Senior Associate, Commerce Strategy

Business Overview

If you are looking for a people-first organization that can offer you the career you crave, UM is your home. We are the destination of choice for the world’s best talent, where every individual is empowered to unleash their limitless potential and do the best work of their careers.  

We are always searching for passionate team members who love media and live and breathe our core values of Curiosity, Courage, and Community. We seek out those who aren’t afraid to ask the tough questions, are excited to explore the nuances, and are hungry for personal growth and continuous learning. People who thrive at UM are collaborators by nature who pursue diverse perspectives because they understand that true innovation is driven by inclusivity. As a people-first agency, we provide the information, tools and technology, career development, and empowerment our people need to realize their potential and achieve their career ambitions.   

A global media network within the IPG Mediabrands family, UM operates in over 100 countries, with 3,000+ people innovating on a roster of powerful brands and our client campaigns have been recognized by the industry’s most competitive global showcases like Cannes Lions, Festival of Media Global, and WARC.   

As a result of our people-first commitment, UM has been celebrated as a FORTUNE Best Workplace in Advertising & Marketing in the US, a Campaign Best Place to Work in EMEA, a Campaign Asia Diverse & Inclusive Workplace in APAC, a top 3 agency in LATAM by The Effies, and ranked the number one agency in both Canada and MENAT by RECMA. 

Position Overview

We seek a junior strategist who will support the Commerce Strategy Director in developing communications strategy for key brands within our client portfolio. This role will identify insights across culture, category, consumer, and connections to form the basis for strategic planning. By focusing on why people think, feel and act the way that they do, the Sr. Associate, Strategy will help create communication strategies and ideas that build Cultural impact, Community relevance and Commerce connection for the brand.

Strategists at UM are ‘visionary architects’, building campaigns and insights at the intersection of science (data) and art (creativity), therefore this individual will be a strategic leader working in close partnership with team members across Planning, Analytics, Investment and Studios (content & partnerships) to deliver fully integrated campaigns. They will also collaborate with integrated client teams - including in-house creative, PR, etc.

This role will also secondarily support the Research Director on pursuing the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. They are responsible for ensuring projects are completed in a timely fashion, managing vendor relationships, and analyzing data to glean meaningful and actionable insights.

Responsibilities

• Become the expert and champion of UM’s proprietary data tools, syndicated research (Simmons-MRI, GWI, etc.) and have a knack for desktop research to uncover compelling insights within Culture, Communities and Commerce
• Support in the development of UM’s consumer profiling for core HVAs (high value audiences) including synthesis of consumer data and storytelling
• Maintain deep understanding of the business, brand, target audiences and category
• Support the Direction in developing Strategic Blueprints that articulate the insights, strategic pillars and media imperatives for campaigns
• Collaborate in the creation, selling and execution of activation ideas; Actively participate in ideation sessions with integrated planning team
• Assist in crafting RFPs (requests for proposals) that are both inspiring and strategic, and stay involved in evaluating/shaping partner submissions
• Partner with planning and investment teams to effectively pull-through strategy into media ideas and tactics
• Package insights, strategy, and activation ideas for simplicity and clarity and assist in crafting compelling narratives across any client-facing presentations
• Develop effective and inspiring working relationships within agency team and with senior clients

Required Skills and Experience

• Enthusiastic consumer of, and curiosity about, pop culture and the ever-changing media landscape
• Persuasive with outstanding written and oral communication skills
• Comfortable with pulling, analyzing and applying data to support their thinking
• Basic understanding of major desktop research tools (i.e. Google Trends) and qualitative research techniques
• UM does not require candidates to have a college degree

Desired Skills and Experience

• Previous experience at a media agency, c