Job Description:
Chief Strategy Officer
About Carat
As a global media buying agency, we put people at the centre of everything we do, identifying and optimising audiences to deliver client outcomes.
We are experience designers, not simply media planners. We build winning experiences by going deeper into consumer empathy and further into the possibilities of what's next in media and beyond. We don't sit back. We pioneer in media, positively advocating for people, business and society in everything that we do.
The Role
London | Hybrid
You'll set, champion and evolve the strategy and planning vision for Carat UK, translating our global vision into a Growth Planning approach. Leading a blended team of Growth Planners and Analysts, you'll move our strategic output beyond campaign responses to transformational Growth Blueprints that identify new routes to growth and deliver step-change commercial outcomes for clients.
This is a shift towards commercially driven, quantitative strategy: bringing strategy, planning and analytics together to model growth levers and customer penetration, then connect that analysis to technology roadmaps and clients' platform maturity.
You'll embed this approach across the team, coordinating specialist expertise rather than personally delivering every discipline.
You'll define how media, customer experience, data, creative and dynamic creative optimisation, analytics, technology and AI work together as a connected growth operating system. Bringing together capabilities across Dentsu, you'll connect teams around one client agenda and identify opportunities to introduce new services.
You'll own the direction, quality and modernisation of the Strategy & Planning practice, from strategic craft standards and capability development to future talent needs. Working with Carat leadership, you'll ensure your team has access to the tools and training it needs, while building Carat's external profile through client work and industry thought leadership.
Key Responsibilities
Growth Strategy & Planning
Own Carat UK's Growth Planning proposition and Growth Blueprint, setting a clear vision and process for the practice.
Build a deep understanding of clients' business objectives and growth goals, translating these into integrated strategies and compelling client narratives.
Put quantitative analysis at the centre of Growth Planning, using analytics to model routes to commercial growth and increased customer penetration. Combine this evidence with creativity and consumer insight, with a greater emphasis on numerical growth planning than on creative platform writing.
Measurement, Experimentation & Innovation
Connect strategy, measurement, experimentation and AI into one approach, owning Growth Planning and measurement throughout the campaign lifecycle rather than ending at the initial response to brief.
Lead the agency's innovation agenda and champion Dentsu processes, tools and technology, taking accountability for your team's development in evolving areas.
Role-model analytics and platform literacy, guiding the development of measurement frameworks, experimentation and future capabilities.
Strategic Leadership & Industry Profile
Own and champion Carat's strategic market position and agency story, representing the agency through industry events and published thought leadership.
Build trusted executive client relationships that drive advocacy for Carat's partnership, and own the strategic narrative across key clients, setting the Growth Blueprint and best practice for integrated communications with teams and partners.
Lead major strategic pitches and act as a "pitch doctor", providing senior strategic counsel across all major strategic output.
Champion award-winning work, identifying relevant categories and encouraging teams to deliver against Carat's ambitions.
Integrated Growth Leadership
Bring together Dentsu's specialist and technology capabilities, including partnerships, retail and DC4.0, to create new growth…