About the role
Company description Publicis Groupe Africa is a leading marketing, communications, and business transformation network operating across 36 African countries, combining creativity, technology, and local insight to deliver integrated client solutions. Publicis Groupe Africa is part of Publicis Groupe, the second-largest communications group globally, founded in 1926.
The African network operates as a partnership of 44 communications agencies with offices spanning 36 countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, and many others Its headquarters are in Johannesburg and Cape Town, providing a central hub for continental operations. Telecommunications is one of the most dynamic categories in the market that sits at the intersection of technology, culture, connectivity, customer experience and everyday life. This role offers the opportunity to work with a leading telecommunications client and help shape the next generation of its agency partnership.
We are building a connected, future-fit model that brings together creativity, intelligence, data, technology, AI and world-class execution around the customer. It is an opportunity for ambitious strategists to influence the work, the operating model and the capabilities we build — creating a partnership designed not only for today's challenges, but for what comes next Overview The Strategist is a strategic practitioner responsible for developing effective, inspiring and actionable strategy across client briefs, proactive opportunities and new-business projects.
The role uses research, consumer understanding, culture, data and structured thinking to translate business objectives into strong strategic direction and compelling creative briefs. The Strategist works closely with senior strategy leadership, clients, creatives, media and partner agencies to ensure ideas are grounded in insight, connected across channels and aligned to clear objectives. A critical part of the role is to be a proactive thinker and collaborator — not simply an order taker — who can manage multiple workstreams, add value at every stage and grow toward greater strategic leadership.
Responsibilities STRATEGIC THINKING & DIRECTION Develop fit-for-purpose strategic solutions to client briefs, including challenging the perceived deliverable where the problem requires a different answer. Translate business objectives, audience understanding and research into clear strategic direction. Use appropriate frameworks, tools and structured thinking to solve marketing and broader business problems. Support development of integrated strategies across brand, communications, digital, content and customer experience.
Bring a provocative, curious point of view and add value beyond simply executing instructions. CLIENT & BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP Work with clients to understand their aims, objectives, business context and brand challenges. Build confidence through strong preparation, accurate thinking and clear presentation. Participate in client briefings, workshops and strategic working sessions. Present ideas, findings and strategic recommendations clearly and confidently. Develop a practical understanding of each client's business and category so recommendations are relevant and commercially grounded.
CONSUMER, CULTURE & MARKET INTELLIGENCE Analyse existing data, market reports, trends and research to identify meaningful consumer and cultural insight. Develop, manage and analyse research projects where required. Understand primary and secondary research and appropriate methods such as surveys, focus groups and desk research. Interpret cultural and social trends relevant to client business. Understand how macro and micro-economic factors influence consumer attitudes and behaviour.
DATA, AI & FUTURE-FIT STRATEGY Use AI responsibly to support research, synthesis, knowledge retrieval, scenario exploration and strategic development. Develop confidence working with digital data, performance metrics and web-based research tools. Use data as an input to thinking, moving beyond description toward strategic implication. Build working knowledge of digital transformation, customer journeys, personalisation and emerging technology. Apply human judgement to AI-assisted work and check sources, assumptions and outputs critically.
INTEGRATED STRATEGY & COLLABORATION Work collaboratively with Creative, Media, Client Leadership, Data, Technology and other agency disciplines. Liaise with strategic counterparts at partner agencies to maintain alignment to the overarching strategy. Help ensure discipline-specific work remains connected to the approved strategic direction. Contribute to integrated planning across multiple channels, including digital. Collaborate without ego while also being able to work effectively independently.
BRIEFING & UPSTREAM PLANNING Challenge and craft briefs to ensure the right information is available and clarified upfront. Translate strategy into concise, inspiring creative briefs that pro