Brand Strategist

ABOUT SOURCESource is an independently owned, full-service advertising and sports marketing agency that's been inspiring action since 1983. We're a passionate team of professionals who believe ideas inspire action, and we bring those ideas to life for clients across advertising, sports marketing, and media platforms for consumer brands, franchise brands, B2B services, and beyond. With deep expertise in brand strategy, media, creative development, and sports partnerships, we work 360° around brands to deliver results that matter.Our culture? We're collaborative, enthusiastic, and relentless. We thrive on building strong relationships, thinking bigger, and celebrating wins together. If you're looking for a place where your voice matters and your growth is a priority, keep reading.THE ROLEWe're looking for a Brand Strategist who can step into any room and immediately sharpen the thinking, from client strategy meetings to new business pitches and internal creative sessions.The right person for this role knows how to get to the bottom of what a brand actually needs, what its audience cares about, and what the agency should be saying and doing to drive results. You'll work directly across every discipline — leadership, account, creative, and media. You need to be someone who can hold your own in any conversation and bring people along with you.You'll write briefs that creatives actually want to work from. You'll present strategies that clients trust. And you'll know the difference between an insight that sounds smart and one that actually changes something.This position reports directly to the President of the agency and is hybrid, with weekly presence in our Hackensack, NJ office.WHAT YOU'LL DOBrand Strategy & Creative Leadership·     You'll lead strategy across a range of engagements: brand positioning, architecture, messaging frameworks, campaign strategy, new product launches, and sports and experiential programs.·     You'll dig into what a client actually needs, which isn't always what they asked for, and build a strategic framework that solves the real problem.·     You'll write creative briefs that give the creative team something to push against, and you'll stay close to the work as it develops to make sure the strategy holds.·     You'll be a genuine contributor in creative sessions. Not just a strategic guardrail, but someone who makes the ideas better and isn't afraid to say when something isn't working.·     You think digital and social first and understand the full marketing mix: digital, traditional, experiential, social, and broadcast. You know how to build strategy that travels across all of it without losing its edge.Strategic Voice & Client PresenceThere's a version of this job where someone does great thinking and then hands it off. That's not this job.·     You'll be in the room presenting to CMOs, facilitating workshops, and leading annual planning sessions. You need to show up with real conviction, the kind that comes from having done the work and knowing what you're talking about.·     You write and speak with authority. Your briefs are clear and direct. Your decks stand on their own, but when you present them, the room pays attention.·     You bring clients ideas and perspectives they didn't ask for, because you've been thinking about their business even when there's no immediate deliverable on the table.·     You adapt how you communicate depending on who's in the room, but you don't water down the thinking. A brand manager and a CEO need to hear the same strategy differently, and you know how to do that.New Business & Agency Growth·     New business is part of this job. You'll be involved in pitches from the earliest stages: shaping the strategic angle, building the narrative, and presenting live.·     You'll look for opportunities to grow existing client relationships by bringing forward ideas and solutions before clients think to ask.·     You'll contribute to how Source shows up externally through POVs, trend perspectives, and thought leadership that reflects the agency's point of view on the industry.Research, Analytics & Insight Generation·     You'll lead brand audits, audience research, and competitive analyses. This means more than pulling secondary sources. You'll design the right research approach for each engagement, whether that's stakeholder interviews, focus groups, social listening, or survey work.·     You know how to work with data: campaign analytics, CRM outputs, media performance reports, and third-party research. More importantly, you know how to make sense of it. You're not just looking for patterns; you're looking for the thing that reframes the whole problem.·     You'll partner with media and data teams to set KPIs that mean something, build attribution frameworks that connect brand investment to business results, and translate performance data into strategic direction.·     You stay current on research tools, AI-driven analytics, and emerging methodologies because better tools lead to better thinking.·     You know when the data is telling you something important and when it's a distraction. That judgment is as valuable as any methodology.WHAT YOU BRING·     8–10 years of brand strategy experience at an agency, with real exposure to the full range of what that means — positioning, communications strategy, cultural and trend work.·     At least 3 years in a client-facing role where you were the one leading the conversation, not supporting it.·     A presentation style that earns trust. You can hold a room not because you're loud, but because you're prepared, clear, and credible.·     Writing that reflects how you think: precise, direct, passionate, and worth reading.·     Genuine research chops: qualitative and quantitative. You've designed studies, run them, and extracted what matters from them.·     Fluency with data: you're comfortable in analytics platforms, performance reports, and attribution models, and you know how to turn numbers into a strategic narrative.·     A digital/social first thinker with experience across the full marketing mix: digital, traditional, experiential, social, broadcast.·     A working knowledge of AI tools and how they apply to strategy, research, and insight development.·     Genuine curiosity about culture, consumer behavior, and what's changing in the industry — and the discipline to know what's actually relevant versus what's just noise.·     A collaborative instinct and the ability to work independently when needed. You don't need a lot of hand-holding, but you're not a lone wolf either.·     Bachelor's degree required; marketing or business background is a plus.Why Source?·      Work with a senior, experienced team·      Exposure to diverse clients across industries—from franchise brands to B2B·      A culture that celebrates collaboration, creativity, and results·      Competitive salary and benefits·      Location: Hackensack, NJ (Metro NYC area) with a hybrid office/work-from-home policy