Strategy Director (Dutch speaking), Amsterdam

About Ogilvy

Ogilvy has been creating impact for brands through iconic, culture-changing, value-driving ideas since the company was founded by David Ogilvy 75 years ago. It builds on that rich legacy through Borderless Creativity - innovating at the intersections of its advertising, public relations, relationship design, consulting, and health capabilities with experts collaborating seamlessly across over 120 offices in nearly 90 countries. Ogilvy currently ranks as the #1 global agency network for creative excellence and effectiveness by WARC, signifying its ability to deliver creative solutions that drive unreasonable impact for clients and communities. Ogilvy is a WPP company (NYSE: WPP). For more information, visit Ogilvy.com, and follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook.

About us

At Ogilvy Amsterdam, we inspire brands and people to impact the world. We do this by delivering borderless creativity at the intersections of culture, data and creativity. All of our disciplines work together in our bright, open-plan office, with a friendly culture and creatively permissive environment (we find the best ideas pop up that way).

We know that our success is a direct result of our dedicated team. Therefore, we are looking for a talented Dutch speaking Strategy Director who can contribute to nurturing and developing some of the most established regional and international brands.

If that sounds like somewhere you want to be, read on...

We are the architects of Borderless Creativity;

Distilling business problems and unlocking human nature;

Powering strategic transformations and unleashing creativity;

Creating impact for people, brands and culture.

We separate the useful from the interesting, to get to less ordinary answers.

Responsibilities

Your role will be to:

Define the problem: What have we been asked to do, what can we do, what should we do?

Reframe the problem to identify new opportunities for the client and agency.

• Define the true nature of a client problem (decreased loyalty, category or favourability decline, new entrants, changed purchase dynamics)
• Use research alongside business data to get to the core of the problem and bring new insight to the client brief.
• Systemically define business, marketing, comms objectives for all projects worked on and set KPIs upfront for how they will be measured against.
• Conduct SWOT analysis for client communications and their competitors and weave insight into the wider strategy

Insight Creation: Finding things out, filtering them, rethinking them laterally to inspire.

Pioneer new research techniques with client and get to insights that shape businesses.

• Fluent moderating of qualitative research.
• Continuously applies behavioural economics principles and frameworks.
• Able to assess research findings at speed and find new knowledge and insights.
• Understands how to create and run a major research project.
• Can lead on differentiated workshop design and techniques.
• On top of the latest and most innovative research techniques and advocating their use.
• Spotting potential issues around research design and legislating for them.
• Ability to identify and discuss with client at a high level opportunities that will benefit from specialist data planning or Analytics i.e. Data driven Customer Profiling, Insight modelling, scenario Planning etc.

Set the Path: Giving inspiration, clarity & confidence to the team about what needs to be done.

Act as a triumvirate with Account and Creative lead to ensure positive direction of client activity.

• Leads the creation of a new brand strategies across wider client business not just campaign/project.
• A strategy framework ninja who routinely uses them to shape brand strategies.
• Integrates on/offline business, experience and campaign elements as a matter of course into strategic thinking.
• Familiar with CRM, paid, owned, earned and loyalty strategies and principles.
• Champion of a strategic idea within the agency and with the client through their entire business
• Ability to oversee innovation workstreams

Ideation: Helping creative & other disciplines come up with better ideas, faster.

Act as an idea originator outside of main briefs and proactively seeks to develop new ideas.

• Develops proactive briefs and inspires client and agency on their potential.
• Creates new models for the future of brand and comms.
• Ensures channel/technology/audience thinking is baked into every creative strategy.
• Can articulate how an idea can influence all elements of client business rather than just comms.

Prototyping and Storytelling: Defining the idea, proving, communicating & selling it.

Pioneer new ways of framing and selling and idea, consistently using compelling soundbites.

• Can structure and lead a winning pitch without support from others.
• Can hold Marketing Director level presentations.
• Consistently uses memorable structures and language to compel the audience in the presentations. A master of soundbites.
• Can develop and lead new strategy product offerings.
• A highly polished and compelling presenter in off the cuff and planned situations.

Manifesting the Work: Crafting the experience journey and delivery detail that brings the idea to life.

Influence senior clients into experimenting with new channels, content and technology.

• Can develop detailed strategies for specific disciplines e.g. mobile, paid, influencer, content.
• Owns the development of how an idea can roadmap over three-five years.
• Can oversee the development of brand / social eco-systems and messaging framework
• Can oversee and challenge media agencies on plans paid and influencer activations

Measurement and Effectiveness: Proving if, how and why the work created real value for the business and consumers.

Show recognised expertise linked to proving the value of ideas to organisations.

• Lead author on effectiveness papers and authors effectiveness case studies.
• Sets up projects for integrated evaluation from the start.
• Contributes to the creation of effectiveness studies.
• Intimately familiar with the different brand tracking studies and pros and cons of each.
• Consistently demonstrates effectiveness of campaigns outside of key metrics (influence on society etc).

Qualifications

• Fluent in Dutch, both verbal as well as in writing
• Fluent in English, both verbal as well as in writing
• Recent and relevant experience developing brand strategies for multi-national organisations across a range of sectors.
• Proven ability to independently manage multiple priorities in a fast paced and deadline driven environment.
• Proven experience in driving big ideas through to tactical executions.
• Ability to work with and direct junior team members ensuring they are clear on the expectation of their role / specific task.
• Ability to interact with multiple stakeholders - junior to senior, knows how to educate and convince.
• Ability to be a champion for strategy within the wider business.

About you

• Easy speaker, comfortable and convincing in client meetings
• Team leader
• Business and entrepreneurship mindset
• Organized and autonomous
• Strong analytic skills
• Hard and fast worker
• Constantly pushing the creative work, with a desire for excellence
• Social media enthusiast with an established understanding of the wider digital communications landscape
• Left and right brained: demonstrate creativity in data analysis and understanding

What we offer:

• A full-time job at one of the most creative and most award-winning professional network agencies
• The opportunity to work for A-brands that are highly visible
• Local, regional and global clients
• Part of WPP, Cannes Number 1 global holding network
• Attractive package and benefits
• Continuous trainings
• Career conversation and growing opportunities
• Energetic atmosphere
• Incredible rooftop
• Flexible office & home working policy

At Ogilvy, our people are at the heart of what we do: a creative agency that sparks game-changing ideas across culture and business through collaboration, integrity, and a celebration of self-expression.

We believe in building powerful teams with purpose. This means hiring and nurturing talent across all races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, sexual orientation, and gender identities - and we relentlessly curate transformative initiatives that make our commitment to fairness, and equity a reality.

Our ultimate mission is to leave a positive impact on the world, creating a better future for all, while supporting and uplifting the global communities we serve. This is central to our mantra of Borderless Creativity.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.