Senior Influence Strategist

About Ogilvy   Ogilvy, part of WPP, 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.   About WPP WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com. Location: London Department: PR, Social & Influence Reporting Into: Group Head of Strategy Full Time / Part Time: Full Time Contract Type: 12-month Fixed Term Contract  About the Role This is an exciting opportunity at Ogilvy to play a pivotal role in elevating our social capabilities for 2026, helping us redefine our social and content offer and realize our new global ambition of ‘building social brands’. Ogilvy is seeking an experienced Social Strategy Director, responsible for setting the standard for social-first strategic thinking within the agency and exciting our high-profile clients about the opportunities of social. The ideal candidate is relentlessly curious about social, deeply immersed in culture, trends and conversation, and a thought leader who can challenge traditional thinking. Collaborating closely with clients, you'll gain a deep understanding of their businesses, target audiences, and brand values, translating this knowledge to develop inventive strategic solutions tailored to meet each client’s distinct objectives, to secure social buy-in and drive tangible outcomes. Your experience will span socially led campaigns as well as always on organic social and editorial thinking. As a mentor and leader, you'll guide and support junior team members in their professional growth, fostering an environment of collaboration and agility. You’ll advocate for diversity of thought and champion inclusive approaches. Your ability to lead, inspire, and collaborate with others will be integral to thriving in this ever-evolving industry.   Key Responsibilities * Strategy leadership: Lead the development of best-in-class social strategies that are firmly rooted in clients’ overall business and brand objectives, incorporating the latest trends and best practices. Drive demand for the strategy department's services internally and externally (part of this will be through the consistent delivery of the teams’ exceptional strategic work). * Client relationship management: Build and maintain strong relationships with clients to deeply understand their business, target audience and brand ethos, and formulate campaigns that resonate and yield results. Quickly and intuitively uncover client business challenges, mine for unique insights, and develop innovative social and content strategies that uniquely solve those challenges in social and build their brand. * Team leadership & collaboration: Line manage a team of brilliant strategists and foster collaboration, curiosity and best-in-class delivery of strategy. Mentor the team through the development of their strategies, providing feedback and counsel. Offer mentorship and guidance to junior team members, cultivating their skills and fostering career growth. Partner with internal teams—creative, account, and media—to ensure campaign integration aligns with overall brand strategy. Craft briefs that distil that strategic thinking into clear direction for creative teams. * Thought leadership & industry influence: Emerge as a thought leader both within the agency and the industry at large, sharing insights, trends, and best practices with teams and clients. This may involve contributing to group-level thought leadership as well as championing social-first thinking within the agency. Push traditional thinking and develop unique social narratives. Stay abreast of industry trends, platform updates, and emerging technologies to establish yourself to senior clients and agency colleagues as a thought leader in social. * Social excellence & innovation: Support the Social Excellence Lead by contributing to the ideation, development and implementation of game-changing social initiatives. Think laterally about how to uncover unique insights by working closely with our in-house Marketing Science partners to test hypotheses. Stay updated on the latest trends, technologies, and tools in influence and social marketing, applying and scaling this knowledge to clients to enhance campaign performance. * New business & pitch support: Contribute to new business pitches and proposals, infusing creative and strategic ideas to differentiate Ogilvy (this will be on an ad-hoc basis and dependant on resource).   About You We are open minded as to your background, and to whether you are a creative, strategist, creator or a blend of all of those things. You might even be a two-person team and we are open to that too. You don’t need to have worked in a big network agency and we are not expecting you to have run a big team, but we are looking for an entrepreneurial spirit and someone who can seek out opportunities to make brilliant, stand-out work that drives fame for our clients and us. You will bring some great experience with brands and some of those would ideally be multi-national clients. Here’s some characteristics we’ll be looking for: * Enthusiasm. This is first because it is the most important. We want people who radiate energy about the work and the impact they can have on it. * Our values are – Do the Right Thing, Do the Best Work of Our Lives, Do it Together. If all of those speak to you, you’ll love it here. * Innovation. Social is a space of constant change, experimentation is a huge part of how we get better and we’d love you to be bold about innovating and trying new things * Collaboratio We want to hear about how you have succeeded with team-mates, clients, creators etc as much if not more so than what you have achieved alone. * Cultural intelligence and inclusivity. You are culturally intelligent, champion diversity, and an inclusive culture and are supportive, inspiring and inclusive in the way you work and in the work that you produce.   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    Ogilvy champions innovation and the thoughtful application of AI. We encourage you to use AI tools to enhance your application and achieve the best possible results. During interviews, we may explore how you leverage AI, showcasing your judgment and ability to integrate these technologies effectively. Please ensure your application authentically reflects your own skills, experience, and unique contributions.     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.

About Ogilvy   Ogilvy, part of WPP, 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.   About WPP WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.  Influence Strategy Director Large FMCG Drinks Portfolio Department: Influence Location: London Contract type: Fixed-Term (12 months) Full Time/Part time: Full Time Reporting into: Head Of Influence Strategy 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. The agency specialises in bringing together brand advertising, customer experience marketing, PR, influence and consulting, all fueled by Behavioural Science. Our world-class award-winning creative campaigns deliver solutions for clients including Sainsbury’s, Lloyds Banking Group, Madri, Unilever and Mondelēz International. Ogilvy’s influencer marketing practice is the largest globally and the agency also hosts the world’s biggest festival of behavioural science and creativity, Nudgestock – which is now in its 12th year. James Murphy is the CEO of Ogilvy Group UK, which includes Ogilvy UK and New Commercial Arts (NCA), a boutique creative agency he co-founded in 2020, recently acquired by WPP.    The role: We are seeking a visionary and authoritative Influence Strategy Director to own and elevate the strategic direction for some of our largest, most prestigious clients. You are an established industry leader with proven experience operating at a Strategy Director level within an influencer agency or leading influencer strategy in-house. As a core part of the creative strategy leadership team, you will craft consumer and corporate strategies rooted in culture that earn the right to be seen and talked about. You will act as a strategic partner to our most senior clients, helping them navigate the complex intersection of paid, earned, and owned influence. Beyond client ownership, you will be a growth driver for the agency, playing a pivotal role in significant new business pitches and helping to secure new client wins. You will act as a collaborator with Account and Creative leads to ensure the positive direction of all client activity. Furthermore, as a leader within the department, you will help to design ways of working, empower team autonomy, and take a hands-on approach to mentoring and line managing our talented junior and mid-level strategists. In our world, no day, nor brief, is the same. We need someone who is comfortable with agility and fast pace, champions cross-discipline collaboration, and brings an encyclopaedic knowledge of the influencer landscape to solve our clients' toughest business problems. The Skillset We are looking for an influence expert who can confidently own the room, pioneer new strategic models, and drive award-winning creative output. Defining the problem: Masterminding strategic direction and cross-discipline integration. * Challenges foundational assumptions and leads across disciplines so the entire picture makes sense. * Helps senior clients formulate better briefs, tasks, and define the true nature of their business problems. * Acts as an integral part of the senior client team; the definitive "go-to consultant" for influence strategy.  Insight Creation: Finding, filtering, and rethinking data to inspire categories. * Expert at identifying the right tensions and cultural truths; distils complex information into simple, motivating insights for influence strategy. * Pioneers new research techniques with clients, getting to insights that shape entire businesses and categories. * Able to brief, guide, and champion bespoke research methodologies when required. Setting the Path: Giving inspiration, clarity & confidence. * Shapes and sells innovative influencer strategies that address complex brand and business KPIs. * Partners with Business Directors and Client Partners to proactively grow the scope and impact of influencer work across our biggest clients. * Acts as a collaborator with Account and Creative leads to ensure positive, ambitious direction of client activity. Ideation: Helping creative & other disciplines come up with better ideas, faster. * Acts as an idea originator outside of main briefs, proactively seeking to develop new ideas and proactive models. * Originates proactive influencer briefs that inspire clients and the agency on the boundless potential of influence. * Articulates how an influence idea can impact all elements of a client's business, rather than just communications.   Prototyping and Storytelling: Defining, communicating & selling the idea. * Pioneers new ways of framing and selling an idea, consistently using compelling narratives and soundbites. * Develops highly persuasive, memorable decks that frame complex strategies simply and powerfully for C-suite and Board-level stakeholders. * Commands the room during major new business pitches, using narrative and visuals to win over senior stakeholders and secure new client wins.   Manifesting the Work: Crafting the experience journey and delivery detail. * Influences senior clients into experimenting with new influencer channels, formats, content, and technology. * Develops comprehensive influencer roadmaps that dictate how an idea can evolve over three to five years. * Ensures smooth integration of earned-first ideas across paid and owned ecosystems.   Measurement and Effectiveness: Proving value and setting industry standards. * Showcases recognised expertise linked to proving the value of influencer ideas to major organizations. * Sets up projects for integrated evaluation from the start, differentiating between helpful and unhelpful data. * Authors case studies, contributes to effectiveness reports, and sets new benchmarks for influencer effectiveness. Team Leadership & Development: Cultivating a high-performing strategy team. * Line manages, mentors, and develops a team of junior and mid-level strategists, championing a culture of continuous learning. * Designs ways of working that support effective resource management, ensuring fair distribution of workload during peak periods or complex campaigns. * Acts as the ultimate escalation point for complex issues, coaching the team in decisive problem-solving and proactive pre-planning. * Empowers team autonomy while remaining responsible for overall team performance and maintaining transparent communication with agency leadership. 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.