Strategist - Freelance

Who We Are

VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML's specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world's largest and most awarded health agencies. VML's global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.

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Who we are looking for:

VML is looking for a Senior Engagement Strategist – Freelance for a global Pharma client. This is a unique opportunity for an experienced senior engagement strategist to be part of a fast-growing team to help build a Pharma brand from the ground up. You'll have an innate curiosity in the engagement strategic process, developing strategy and tactics that leverage category and target audience insights, while creating briefs and cultivating a portfolio of excellent work.

• At VML our senior engagement strategists develop and implement plans to build meaningful connections between a brand, its organization and their target audience. They will analyze customer behavior, market trends, and engagement metrics to create strategies that enhance interaction, increase loyalty, and align with business goals across omni-channel media.

What you'll do:

• Strategy Delivery | Under the Strategy Lead, support account leadership to translate our client's vision into a roadmap that will achieve meaningful connections with target consumers that align with client goals. You must be able to develop insightful, perspectives on new platforms, messaging and build connections with audiences, bring related context to reporting and drive our client's business forward through best practice enagement strategy delivery.
• Insight Mining | Dig in to data from a variety of sources: audience data, market data, cultural and social trends monitoring, products and services research, qualitative and quantitative methods, to support creative strategy recommendations, gain insights into target audiences and test ad concepts.
• Collaborate | Work with the analytics, creative and account management teams to ensure all client deliverables are flawlessly executed and on-strategy. Contribute intelligence analysis, KPIs, and program measurement to extract key observations and nuances that can inspire creative and lead to innovative, exciting solutions for our client's business.

Who you are:

• A builder | Innovator with a desire to bring people together. Innate ability to marshal people and create gravity around ideas.

• Open and collaborative | Our team is close-knit and supportive and we're working with a lot of unknowns – you must be a champion of team environments that are comfortable and encouraging, especially when working across disciplines.

• An experimenter | Embrace the unknown and ready to break process. You'll be excited by opportunities to explore new ideas rather than rely on existing paradigms, and you view technology as a tool that can drive this creativity.

• Optimistic and resilient | Dig in and figure out how to work around problems. Yes, and why not posture. Balance needed to maintain stamina and positivity.

• A team player | We all wear the hats that need wearing, it's a mentality that makes the team successful.

What you'll need:

• 4+ years in a Strategy role for an Advertising or Marketing Agency.
• Demonstrated understanding of client engagement and brand strategies from an Advertising Agency, Marketing Agency or Management consulting POV.
• Strong familiarity and comfort with multi channel strategies and related analytics and aligning strategies with business needs across all channels.
• A positive attitude and capacity for thinking above and beyond the client's initial ask.
• A self-starter approach and true sense of ownership regarding work at each point of delivery.
• A proven curiosity and willingness to dive deep into complex categories.
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities in order to meet deadlines. The ability to think on your feet and an eagerness to think outside the box.
• Ability to work autonomously while knowing when to engage the Strategy Lead and greater integrated team.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills; you will be face-to-face with clients and internal departments at their busiest moments.
• Technically proficient in presentation planning and development.

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we've adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

VML is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). For more information, please visit www.vml.com, and follow along on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

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