s business and develop communications strategies to unlock full business potential, while providing thought leadership and perspective on how new technologies and cultural shifts can impact the client's business.
• Leverage the creative idea and translate it into brand stories that are native to the media channels and the audiences we are connecting with in those channels.
• Craft briefs that inspire new media moments that give our clients an edge against fleeting attention spans. Push the definition of media moment to include non-conventional forms of media, inclusive of paid, earned and owned channels.
• Present and defend strategies to clients, showing them how the approach we’re taking will get results and make the most of the creative work.
• Contribute to new business development and crafting the pitch narrative so that the brand strategy pulls through into the creative and media work.
• Cultivate a strong strategic culture within the department, encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing.

• Strong partnership & collaboration skills - serving as the bridge between strategy, creative and media.
• Daily connectivity to culture, from frequent use of social media to a culturally observant mindset as you are out and about in the world.
• Knowledge of platforms and media channel advances, and how they can be used to bring creative stories to life.
• Proven ability to drive / inspire unexpected uses of traditional touch points.
• Strong experience and knowledge of the Sports, Music and Gaming landscape.
• A disposition driven by curiosity and what makes people tick.
• Min 10 years of agency…