Creative Strategist, Advisors Creative Desk

About the Role
The Services team is a key differentiator, providing cutting-edge services that help customers grow. Centered on data-driven technologies and innovation, this team offers consulting, marketing, loyalty, and analytics to financial institutions and merchants globally. The Advisors Creative Desk, a full-service creative and advertising capability within Services, assists clients in building and growing their brands through end-to-end solutions, from brand positioning and strategy to creative development, campaigns, and content.

The Creative Strategist in the Advisors Creative Desk develops data-driven brand and communication strategies, translating consumer, cultural, and market insights into clear strategic direction for creative teams. This role collaborates closely with strategy leads, creatives, and clients to shape strategic thinking and drive effective creative outcomes across multiple briefs.

Responsibilities
As a Creative Strategist, you will:

• Develop and execute brand, creative, and communication strategies for clients that align with their brand and objectives, using data-informed insights.
• Ensure smooth handover and understanding of the creative strategy to the respective Creative Manager; jointly brief the creative development team to enable execution.
• Support Creative Managers with smaller client project creative ideation sessions as needed.
• Participate in creative ideation sessions for larger client projects of strategic importance, guiding the creative team and interfacing with clients as necessary until completion.
• Manage multiple briefs and projects simultaneously.
• Contribute to estimating, negotiating, and agreeing on timescales with Creative Strategy Managers.
• Conduct extensive research for each project to gather market intelligence, analyze the category and consumers, and lay the foundation for strategy.
• Stay up-to-date on marketing and in-market trends regarding consumer behavior, creative strategies, and media trends.

Requirements

• Minimum of 8 years’ strategic experience within leading advertising agencies, preferably within global network agencies, currently holding a role such as Senior Strategist, Associate Strategy Director, or above.
• Demonstrated success in high-impact, big-budget integrated marketing campaigns.
• Proven expertise in developing comprehensive brand strategies, campaign planning, and managing full-funnel customer journeys across diverse channels, including ATL, BTL, digital, and direct marketing.
• Proven experience managing external and internal stakeholders.
• Track record of influencing award-winning creative outcomes through strategic guidance.
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior, market research, and competitive analysis; familiarity in engaging and briefing external research agencies and translating insights and data into actionable strategies.
• Adept at defining client briefs and presenting concepts back to clients, drawing on research and data.
• Strong conceptual thinking, problem-solving skills, and effective communication abilities.
• Skilled in working under pressure.
• Bachelor's degree required; advanced qualifications such as a Master's degree in Marketing, Creative Communications, or an MBA are highly preferred.
• Must be open and available to travel as needed.
• Proficiency in English is required; additional languages are a plus, with Arabic considered a strong advantage.

Corporate Security Responsibility
All activities involving access to assets, information, and networks come with an inherent risk to the organization. Therefore, it is expected that every individual working for or on behalf of the organization is responsible for information security and must:

• Abide by the organization’s security policies and practices.
• Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed.
• Report any suspected information security violation or breach.
• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with the organization's guidelines.