Senior Strategist

Publicis Groupe · Johannesburg

Company description

Publicis Groupe Africa is a leading marketing, communications, and business transformation network operating across 36 African countries, combining creativity, technology, and local insight to deliver integrated client solutions.

Publicis Groupe Africa is part of Publicis Groupe, the second-largest communications group globally, founded in 1926. The African network operates as a partnership of 44 communications agencies with offices spanning 36 countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, and many others

Its headquarters are in Johannesburg and Cape Town, providing a central hub for continental operations.

Telecommunications is one of the most dynamic categories in the market that sits at the intersection of technology, culture, connectivity, customer experience and everyday life. This role offers the opportunity to work with a leading telecommunications client and help shape the next generation of its agency partnership.

We are building a connected, future-fit model that brings together creativity, intelligence, data, technology, AI and world-class execution around the customer. It is an opportunity for ambitious strategists to influence the work, the operating model and the capabilities we build — creating a partnership designed not only for today's challenges, but for what comes next

Overview

The Strategist is a strategic practitioner responsible for developing effective, inspiring and actionable strategy across client briefs, proactive opportunities and new-business projects.

The role uses research, consumer understanding, culture, data and structured thinking to translate business objectives into strong strategic direction and compelling creative briefs.

The Strategist works closely with senior strategy leadership, clients, creatives, media and partner agencies to ensure ideas are grounded in insight, connected across channels and aligned to clear objectives.

A critical part of the role is to be a proactive thinker and collaborator — not simply an order taker — who can manage multiple workstreams, add value at every stage and grow toward greater strategic leadership.

Responsibilities

STRATEGIC THINKING & DIRECTION

Develop fit-for-purpose strategic solutions to client briefs, including challenging the perceived deliverable where the problem requires a different answer.
Translate business objectives, audience understanding and research into clear strategic direction.
Use appropriate frameworks, tools and structured thinking to solve marketing and broader business problems.
Support development of integrated strategies across brand, communications, digital, content and customer experience.
Bring a provocative, curious point of view and add value beyond simply executing instructions.

CLIENT & BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP

Work with clients to understand their aims, objectives, business context and brand challenges.
Build confidence through strong preparation, accurate thinking and clear presentation.
Participate in client briefings, workshops and strategic working sessions.
Present ideas, findings and strategic recommendations clearly and confidently.
Develop a practical understanding of each client's business and category so recommendations are relevant and commercially grounded.

CONSUMER, CULTURE & MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Analyse existing data, market reports, trends and research to identify meaningful consumer and cultural insight.
Develop, manage and analyse research projects where required.
Understand primary and secondary research and appropriate methods such as surveys, focus groups and desk research.
Interpret cultural and social trends relevant to client business.
Understand how macro and micro-economic factors influence consumer attitudes and behaviour.

DATA, AI & FUTURE-FIT STRATEGY

Use AI responsibly to support research, synthesis, knowledge retrieval, scenario exploration and strategic development.
Develop confidence working with digital data, performance metrics and web-based research tools.
Use data as an input to thinking, moving beyond description toward strategic implication.
Build working knowledge of digital transformation, customer journeys, personalisation and emerging technology.
Apply human judgement to AI-assisted work and check sources, assumptions and outputs critically.

INTEGRATED STRATEGY & COLLABORATION

Work collaboratively with Creative, Media, Client Leadership, Data, Technology and other agency disciplines.
Liaise with strategic counterparts at partner agencies to maintain alignment to the overarching strategy.
Help ensure discipline-specific work remains connected to the approved strategic direction.
Contribute to integrated planning across multiple channels, including digital.
Collaborate without ego while also being able to work effectively independently.

BRIEFING & UPSTREAM PLANNING

Challenge and craft briefs to ensure the right information is available and clarified upfront.
Translate strategy into concise, inspiring creative briefs that provide a strong springboard for creative thinking.
Support senior strategists in defining the business problem, audience, desired behaviour, proposition and measures of success.
Attend internal briefing and review sessions and provide strategic guidance where appropriate.
Connect individual briefs to broader client priorities and campaign context.

CREATIVE & EFFECTIVENESS PARTNERSHIP

Work with creative teams to develop ideas that are aligned to the strategy and audience insight.
Review creative output prior to client review and flag where work has moved away from the strategic direction.
Provide rational strategic feedback while understanding what is essential to protect and where there is room to adapt.
Ensure SMART objectives and measurements are considered in strategic recommendations.
Monitor campaigns, analyse results and suggest changes or improvements where necessary.

GROWTH, INNOVATION & NEW BUSINESS

Contribute to proactive ideas and new-business pitches.
Support research, strategic framing and presentation development for growth opportunities.
Use resourcefulness and structured thinking to tackle unusual or non-traditional briefs.
Share trends, category developments and strategic opportunities with the wider team.
Look for ways strategic thinking can unlock additional value for clients.

TALENT & PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Take ownership of your development and actively seek feedback from senior strategy leadership.
Build your ability to simplify complexity, identify insight, craft compelling presentations and influence audiences.
Share learning, useful references and new strategic approaches with the wider team.
Demonstrate initiative, curiosity, accountability and a willingness to push your own ambition.
Support a collaborative strategy culture where ideas and perspectives are openly shared.

STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION & FUTURE WAYS OF WORKING

Be open to new ways of researching, briefing, collaborating and developing strategy.
Use future-fit tools and platforms that improve knowledge access, quality, collaboration and speed.
Contribute ideas that improve strategic processes and remove unnecessary friction.
Develop practical fluency in AI, digital platforms and emerging strategic methods.
Support a culture that manages change by actively initiating improvement.

OPERATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

Manage multiple workstreams in an organised and reliable way.
Plan workload proactively, meet deadlines and raise risks early.
Use agency resources responsibly and make effective use of available tools and support.
Participate in agreed project-management, briefing and review processes.
Maintain attention to detail, accuracy and strong follow-through.

PERFORMANCE, EFFECTIVENESS & ACCOUNTABILITY

Take personal responsibility for the quality and accuracy of assigned strategic work.
Show initiative, proactivity and achievement orientation.
Communicate effectively and build strong working relationships across clients and teams.
Remain open to constructive feedback and use it to improve the work.
Ensure strategic output contributes to stronger creative work and more effective client outcomes.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

Clear, well-researched and fit-for-purpose strategic recommendations.
Briefs that clarify the problem and provide an inspiring creative springboard.
Consistent ability to manage at least three workstreams with strong organisation and follow-through.
Strong collaboration with clients, creatives, media and partner agencies.
Evidence that strategy remains accurately reflected in creative work.
Improving confidence in client presentation and strategic storytelling.
Appropriate use of objectives, measurement, data and campaign learning.
Visible initiative, curiosity, self-management and contribution to the wider strategy team.

CRITICAL CAPABILITIES

Strategic thinking and problem-solving.
Consumer, cultural and market research.
Research synthesis and insight generation.
Creative briefing and strategic storytelling.
Integrated communications and digital planning.
Effectiveness and measurement understanding.
Data and AI literacy.
Client communication and presentation.
Cross-discipline collaboration.
Project and workload management.
Commercial awareness.
Curiosity, initiative and self-management.

Qualifications

University degree or relevant tertiary qualification with strong academic achievement.
Experience working in advertising, marketing, media or communications across multiple channels including digital.
Strong research and analytical capability with the ability to synthesise different inputs into a clear point of view.
Working understanding of the commercial context of communications and the need to measure and track effectiveness.
Strong client-facing communication and presentation skills.
Strong project-management and organisational capability.
Advanced working knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and web-based applications; Keynote or equivalent presentation tools advantageous.
Strong written and verbal English communication skills.
Experience with new-business pitches, industry awards or major brands is advantageous.

Additional information

Publicis Groupe Africa is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits any forms of Discrimination or Harassment. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our employees in line with our Employment Equity Plan.

All appointments will be based on qualifications, experience and best fit but preference will be given to candidates from designated groups. Interested candidates must please submit a concise CV including a link to your portfolio if necessary. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within 2 weeks after submitting your application, please consider your application as unsuccessful.