Manager, Business Development Strategy

At Viral Nation, we specialize in building social-first ecosystems for brands to connect with the modern consumer journey. Our integrated solutions align strategy, talent, media, and technology with culturally relevant creativity to scale the world’s fastest-growing digital brands. Viral Nation offers a fluid, creative, and growth-oriented environment that will support your ambitions to apply your talents in an open, collaborative, and fast-paced culture. Our ability to stay at the forefront of the industry has fueled our success and will guide us in paving the path forward. We’re driven to push boundaries and think beyond today to deliver strategies, and we’re just getting started.

While we continuously exceed our goals, we need your help – our success is only as great as our people. Strong performance leads to high expectations, and we must keep raising the bar!

Viral Nation is seeking a highly motivated and experienced individual to join our team as the Manager, Business Development Strategy. Reporting directly to the Head of Strategy, you will be responsible for leading the development of new business strategies and leading the BD strategy team. You are the strategic steward of bringing the world’s biggest brands into the attention economy and are an expert at making data-driven decisions that will help our clients achieve their business goals. As the Manager of Business Development Strategy, you will play a critical role in the development of insight-informed strategies that build a strong business case for our partners to achieve their short and long-term goals.

As a Senior Strategy Manager, you will focus on social transformation and the opportunity at hand for our partners to develop a business case for leveraging the social space and platforms to generate awareness, revenue and be a bigger component of their marketing strategies. You will own, evolve, influence, and execute on these strategies. This exciting role involves partnership with cross-functional teams, including Sales, Product and creative to execute on initiatives with high complexity and/or business impact. You will own the evolution of our customer experience, bringing innovation and strategic thought to create the optimal customer journey as we migrate customers to more sustainable and reliable future-focused solutions.

In addition, this role will allow you to utilize your best-in-class oral and written communication skills to build compelling stories to achieve “buy-in” on why change is necessary to grow the business and clearly articulate the journey required to achieve it.

Qualifications

What you bring:

• Strong communication skills
• Excellent project management and change management skills
• All other duties as assigned
• Post-Secondary diploma/certification in business or equivalent experience
• Act as a thoughtful, consultative partner to our clients and internal cross-functional teams
• Develop frameworks and methodologies for approaching major strategic issues
• Oversee RFP response development to ensure internal alignment and rally the team, stakeholders and clients behind strategic recommendations.
• Design thought-provoking, clear creative briefs, inspiring our teams to build great ideas that exceed our client’s objectives
• Provide strategic POVs on client’s areas of business, as requested
• Work with clients to determine clear objectives, goals, KPI’s, strategies and tactics
• Lead strategic discussions, providing guidance and direction without supervision.
• Accountable for defining strategy, roadmap and requirements, business case, and ideating creative solutions that will transform the way our clients leverage the social landscape to achieve brand and business goals.
• Thrive in ambiguity with the ability to transform the complicated into simple
• Create and confidently present client-facing materials
• Partner research & measurement to ensure projects are measured and to identify key learnings & opportunities
• Participate in new business pitches, as needed
• Highly motivated, creative and self-starter with the ability to work successfully under pressure
• Be a knowledge champion of customers, culture, and competition, helping our teams better understand our client’s landscape
• Strong analytical, business and financial acumen; strong problem-solving skills and ability to use analytics to distill insights that allow you to make thoughtful, strategic recommendations
• Translate real-time insights and data into meaningful, actionable strategies.
• Strong ability to build business relationships with cross-functional teams
• Compelling story-telling skills and ability to distill complex problems into concise summaries
• Identify gaps or inconsistencies in strategic development and RFP work, providing critical direction and refining the overall strategies and work being developed.
• Experience delivering and developing executive-level presentations
• Implement methods for organizing thinking and streamlining the approach, introducing relevant frameworks where applicable for the team.

Creative Leadership:

• Provide a creative voice and lead brainstorming sessions with external and internal stakeholders and clients.
• Ensure a high quality of work produced by the BD Strategy Team at all times.
• Deliver clear and compelling presentations internally and externally.
• Facilitate and lead collaborative work sessions, distilling and outputting strategic insights.

Leadership and Management:

• Maintain an up-to-date database of incoming strategy work and major projects.
• Act as a resource and sounding board within the team, offering credible counsel to internal and external stakeholders.
• Balance longer-term department and agency initiatives with short-term proposals and immediate team requirements.
• Manage workflow planning and coordination of all incoming projects and RFPs, ensuring tight deadlines are met.
• Share learnings, best practices, and relevant industry insights with the team.
• Develop and update custom onboarding materials to reflect evolving standards of work and quality.
• Provide department leadership, shape team structure and processes, and introduce necessary tools and training.
• Identify areas of efficiency within the team and department.
• Foster a positive, and inviting team culture, and oversee the quality of work and transition to client teams.

Additional:

• Continuously seek areas of strategic efficiency and improvement across the company.
• Assist or lead major company-wide projects or initiatives as needed.
• Mentor junior co-workers across the company.
• Demonstrate dedication to delivering high-quality work.

Qualifications:

• Experience developing creative strategies for RFPs and pitches.
• 2-3 years of experience in the influencer marketing industry.
• Strong understanding of digital and social marketing, e-commerce, omnichannel integration, and social media trends and technology.
• Authorized to work in a permanent role in Canada.
• Well-spoken and confident in all client communications including strategic presentations, sales pitches and strategy sessions.
• Solid understanding of the new consumer journey and reaching consumers
• Proficiency in Google Drive software (Docs, Sheets, and Slides) and Microsoft Office.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, Public Relations, or Business, or equivalent work experience.
• Ability to work under pressure and deliver high-quality work on quick deadlines.
• 5-7 years of proven agency/in-house experience in marketing, strategy, creative accounts, or influencer marketing preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal, team, and written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience managing teams and project management for at least 3 years.

Viral Nation is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our agency. Viral Nation welcomes applications from people with visible and non-visible disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the recruiting and selection process.