How do strategists aid your campaign? A strategist is the power behind the creativity within an agency.

Strategists tend to be multidimensional characters with great capacity for empathy and possessing excellent communication and listening skills, ultimately giving them the gift of insight. The need for a great strategist is particularly important in a creative agency, as it is them who harness both the creative and technical aspects of a client’s business.

A strategist in a creative agency can translate data to inform important decisions, conduct rigorous research into consumers, create tailored goals, and look at past campaigns to see what has and hasn’t worked. Because a strategist allows a business to understand themselves they are capable of adding immense value to them. Strategists are essential for any campaign in a creative agency. Let’s explore in more detail why they are so vital.

They understand your brand

Understanding the brand of a business is crucial in being able to comprehend how consumers perceive you, and in turn understand the competitive space you exist within. Any creative business needs to be able to understand its values, mission and represent these effectively through a distinct brand identity. The ability to have a deep understanding of a client's brand is a prerequisite to any strategic role and allows well informed decision making - with the consumer at its core.

In many ways, the strategist serves as the psychologist within a creative agency. They open discussion about what a business stands for, what their vision is, and what their goals are - as not everyone in a business will necessarily view these in a similar way. They facilitate discussion across different areas of the business and create cohesion for creatives.

Giving clients the opportunity to have a deep understanding of their brand and value proposition can be incredibly empowering for businesses. As a result, they are able to know what they uniquely offer, how it separates them from competing companies and what decisions they need to make to ensure consistent growth.

They understand your consumer

Consumers are at the heart of any business. Every decision is made with the consumer in mind. Why do they have this specific demand? How much are they willing to spend? Is their behaviour changing as society changes? Knowing the answers to these questions are crucial in creating goals, setting targets and understanding the business as a whole. Strategists help clients know exactly who their consumer is. Understanding consumers is important because it enables businesses to devise a marketing campaign that appeals directly to their needs, vulnerabilities and thus satisfies their consumer better than anyone else.

Knowing consumers isn’t just about understanding consumer needs, it is also about understanding consumer behaviour. This involves knowing what has led them to selecting a client’s service, what their lifestyle is, and what other services they use. With the help of a strategist, clients can create tailor made advertising campaigns that will drive sales and ensure growth.

Ultimately, a strategist has the ability to understand consumers beyond surface level observations. They will gather deep ethnographic insights and are able to translate this data in a way that is accessible and easy to understand.

They find solutions

If strategists are anything, they are solutions oriented. They have the ability to combine their understanding of a brand with their understanding of a consumer, to create a meaningful plan that solves issues. Strategists seek results through their campaigns and rely heavily on their understanding and data to create targeted campaigns that have the potential to drive sales and growth.

Data collected by strategists allows them to create sophisticated campaigns - for example understanding how to target consumers on the platforms they respond to best and at a time they are more likely to engage. The information they gather about brand identity and consumer behaviour informs the creation of simple, long-term goals.

Why you need a great Strategy team

It’s clear that strategy is incredibly important to the growth of a creative company. With a talented strategist, a company can flourish. An amazing strategist will be a jack of all trades, well-versed in research, with the ability to take complex data and make this information into reachable goals and digestible figures.

At Harmonic, we understand that a highly skilled and experienced strategist is essential to the growth of your creative agency and client success stories. Strategists often come from differing backgrounds and qualifications, equipping them with a well-rounded skill set that is certainly fundamental to this role. I recruit strategists for creative agencies - from junior, right up to director level.

In addition, because of our experience in creative industries, Harmonic understands the type of individuals suited to this role. So, if you are looking for an impressive Strategist, you know where to come!

Megan Little and Serena Haththotuwa