VP-Head of Strategy

The VP/Head of Strategy role is integral to Harte Hanks’ Marketing Services creating and delivering differentiated, multi-/omni-channel communications solutions to our existing clients and new business prospects. Overseeing the practice of insight creation to power deeply relevant customer engagement marketing, as well as specialist digital functions, this person will help deliver “CRM 3.0” solutions to major clients including: Bank of America, Sony, L’Oréal, Nationwide, BMW, Cisco, IBM and many others. Significant agency experience is required for this pivotal position that will drive superior customer-centric thinking into our creative briefing and overall program planning process. Working closely with the SVP of Client & Strategy and SVP of New Business, you’ll lead focused capabilities in Market Research, UX, Digital and Social with the goal of serving clients across each specialization, depending on their maturity in each of our Five Pillars of customer engagement marketing : Market Segmentation, Personas, Buyer’s Journey, Content/Experience, and Data & Martech Ecosystem.

If you are ready to drive Harte Hanks’ leadership in one-to-one marketing to drive relevance and helpfulness for one-to-moment interactions, then you’re ready to apply for this incredibly important role.

Essential Responsibilities and Deliverables

• Provide planning and insights to clients as required, participating in client meetings, business reviews, etc
• Provide strategic perspective and prescriptive direction to strategy team for growth opportunities for new and existing clients, as it relates to the strategy practice
• Work with Marketing Services unit leaders to better integrate and deliver across analytic, strategic, creative and digital experience delivery competencies
• Provide internal and external thought leadership, both individually and supporting team efforts
• Support the development of multi-/omni channel communication plans, including but not limited to: email, direct mail, Web, mobile and social communications including ongoing lifecycle messaging strategy, measurement-optimization plans, segmentation-level messaging, frequency and timing
• Build case studies and thought leadership from client work
• Build a program of continuous improvement in the practice of insight creation, working closely with Analytics, Research and Client Services teams
• Lead and/or participate in discovery meetings and client workshops

Leadership and Management:

• Maintain a management style of engagement, professionalism and openness
• Build relationships across functions; establish rapport, trust and credibility
• Evaluate and develop team members to align capabilities with roles, business needs and career development
• Maintain clarity of and communicate company vision and values
• Facilitate communication and collaboration within Strategy team and across Harte Hanks.
• Actively monitor and improve employee commitment

• Supervises work of others, including planning, assigning and scheduling work, reviewing work and ensuring quality standards, training staff and overseeing their productivity. Make recommendations for hiring, termination and pay adjustments, but does not have responsibility for making these decisions.

Qualifications, Knowledge, and Skills

Education (Preferred):

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Experience/Knowledge/Skills (Preferred):

• 15+ years of marketing experience, with strong agency understanding
• Experience in leading teams, and managing resources across an organization
• Understanding of marketing concepts such as: customer relationship marketing, segmentation, analytics, competitive analysis, communication strategy, planning, social media, mobile marketing, search marketing, Web site marketing, progressive profiling, preference center, lead generation, email, direct mail, media (planning & optimization)
• Strong understanding and proven track record of insight creation: workshops, desk and field research, analysis of campaign metrics, behavioral data and more
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, being able to clearly present ideas and concepts to both internal and external teams
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills to influence and build credibility; team oriented, collaborative, diplomatic and flexible
• Excellent presentation and writing skills
• Ability to lead a project from beginning to end—to marshal resources and persuade clients of the value of a program.
• Ability to work independently and in conjunction with multiple teams in multiple locations.
• Proven track record of developing strategies that have resulted in new business wins or existing business growth.
• Ideal candidate will have category knowledge across finance/insurance, healthcare(pharma & insurance), b2b tech and automotive.

Personal Attributes

• Gravitas with senior marketers, a storyteller with customers as the heart of everything you do
• Assimilates and synthesizes information easily and can easily adapt to more complex information processing
• Able to engage and excite others in their vision
• Capable of precise communication, within tight timelines, across all effective channels
• Interpret routine communications effectively with an ability to analyze more complex verbal information
• Achievement oriented
• Tendency to be outgoing, people-oriented, and foster an environment of collaboration
• Be nimble, move quickly to make reasonable decisions, relative to facts known at the time
• Self-motivated and directed, with keen attention to detail

*THIS POSITION IS LOCATED ONSITE AT OUR TREVOSE, PA OFFICE AND WILL CONSIDER RELOCATION*

Job Type: Full-time

Experience:

• marketing experience, with strong agency understanding: 10 years (Required)

Work authorization:

• United States (Required)