Connections Strategy Director

Edelman is looking for an innovative and agile Connections Strategy Director to join our team and help us make the kinds of ideas that the internet loves. As a Connections Strategy Director, you will bring structure and clarity to creative ideas, designing the campaign infrastructure, content and channel mechanics required to bring campaign ideas to life. You are comfortable using data to underpin and inform your recommendations, a digital connoisseur fluent in both traditional and emerging channels and connected to culture – from trends to influencers to social memes – you know how to add fuel to an idea to help it catch fire.

In this role, you will work collaboratively with brand strategists, creatives, paid media, influencer teams and analytics experts to build meaningful connections with target audiences and compel them to act. This requires fluency within critical areas including:

• Audience Research & Understanding
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  Using research & analytics tools & processes to understand media preferences, channel behaviors and interests, shopping & purchase triggers, etc.
• Communication & Campaign Strategy Development
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  Identifying communication obstacles and opportunities, campaign architecture & ecosystem mapping, messaging frameworks and user journeys.
• Channel, Content & Editorial Strategy
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  Defining the roles of channels & interoperability, content strategy (themes, priorities & styles/formats), campaign/messaging cadence, and executional brief development by channel (especially mapping to paid media plans).

Your work applies strategic rigor to the implementation of ideas, moving away from collections of tactics to connected campaigns, generating content that builds trust with audiences and fuels growth for brands.

• Articulate insights gleaned from cultural trends and consumer behavior, artfully organizing information from observations to strategic implications and recommendations.
• Develop digital creative briefs that inspire clients and creative teams alike to come up with idea development and implementation.
• Build strategic messaging & communications frameworks designed to inform where and how a brand ideally connects with desired audience.
• Build campaign and/or user journey to inform high-order campaign ecosystem, phasing & channel needs.
• Work directly with clients, gaining their trust, and inspiring them to take the right risks so they may become known for digital & social "firsts" that wow their consumers and audiences, while ensuring their professional success.
• Collaborate with creative, analytics, paid and influencer teams to shape/customize creative executions based on platform knowledge and program goals.
• Stay current on users, interactive trends, best practices, and digital experiences with an eye towards agency’s client base/portfolio.
• Proactively identify new opportunities for client growth, and enforce processes and best practices across all engagements.
• Develop well thought-out research plans (or inform research methods), identifying the right mix of primary and secondary, using cost and time-effective tools and trusted partners.
• Partner with the measurement and analytics team to determine measures of success and synthesize findings to clear, actionable insights.

• Minimum 6 years of experience in social, communications strategy, connections planning or other relevant capacity.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience required.

• Strong social platform understanding & fluency of content best practices (existing & emerging).
• A passion for the intersection of culture and digital behavior.
• Ability to leverage research & data to inform recommendations (channel, messaging, content, etc.).
• Experience building strategic messaging & communications frameworks designed to inform where and how a brand ideally connects with desired audience, and building campaign and/or user journeys to inform high-order campaign ecosystem, phasing & channel needs.
• Knowledge of or previous experience working with/in paid media space a plus.
• Excellent communication & presentation skills.
• Intermediate experience with research tools such as…