Associate Director, Strategy & Planning Insights

Wavemaker positively provokes growth for clients by reshaping consumer decision-making and experiences through media, content, and technology. Our name is both our mission and our method. We do our best work for brave brands and people who relish being challenged to go further and faster, together. The Associate Director, Strategic Planning Insights (SPI) is a subject matter expert in business analytics and intelligence, data visualization, and audience strategy. The role is pivotal in shaping communications strategies. This role requires a strategic thinker with a passion for uncovering actionable insights from complex data sets.Key Responsibilities:Lead Business Insights & Diagnostics:

• Manage day-to-day operations related to provisioning, analyzing, and interpreting business data to generate actionable insights.
• Conduct in-depth business diagnostics, leveraging a deep understanding of the client's business situation, growth trajectory, and market trends.
• Translate client data into actionable, data-driven recommendations to drive short-term and long-term growth, aligned with client goals
• Develop and implement a consistent insights generation framework that can apply across businesses.

Shape Communications Strategies & Brand Experience Planning:

• Contribute to the development of communications frameworks and brand strategy pulling through business and audience insights to strengthen strategic recommendations.
• Translate sources of growth from brand growth plans into clear segments that inspire both creative and comms
• Collate and summarize segments to help Comms Planning & Brand Strategy prioritize based on the greatest business opportunity
• Provide recommendations on which strategic audience segments within the larger segmentation should be the focus.
• Guides audience planning briefs once comms plans are approved to guide media planning teams

Guide Audience Strategy & Journey Mapping:

• Lead Comms and Audience Planners in their interrogation of the entire consumer journey, understanding how attitudes and behaviors shape consumer-brand experiences.
• Identify sources of growth and develop a strategic, data-based segmentation to guide creative, comms, and media planning
• Analyze purchase behavior and leverage insights to inform strategic recommendations.
• Synthesize and refine consumer and cultural insights to inform strategic segmentation
• Assess data availability to best leverage 1P/2P/3P data for teams to then craft segmentation strategies
• Foster a strong partnership with Brand Strategy, Client Engagement and Media to infuse audience planning at each step in the process
• Foster Collaboration & Team Success:
• Educate and empower internal teams and clients on the power of data-driven decision making.
• Serve as the go-to expert on business intelligence, data visualization, and audience science.
• Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in data-driven marketing.
• Mentor and guide team members in their analytical skills and insights development.
• Identify and evaluate new data sources, tools, and technologies to enhance the team's capabilities

Desired Experience & Skills:

• A curious problem solver with a knack for telling compelling audience stories powered by data
• Proven track record of successfully leading and managing business insights initiatives.
• Deep understanding of audience segmentation, targeting, and measurement techniques.
• Demonstrated knowledge of various data sources, including 1P, 2P, and 3P data.
• Experience in using industry-standard analytics and visualization tools
• Understanding of statistical modeling and its application in marketing analytics.
• Strong communication, presentation, and storytelling skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex data to diverse audiences.
• Proven ability to train and mentor others in data analysis and insights generation.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a proactive, solutions-oriented mindset.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Passion for data, insights, and their power to drive business results.

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