Associate Strategy Director

A visionary, critical & problem solver skilled at developing exciting culturally led strategies. An excellent storyteller who can forge senior global client relationships and become their trusted go-to person for all things strategy in Asia/MEA.

You love getting under the skin of a brand, culture, and customers to identify and unlock opportunities that grow brand value with insightful, creative solutions.

You have the itch to make your mark and a desire to test your strategic mettle on a client’s business to help transform a client’s business beyond the limitations of a single campaign - multi-year projects and plans excite you.

You are at a top-tier agency or even consultancy looking for a new, ambitious challenge. One that has real-world impact. You are bored of writing ethereal strategy decks that go nowhere. And frustrated that your Marcom strategies communicate transformational change but are not always the instigator of it. Experienced working with global brands, you have natural authority and a confident presence that you wear lightly with a smile.

**What can we do together?
McDonald's Family is a cornerstone of the brand representing $8 billion in revenue every year.

It’s undergoing one of the most exciting transformation initiatives in world marketing, as the brand responds to changing customer behavior (a shift from being a restaurant brand to a connected food service) and a need to become a more relevant part of Culture.

The transformation is ambitious in scale, with a wide range of innovation projects covering all aspects of the Family business: brand positioning, sustainability & brand purpose, Marcom, digital experience, food & packaging, toy development, brand partnerships, and retail.

The Marketing Store (TMS), a HAVI company, is one of the few top-tier global agencies working on this project. Within this set-up we are NOT playing a traditional ‘BTL’ role; we are a respected lead agency across all aspects of Family, but with specific responsibility as the Happy Meal global lead agency. Success is injecting relevancy and fresh equity into the 40-year-old Happy Meal brand for generations to come, pushing boundaries of what’s possible, winning awards, and raising the profile of the agency.

As the McDonald’s Family Associate Strategy Director for Asia/MEA, you will be instrumental in leading strategy & Calendar Planning in Asia / MEA, as well as working with the Global Family Strategy Lead on the development of global activations for Happy Meal.

**Strategy Team Vision, Goals & Ways of Working
Our vision is to connect strategic brand thinking & creative excellence with customer-led expertise to enable our clients to build their brands AND drive sales. To thrive in a changing marketing landscape.

From this vision we have three specific goals:

- **Elevate customer engagement **to the highest level within client organizations as a credible strategic discipline
- **Push the boundaries of what’s possible **- be at the cutting of customer engagement thinking
- **Ensure all of our work is highly effective**:

- i.e., from the customers’ perspective “make me want it” & “make it easy for me to buy it or interact with it”

**Requirements
- Minimum 5+ years of experience working on high-profile brands or transformative marketing projects
- Minimum degree in a marketing-related or relevant field
- Able to drive and lead strategy, build client relationships, and identify opportunities for clients to grow brand value
- Demonstrable experience working with, and translating, data and culture into meaningful insights that inspire breakthrough creativity
- A creative problem solver with deep experience working with cross-functional teams to provide clear, practical strategic & creative direction and feedback
- Master of the pen and compelling communicator with strong analytical and interpersonal skills.
- Organized, and detail-oriented with strong PowerPoint & Excel skills
- Excellent written and spoken English and Chinese language