Senior Strategist

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Job Type: Exempt

Reports to: Director of Brand Strategy

Overview

At Rise and Shine and Partners, a Senior Brand Strategist is an important player on a small but mighty team of brand strategists. Each strategist’s role is to help our clients’ brands shine in order to help their businesses rise. This role is ideal for a strategist looking to evolve in their career from being a strong individual strategic contributor into becoming an emerging strategic leader, ready to lead portions of client business independently while managing and mentoring a less experienced teammate. They’ll be the strategic lead on some clients, and play a supporting role on other clients, with plenty of new business opportunities sprinkled in.

Core Responsibilities

Our strategists do a little bit of everything, including brand positioning, creative briefing, campaign development, qualitative research development, quantitative research synthesis, creating strategic frameworks, contributing to communications strategy, and many other contributions. But the main thing is the main thing: helping the work get better and more effective. How we do that day-to-day:

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  Strategic thinking creative thinking. Provide clear and compelling strategic direction that distills a hard problem into an easy-to-understand way forward. Original strategic thinking that can rally a team to run through walls requires a creative mindset that inspires people. 

  
  


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  Leadership within the agency. Strategists must be leaders. Not just with their thinking, but with the energy and enthusiasm that speaks their thinking into existence. A great strategy that falls flat with the people it’s meant to lead forward isn’t worth much.

  
  


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  Leadership with clients. Strategists must also be leaders for our clients. They need a sense of command when sharing their work so clients can have confidence in their strategy. Paint a clear picture of where the brand is now, where it needs to go, and how we’ll get there.

  
  


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  Effectiveness stewardship. Everything we do for our clients is to grow their business, so our strategists must be focused on the effectiveness of our work. This starts with knowing how a client’s business makes money, expands to understanding the problems standing in their way, and lands on how our work for their brand impacts their business outcomes.

  
  


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  Research stewardship. Conducting, managing, and interpreting research is a big part of a strategist’s credibility. We must be able to imagine different approaches to qualitative and quantitative research. We don’t need to be researchers per se, but we must be very fluent.

  
  


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  Stay up-to-date on the state-of-the-art. You have to be curious enough about advertising, brands, and media to stay up-to-date on the conventional wisdom, and more importantly, to have a strong opinion. The agency relies on its strategists to interpret the state-of-the-art.

  
  


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  Supervision and mentorship. Part of what makes this role “senior” is having the ability to supervise, teach, and mentor less experienced strategists. Be the boss you always wanted, and pass on your knowledge and experience to the next generation of strategists.

  
  

What You Have to Offer

Not everybody is wired to be a strategist. Still fewer are wired to be a strategist at Rise and Shine. Here’s what we’re looking for in a strategist:

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  Optimism. Our agency culture is true to our name. People who thrive here shine. No cynics. 

  
  


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  Dynamism. You’ve got a natural energy to you that’s uniquely you. Leadership comes easy.

  
  


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  Curiosity. You get restless if you’re not learning, challenging yourself, or growing somehow.

  
  


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  Interestingness. You see things differently than most. People want to know what you think.

  
  


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  Opinionated. You always have a strong POV, but you hold it loosely in case you’re wrong.

  
  


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  Collaborative. Advertising is a team sport. No lone wolves. Must play well with others.

  
  


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  Clarity. You express yourself clearly. Your thinking is original but people always understand.

  
  


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  Writing. Much of what we make is writing. You have a compelling style. And you’re prolific.

  
  


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  Presenting. You can command a room with ease. People want to hear what you have to say.

  
  


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  Action-Oriented. This is an agency of action. Entrepreneurial minds work best. Just do it.

  
  

What We Expect of Each Other

Rise and Shine is an agency with a strong culture, and we’re very protective of it. The way we work is an important part of who we are:

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  Embrace our company values by seeing challenges as opportunities, welcoming diverse ideas and perspectives, creating new futures, and celebrating our successes.

  
  


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  Build and maintain positive relationships with clients and colleagues.

  
  


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  Accept direction openly and demonstrate a willingness to grow and learn.

  
  


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  Take pride in our work by meeting deadlines and holding ourselves accountable.

  
  


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  Bring a positive, solution-oriented attitude to the office each day.

  
  


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  Mentor and support the growth of teammates who can benefit from our experience and perspective.

  
  


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  Show interest in and contribute to the financial success of the agency, including understanding how our individual roles support Rise and Shine’s overall financial health.