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.
Senior Social Strategist
Department: Social Strategy
Location: London
Contract type: 12-Month FTC
Full Time/Part time: Full time
Reporting into: Social Excellence Lead
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. We are the most awarded agency in Europe and we specialise in bringing together brand advertising, customer experience marketing, PR, influence and consulting, all fuelled by Behavioural Science. Our world-class award-winning creative campaigns deliver solutions for clients including Molson Coors, Mondelēz International, Unilever, and many more. Ogilvy is reimagining how brands are built in the age of social, and has built a team of social experts who embrace the chaos of social, using it as the business engine behind the brand and creating earned-first impact through creativity.
The Role:
This is an exciting opportunity at Ogilvy to play a key role in elevating our social capabilities for 2025, helping us redefine our social and content offer and realize our new global ambition of ‘building social brands’. Ogilvy is seeking an experienced Senior Strategist who will sit within our Social Strategy team. They will be responsible for collaborating closely with clients to gain a deep understanding of their businesses, target audiences, and brand values and developing bold creative strategies that answer their unique challenges. You’ll take full ownership of key workstreams and use your deep social knowledge to develop innovation strategic solutions. You’ll also benefit from being part of Ogilvy’s wider strategy community where you’ll work alongside - and learn from - specialised strategists in PR, influence, brand and experience, as well as experts in behavioural science and consulting.
As a mentor and a leader, you’ll help guide and support junior team members in their professional growth and strategic development, because you know what great social strategy looks like. You’ll advocate for diversity of thought and champion inclusive approaches from the team, because you know that strategy can come in lots of different flavours and a great insight can be found anywhere.
Key Responsibilities:
- Strategic development and execution: Lead the development of social and content strategies, playbooks, workshops, and measurement frameworks for clients (with guidance from the team lead on bigger projects). Adapt the strategic output based on client need (e.g. tissue decks, strategic responses, paths forward, workshops, etc). Define the brands’ role of social and create messaging frameworks with clear content pillars, all laddering back to the overall brand vision and supported by social intelligence data. Build trust and rapport with clients and colleagues and sell them on your strong strategic thinking.
- Creative briefing: Develop strategic creative territories and write clear briefs for the creative team to explore them. Articulate social-first creative ideas to clients and help them understand how/ why they work.
- Insight mining and creative problem solving:. Intuitively understand client challenges and leverage business data to get to the core of the problem. Uncover unexpected insights from a diverse range of sources to help shape your social communication strategies. Interpret reporting data to suggest improvements to campaign or organic social performance.
- Impactful storyteller and engaging presenter: Inspire internal and external stakeholders on the strategic opportunities of social and present narratives in compelling and memorable ways. Design and lead workshops/ client presentations and act as an ideas catalyst and strategic partner for clients, asking insightful questions to get clients thinking differently about their brand on social.
- Leading and mentoring junior team members:. Provide mentorship and guidance to junior team members, fostering their growth and leading by example. Contribute to Ogilvy's culture of excellence, innovation, and impactful creativity. Know what a great social strategy looks like and help upskill team members on that thinking.
- Thinking social first, not social only: Possess a deep understanding of social best practises, trends, tools and technologies and apply this knowledge to clients to enhance their campaign performance. Share industry insights and best practices to inspire internal teams and clients. Understand and articulate how social works within the larger media ecosystem and within the client’s broader campaign/ business goals.
- Collaborating cross functionally: Think laterally about how to uncover unique insights by working closely with our in-house Marketing Science partners to test hypotheses and get to the right answers. Ensure alignment of campaigns with brand strategies by collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams. Contribute to new business pitches and proposals, infusing industry insights and creative ideas.
Requirements:
- Experience designing tailored strategic social plans that address diverse business goals, incorporating latest social trends and best practises.
- Relentlessly curious about social, with a deep knowledge of social trends, platforms and aesthetics. A proactive approach to staying updated with industry trends, tools, and technologies.
- Experience defining the role of social for brands and creating messaging frameworks for brands with clear content territories/ pillars.
- Experience in creative agencies or equivalent environments. Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, managing multiple projects and priorities efficiently.
- Demonstrated ability to provide mentorship and guidance to junior team members. Commitment to fostering inclusivity and embracing innovative approaches to strategy development.
- Effective presentation skills to convey ideas and strategies convincingly. Ability to lead presentations/ workshops confidently.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with XFN teams and with colleagues from diverse disciplines and backgrounds.
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
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 - 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.
Ogilvy is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
If you need any assistance seeking a job opportunity, or if you need reasonable accommodation with the application process, please contact us at accommodations@ogilvy.com. Please note that this contact is only for candidates who are requesting accommodation. Emails for other purposes, including application status requests, will not receive a response.
