Influence Strategy Director

 Influence Strategy Director
Large FMCG Drinks Portfolio

Department: Influence
Location: London
Contract type: Fixed-Term (12 months)
Full Time/Part time: Full Time
Reporting into: Head Of Influence Strategy

About Ogilvy:  

Ogilvy UK has been creating iconic ideas that deliver impact at scale for clients ever since David Ogilvy founded the company in 1948. The agency specialises in bringing together brand advertising, customer experience marketing, PR, influence and consulting, all fueled by Behavioural Science. Our world-class award-winning creative campaigns deliver solutions for clients including Sainsbury’s, Lloyds Banking Group, Madri, Unilever and Mondelēz International.

Ogilvy’s influencer marketing practice is the largest globally and the agency also hosts the world’s biggest festival of behavioural science and creativity, Nudgestock – which is now in its 12th year. James Murphy is the CEO of Ogilvy Group UK, which includes Ogilvy UK and New Commercial Arts (NCA), a boutique creative agency he co-founded in 2020, recently acquired by WPP. 

 

The role:

We are seeking a visionary and authoritative Influence Strategy Director to own and elevate the strategic direction for some of our largest, most prestigious clients. You are an established industry leader with proven experience operating at a Strategy Director level within an influencer agency or leading influencer strategy in-house.

As a core part of the creative strategy leadership team, you will craft consumer and corporate strategies rooted in culture that earn the right to be seen and talked about. You will act as a strategic partner to our most senior clients, helping them navigate the complex intersection of paid, earned, and owned influence.

Beyond client ownership, you will be a growth driver for the agency, playing a pivotal role in significant new business pitches and helping to secure new client wins. You will act as a collaborator with Account and Creative leads to ensure the positive direction of all client activity.

Furthermore, as a leader within the department, you will help to design ways of working, empower team autonomy, and take a hands-on approach to mentoring and line managing our talented junior and mid-level strategists.

In our world, no day, nor brief, is the same. We need someone who is comfortable with agility and fast pace, champions cross-discipline collaboration, and brings an encyclopaedic knowledge of the influencer landscape to solve our clients' toughest business problems.

The Skillset

We are looking for an influence expert who can confidently own the room, pioneer new strategic models, and drive award-winning creative output.

Defining the problem: Masterminding strategic direction and cross-discipline integration.

• Challenges foundational assumptions and leads across disciplines so the entire picture makes sense.
• Helps senior clients formulate better briefs, tasks, and define the true nature of their business problems.
• Acts as an integral part of the senior client team; the definitive "go-to consultant" for influence strategy. 

Insight Creation: Finding, filtering, and rethinking data to inspire categories.

• Expert at identifying the right tensions and cultural truths; distils complex information into simple, motivating insights for influence strategy.
• Pioneers new research techniques with clients, getting to insights that shape entire businesses and categories.
• Able to brief, guide, and champion bespoke research methodologies when required.

Setting the Path: Giving inspiration, clarity & confidence.

• Shapes and sells innovative influencer strategies that address complex brand and business KPIs.
• Partners with Business Directors and Client Partners to proactively grow the scope and impact of influencer work across our biggest clients.
• Acts as a collaborator with Account and Creative leads to ensure positive, ambitious direction of client activity.

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

• Acts as an idea originator outside of main briefs, proactively seeking to develop new ideas and proactive models.
• Originates proactive influencer briefs that inspire clients and the agency on the boundless potential of influence.
• Articulates how an influence idea can impact all elements of a client's business, rather than just communications.

 

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

• Pioneers new ways of framing and selling an idea, consistently using compelling narratives and soundbites.
• Develops highly persuasive, memorable decks that frame complex strategies simply and powerfully for C-suite and Board-level stakeholders.
• Commands the room during major new business pitches, using narrative and visuals to win over senior stakeholders and secure new client wins.

 

Manifesting the Work: Crafting the experience journey and delivery detail.

• Influences senior clients into experimenting with new influencer channels, formats, content, and technology.
• Develops comprehensive influencer roadmaps that dictate how an idea can evolve over three to five years.
• Ensures smooth integration of earned-first ideas across paid and owned ecosystems.

 

Measurement and Effectiveness: Proving value and setting industry standards.

• Showcases recognised expertise linked to proving the value of influencer ideas to major organizations.
• Sets up projects for integrated evaluation from the start, differentiating between helpful and unhelpful data.
• Authors case studies, contributes to effectiveness reports, and sets new benchmarks for influencer effectiveness.

Team Leadership & Development: Cultivating a high-performing strategy team.

• Line manages, mentors, and develops a team of junior and mid-level strategists, championing a culture of continuous learning.
• Designs ways of working that support effective resource management, ensuring fair distribution of workload during peak periods or complex campaigns.
• Acts as the ultimate escalation point for complex issues, coaching the team in decisive problem-solving and proactive pre-planning.
• Empowers team autonomy while remaining responsible for overall team performance and maintaining transparent communication with agency leadership.

How we help you Thrive: 

•  25 days annual leave + 1 Volunteer Day 
• Bupa Healthcare
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave
• We have a Flexible Working Model with core working hours: 10am – 4pm
• A 1.5:1 Matching Pension Structure
• Wellbeing and Health: Up to £25.00 per month towards physical or online exercise class membership, Unmind membership, LifeWorks tool and annual eye tests and development budgets and Wellbeing incentives and activities throughout the year 
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Scheme
• Life Assurance
   

Our ambition is to attract the very best diverse talent to Ogilvy, and to be the employer of choice in the UK. We want everyone to feel welcome when they join us, and once they’re here, for them to want to stay with us, grow their career, and to feel they belong with us.

We are an equal opportunity employer and we’re committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone who wants to work at Ogilvy. For us, diversity, equity and inclusion is integrated into everything that we do. We believe that for creativity to flourish, everything about how we work must have diversity at its core. Your race, colour, ethnic, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, have no bearing on our hiring decisions, but we encourage everyone to feel free to express their true selves in an environment we are consistently striving to make as inclusive as possible.

We aim to facilitate an accessible and positive application experience for all candidates. If you require any adjustments from us to support you through the process or expect to require any adjustments to working conditions to be able to best perform in the role, please let us know. We are happy to consider all reasonable adjustments.

If you live with a disability and you would like to take advantage of our offer of a guaranteed interview under the Disability Confident Scheme, please ensure you fill out our voluntary Equal Opportunities Questionnaire when applying.