Assistant Vice President, Strategy - Spirits

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership & Counsel: Lead strategy across the spirits portfolio, setting direction for key brand initiatives, campaigns and 360° activations. Advise senior clients and internal teams with a clear, insight-led point of view.
• Creative Strategy & Briefing: Lead the development of clear, inspiring briefs that give teams a focused problem to solve. Help evaluate and strengthen ideas so they are strategically sound, differentiated and culturally relevant.
• Campaign & Communications Strategy: Partnering with the PR & Digital Leadership, develop integrated strategies that connect business objectives, audience insights, brand positioning and cultural opportunity. Identify the communications challenge, strategic proposition, messaging, channel roles and activation principles.
• Brand Positioning & Messaging: Shape differentiated brand positioning, messaging frameworks and storytelling territories that support broader brand ambitions and create culturally relevant opportunities.
• Insights & Intelligence: Synthesize research, data, cultural intelligence and marketplace information to uncover meaningful audience insights and actionable opportunities. Develop a deep understanding of priority audiences, including their behaviors, motivations, cultural context and relationship with the brand and category. Translate these insights into clear strategic implications.
• Cultural & Competitive Intelligence: Monitor culture, consumer behavior, the spirits category, competitors and the broader communications landscape. Translate emerging trends and whitespace opportunities into strategic recommendations.
• Integrated Agency Leadership: Partner with creative, media, social, experiential and other agencies within brand IATs to create connected strategies and define each discipline’s role in bringing them to life.
• Strategic Storytelling & Presentations: Turn complex thinking into clear, persuasive narratives. Lead the strategic story for major presentations and influence senior clients through well-supported recommendations.
• Innovation & Thought Leadership: Bring forward emerging consumer, cultural and communications thinking that creates value for clients. Develop POVs that position the agency as a forward-thinking strategic partner, utilizing AI, consumer insights, and new technologies.
• New Business & Growth: Lead strategy for priority new business opportunities, shaping the central challenge, strategic point of view and pitch narrative.

Requirements

• Professional Experience: Brings at least eight years of full-time experience in PR, advertising or Creative services, with at least three years of experience in a leadership role in creative brief response
• Passion & Industry Knowledge: Genuine enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge of Luxury, Lifestyle and/or Entertainment industries, with a proven track record of delivering impactful large scale public relations campaigns. Priority verticals include Fashion, Music, Sports, Arts and Culture.
• Project Manager: At least two years of experience collaborating with multiple cross functional teams across multiple accounts and inter-agency teams and leading projects internally, and also as a lead communicator with clients. Responsive and strong organizational skills in multitasking various workstreams
• Leadership & Activation Management: Exemplifies proficiency in team management and developing strategiest for activations/programs exceeding a budget of $1M+, showcasing adept organizational skills and strategic resource allocation.
• Travel Flexibility: Embraces opportunities to travel for work-related events or meetings, allowing for engagement and collaboration across diverse settings.
• Communication Skills: Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, as well as a comfort in communicating with global brand executives. Understands when a process or next step is unclear, able to ask clients and IAT the right questions or challenge a brand on deliverables if expectations are no clear or reasonable.
• Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Embodies the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion; demonstrates self-awareness, cultural competency, and the ability to work with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds.
• Adaptability: Ability to thrive in a dynamic workplace, showcasing adaptability and resilience.

Benefits

• Health Benefits : Options for medical coverage through UnitedHealthcare, and Dental and Vision coverage through Principal
• Financial Security : Contribute to 401(k) plan for retirement with the potential agency contribution via year-end profit sharing
• Time Off : Enjoy 15 vacation days, with an extra day off on your birthday month
• Holiday Closure : Agency closed between Christmas and New Years for a well-deserved break, as well as 10 other holidays throughout the calendar year
• Summer Flexibility : Summer Fridays offer shorter work hours from Memorial Day to Labor Day
• Family Support : Benefit from 12 weeks of paid parental leave and formal policies to support working parents
• Phone Expenses : Receive business line, or have personal phone number covered on agency plan
• Technology : Company provided laptop and accessories, along with IT support
• Bonuses : Potential for discretionary end-of-year bonuses
• Agency Bonding : Engage in happy hours and our annual agency-wide offsite for camaraderie and celebration