Creative Strategist, Advisors Creative Desk

About the role

The Services team at Mastercard provides consulting, marketing, loyalty and analytics to financial institutions and merchants globally. The Advisors Creative Desk is a full-service creative and advertising capability within Services, helping clients build and grow their brands from brand positioning and strategy through creative development, campaigns and content. As Creative Strategist, you develop data-driven brand and communication strategies, turning consumer, cultural and market insights into clear strategic direction for creative teams.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and execute brand, creative and communication strategies for clients aligned to brand and objectives, using data-informed insights
• Ensure the creative strategy is handed over clearly to the Creative Manager and jointly brief the creative development team
• Support Creative Managers with ideation for smaller client projects and take part in ideation for larger, strategically important projects, guiding the creative team and liaising with clients
• Manage multiple briefs and projects at once
• Contribute to estimating, negotiating and agreeing timescales with Creative Strategy Managers
• Carry out extensive research using primary and secondary data to gather market intelligence, analyse categories and consumers, and lay the foundation for strategy
• Keep up to date with consumer behaviour, creative and media trends

Required profile

• Minimum of 8 years' strategic experience in leading advertising agencies, preferably global network agencies, in a role such as Senior Strategist, Associate Strategy Director or above
• Demonstrated success in high-impact, big-budget integrated marketing campaigns
• Bachelor's degree required; a Master's in Marketing, Creative Communications or an MBA is highly preferred
• Open to travel as needed
• Proficiency in English; Arabic is a strong advantage

Required skills

• Brand strategy, campaign planning and full-funnel customer journey management across ATL, BTL, digital and direct channels
• Managing external and internal stakeholders and influencing award-winning creative outcomes
• Strong understanding of consumer behaviour, market research and competitive analysis, including briefing external research agencies
• Defining client briefs, presenting concepts to clients and communicating ideas effectively
• Working under pressure