Role: Group Strategy Director

Location: Chicago, Illinois

About the role:

Inside Ideas is looking for a Group Strategy Director to bring a portfolio of 20+ beverage brands to the cutting edge of culture across US and Canada Markets. Social is at the heart of how our brands connect with consumers — you'll set the strategic direction across paid social, organic social, creator and influencer programs, community management, and more while building and running a high-performing team of strategists and community managers. Part strategic visionary, part hands-on craft leader, you'll establish the frameworks, quality standards, and working practices that keep every brand in the portfolio strategically coherent, culturally relevant, and driving measurable outcomes.

As a member of the Leadership Team, you'll partner closely with Creative, Production, and Account — contributing to the studio's direction, growth agenda, and commercial performance. You'll also serve as the team's primary strategic voice in senior client conversations, translating our client’s business objectives into strategy and building the trusted partnerships that open doors to greater scope and ambition.

What you will be doing:

• Lead the Strategy department — managing strategists and community managers, setting a clear vision, building a high-performance culture, and developing talent at every level.

• Own the social strategy direction across 20+ beverage brands across US and Canada — developing channel strategies, audience frameworks, and content philosophies across paid, organic, creator/influencer, and community that are insight-led, brand-right, and platform-native.

• Establish and uphold strategic quality standards — reviewing and elevating team output from brief through execution and reporting, using performance data and cultural insights to set meaningful KPIs and drive continuous improvement.

• Evolve specialist practices at portfolio scale — maturing the community management function, shaping creator and influencer strategy, and refining how we measure and report our effectiveness.

• Serve as the primary strategic voice with senior client stakeholders — building trusted, long-term partnerships and presenting confidently to brand, marketing, and leadership teams.

• Partner with the Leadership Team on operational planning, resourcing, new business development, and the studio's growth agenda — contributing as a business leader, not just a discipline lead.

• Champion the responsible integration of AI tools and emerging platforms — building team capability, setting quality standards for AI-assisted work, and ensuring AI enhances rather than detracts from strategic quality.

What you need to be great in this role:

• Experience: 10+ years in social and cultural strategy, in agency and/or in house brand settings. Proven success leading and developing strategy teams across multiple brands.

• Strong strategic foundations: Strong brand and communications strategy fundamentals, with social as a core area of expertise.

• Culture-forward mindset: A passion for staying at the forefront of social trends and platform shifts, regularly sharing insight with clients and teams. You confidently lead conversations on culture, platform evolution, and creative innovation.

• Platform expertise: Deep expertise across paid social, organic social, creator/influencer, and 360 campaigns — with a proven track record of setting strategic direction across complex, multi-brand portfolios, as well as guiding always-on and reactive social work.

• Empathetic leadership: Demonstrated ability to build, manage, and inspire a multi-disciplinary team — with an inclusive, outcome-focused approach and a genuine commitment to developing talent.

• Collaborative nature: Inclusive and effective leadership across strategy, creative, production, account, and data functions, as part of a senior studio leadership team.

• Senior client management experience: Confident presenting and influencing at brand director and CMO level, managing multi-brand relationships, and building partnerships based on trust, strategic rigor, and commercial understanding.

• Data & Research Fluency: Developed ability to draw strategic insight from performance data, set meaningful KPIs, and use measurement to continuously improve the work while confidently articulating learnings across internal and brand teams.

• Thought Leadership: Proven integration of Gen AI tools across strategy workflows. Strong judgment about when AI adds value versus when it risks detracting from strategic quality, brand authenticity, and community trust.

Req ID: 18901

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