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. The Creative Strategist develops 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
• Manage multiple briefs and projects at once
• Help estimate, negotiate and agree timescales with Creative Strategy Managers
• Conduct extensive research using primary and secondary data to gather market intelligence and analyse categories and consumers
• 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
• Proven expertise in brand strategy, campaign planning and full-funnel customer journeys across ATL, BTL, digital and direct channels
• Experience managing external and internal stakeholders and influencing award-winning creative outcomes
• 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, with Arabic a strong advantage

Required skills

• Strong understanding of consumer behaviour, market research and competitive analysis, including briefing external research agencies
• Able to define client briefs, present concepts and work under pressure