Director of Strategy and Business Development

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Director of Strategy and Business Development, Milano

Client:

KARLA OTTO

Location:

Milano

Job Category:

Other

EU work permit required:

Yes

Job Reference:

415144732596686028833710

Job Views:

2

Posted:

30.03.2025

Expiry Date:

14.05.2025

Job Description:

Karla Otto is a renowned public relations and communications agency with offices across 15 locations in the UK, EMEA, US, and Asia. Established in 1982 by Karla Otto herself, the agency has since grown to become a global leader in luxury brand PR and events.

With offices in major fashion capitals such as Milan, Paris, London, New York, and Los Angeles, Karla Otto represents some of the most prestigious fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands in the industry.

In 2017, Karla Otto and K2 merged to form The Independents, a global group of agencies for industry leaders across luxury and lifestyle. Currently, this group comprises 17 agencies: Bureau Betak & Bureau Future, Bureau Beatrice, Karla Otto, K2, The Qode, Lefty, Prodject, CTZAR, Atelier LUM, INCA Productions, Atelier Athem, Kennedy, Sunshine, Kitten Production, Kitty Events, and Lucien Pages Communication.

Our network of expert strategists, designers, planners, and publicists work tirelessly to deliver exceptional results and establish long-term partnerships with our clients. We are passionate about the world of fashion, beauty, and luxury, with everyone bringing their unique expertise and insights to the table. We are driven by a shared commitment to excellence and a deep understanding of the ever-evolving industry landscape.

To help support our future growth as an agency, we are looking for a Director of Strategy and Business Development to join our team based in Milan.

Key Responsibilities

The Director of Strategy will be a member of Karla Otto Milan’s integrated strategic and communications teams comprising experts in strategy, creative, talent, experiences, and communications who work with clients in the luxury fashion, beauty, hospitality, design, and lifestyle industries. This creative and strategic individual will be highly collaborative and required to build strong relationships across multiple departments to leverage all Karla Otto divisions.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker with a sharp visual eye who has strong copywriting skills and extensive experience creating pitch decks. They will be proactive and enjoy working collaboratively across various teams and functions. They will be skilled in creating impressive pitch decks in response to client briefs and RFPs and enjoy packaging and selling in ideas, verbally and visually. With the relevant teams, they will also be required to implement and execute certain projects to a very high standard, delivering brilliant work that generates value for both our clients and the agency.

The successful candidate will be a well-rounded strategist who is both creative and analytical and has strong experience in brand communications. A strong passion for and knowledge of current global trends is essential, as well as an interest in fashion, communities, talent, the wider cultural/social landscape, and complementary verticals (i.e., music, art, etc.). They will be tasked with creating concepts and programming offline spaces to drive buzz online.

Client Focus

• Work closely with the Chief Brand Officer and Creative Strategy team on pitches, answering client RFPs, and winning new business.
• Brilliant articulation of concepts in visual, written, and verbal form.
• Work with the supporting team to ideate and concept ideas that execute a brand’s vision and successfully deliver it to their target audiences and growth targets, including working collaboratively with the Talent and VIP departments to create brief guidelines and commercial targets, developing strategies with the comms teams and proactively identifying opportunities for clients within the local and international markets.
• Lead brand-appropriate strategies, including the targeting and positioning of brand(s), channel selection, and syndication/engagement tactics.
• Liaise closely with internal and external teams, proactively managing workflow and resolving issues, reacting to client and consumer feedback, etc.
• Remain ahead of all news and developments in brand marketing and communication strategy to advise clients on new opportunities and emerging strategies, as well as competitors and opportunities relevant to the luxury space.

Internal Focus

• Win internal trust, and build and develop long-term relationships with local market teams in Karla Otto’s global network of offices.
• Focus on new business acquisition, with a large focus on creating pitch decks, pitching, developing scope of works, etc.
• Stay ahead of emerging trends, content styles, platform advances and share learnings.
• Strong network and/or knowledge of global creatives across all industry verticals from brand, production, and talent.
• Analyze brand marketing and communication campaigns and translate results into recommendations and plans for revising social media, content marketing, and social advertising campaigns.
• Lead research around trends in social media tools, applications, channels, design, and strategy.
• Support implementation of the agency’s own mission statement.
• Liaise closely with internal teams, proactively managing workflow and resolving issues, reacting to client and consumer feedback, etc.
• Support teams across the agency’s various international locations within a creative and copywriting capacity when needed.
• Manage, support, and mentor junior team members including helping on administrative tasks where needed.
• Support Senior Director, Senior Vice President, and other senior team members, where required.
• Oversee administrative tasks where required.

Key Attributes

• Past agency/client experience is required.
• Fluent in English (mother-tongue) – Italian and additional languages are advantageous.
• Excellent copywriting, communication, and presentation skills.
• Proficient in both the creative and analytical side of marketing, able to demonstrate why their ideas are analytically sound.
• High-level execution skills and meticulous attention to detail, both aesthetically and organizationally.
• Collaborative team player but with the ability to work autonomously to deliver to brief and on-time.
• A positive, can-do attitude who can work under pressure and likes to solve problems.
• An innovative thinker with an open attitude and eagerness to learn new things.
• A real team player who will excel in a dynamic and fast-paced environment.
• Ability to juggle multiple projects and work to stringent deadlines.
• Good listening and diplomacy skills.
• Proficiency in Keynote, PowerPoint.

At Karla Otto, we are always looking for personalities with positive charisma who are enthusiastic, self-motivated, and have a keen sense of aesthetics.

Karla Otto embraces and celebrates diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Karla Otto provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join our team!