The 2015/2016 Strategist Survey Report

2012016strategist survey5

imma let you finish…but first, a few things from the strategy community

Siftly is a new site, created by one of our own: Frank Striefler. It’s designed to streamline the hiring process for strategists.

If you want to work in an agency or consultancy and you want to see all the available jobs, you can set up a quick profile on Siftly and receive notices of job openings that match your specifications, straight to your inbox.

The survey team’s own, Willem van der Horst, has started a fantastic podcast and newsletter. Head over to icecreamforeveryone.net to take part. Check out interviews with Cindy Gallop, Heidi Hackemer, and many more.

Paul Savaiano is the new Head of Strategy for TAXI New York (congrats, Paul!). He’s always open to talking with nice smarties, such as yourself.

He’s also working on a tool to help people embrace their biases and is looking for a fellow maker to collaborate on it. If this is interesting, send a message to [email protected].

It’s my survey, I can push books if I want to. There have been some great ones published since the last survey.

Make sure you’re keeping up.

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table of contents

7welcome

12

2016

who took the survey

sources of inspiration

top findings

23us salary details

38uk salary details

welcome from heather

Hello Strategist Friends,

Welcome to the 9th edition of the survey.

Well, let’s start with a disclosure that this report is not as complete as it’s been in years past. We have tried making changes over the years to both learn new things about our tribe as well as save our small, all-volunteer team time in analysis.

We haven’t figured out how to make it easy just yet.

If there’s something missing that you were hoping to see, I personally apologize.

Since we last met, some countries and organizations (Sweden, Canada, VCU Brand Center) have started their own surveys which is great because they can more easily tailor their questions to—and chase completes from—their local community. Let’s keep doing this - UK, Brazil, you need your own surveys. I’m happy to help whoever hears this call.

As for me, henceforth I will be exploring polling. Fewer questions, more often. If the salary knowledge is what gets you hot and bothered, consider this your call to take that on.

When I first started working, I wanted to be head of the department. I admired and looked up to my bosses. I was driven to learn, and as I did the job, it got more enjoyable. I traveled all over and once I got to that level, I finally…what? Did I really expect a job to satisfy me?

Today, I find I most admire Faris and Rosie Yakob: friends of mine who created Genius Steals, a strategy consultancy that has no offices or home base. I admire Heidi Hackemer: a friend who started another consultancy, Wolf & Wilhelmine, with the express purpose of doing great work while having a life. These are people who are paying attention to what they read on all those open tabs: countless studies demonstrating that we can be far more productive working in more humane ways.

I was just in New York and was fortunate enough to meet Cindy Gallop and receive an hour’s long pep talk to start my own business and create what I wish existed. While I don’t know what that is yet, in a month, my husband and I are putting our things in storage and switching to living nomadically. If I could be of some help on a freelance basis, I’d love to travel to you and work with you while I figure things out. If you want to start a business with me, let’s talk about that, too.

Rosie, Faris, Heidi - they can’t be the only ones. I’d love to know about, and write about, more people who are changing the industry specifically to be more humane. Please be in touch.

A message from me would not be complete without at least one semi-crazy idea.

Remember, semi-crazy is in my DNA and it does tend to work out for me, whether it’s asking people to tell me their salaries or asking people if I can live and work with them.

So here’s the idea: Maybe you caught the recent New Yorker article about co-living spaces on the rise in the US? Basically these are adult dorms. One called Common, had over 1,000 applications for their first eighteen rooms!

So far, they are all designed as an alternative to the random, found-on-Craigslist roommate. None are designed around a theme. Wouldn’t it be interesting to found a co-living space for strategists? Or only women in the biz? Or people looking to start a business who don’t have an idea or co-founders yet? Who knows what sort of group it will be, but if the idea of having me as your house-leader/mentor/RA-type in New York, LA, San Fran, or Portland is at all interesting to you, please get in touch. Because I’m interested in living with you.

Here’s that article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/16/the-rise-of-the-co-living-startup

Oh yeah, the survey. Here’s the skinny:

Participation is up 45% Are we planners or are we strategists is as useful a question as are we humans or are we dancers. This year we recast the survey as The Strategist Survey and we saw participation increase 45% over the 2013/2014 edition (the last time we fielded the survey).

While that seems to be good news on the surface, a lot of the increase came from the US and we saw Brazil participation cut in half.

Are strategists leaving the communications industry? Yes, but not in numbers large enough to compare salaries with those still in communications services.

We also made a change in how we collect data in an attempt to minimize the massive volume of work that we put in to analyze your salaries: We made salary a closed-ended question if you’ll recall. And in so doing, we made the ceiling too low. If you make over $300K USD (or the equivalent) you will not find granular details on salary. But hey, you’re making bank and clearly you know how to advocate for yourself!

A final thought… as I travel around the world and meet with so many of you who do similar work, I see a rift developing between those who have left agencies and those who haven’t.

The way I see it, we are better strategists because we are working for all types of companies on all sorts of strategic challenges.

We will be better off if we can see ourselves as one community.

A community that shares with and learns from each other.

Good strategy inspires more good strategy.

If you’re waiting for an invitation, consider this yours: Feel free to design ways for us to connect. To work smarter. To share more. You see, I have a soft-spot for you. I know a lot of you. You’re more capable than you realize.

And now back to our regularly scheduled survey results.

Love, Heather

who took the survey?This time 2,556 strategists participated from around the world. While that’s a hefty 45% more than the 1,776 who took it last time, unfortunately that doesn’t mean we have large pools of people from the same country we can analyze.

2,55

6

USA n=1,008

Brazil n=137

UK n=294

Germany n=89

Canada n=88

Australia n=85

46% 1

14% 5

6% 14

4% 1

4% 2

4% 3

Netherlands n=54

3% 1

Spain n=46

2% 4

France n=44

2% 2

45%are female

55%are male

This is a total switch from the last report when we had 56% female

21%are expats

79%are in their home country

This is 4 points higher than last time.

Yay for trying new countries!

we lean toward communicationsOur goal this time around was to include strategists of all types. Because we get calls from all sorts of companies trying to hire us, we wondered if this was an indicator of an exodus out of agencies. While the scale hasn’t tipped away from agencies entirely, we were intrigued to find a quarter of our respondents working outside of communications services firms. If you are growing brands outside of the agency industrial complex (as we affectionately call it), you’re not alone.

Communications Services

Started own consultancy

Freelance

Brand Marketing

Business Growth Services

Primary Research

76%

6%

5%

5%

4%

1%

1%

Unemployed

2%Teacher/Student/ Intern Last edition we had 35 people who identified as unemployed. This time we have a mere 27 people. From our perspective, we’d likely label ourselves as freelancers before choosing to be labeled unemployed. But as you dig into the results and see that freelancers are getting quite a lot of work, it’s comforting to know that if you want work in this industry, it’s out there.

what kind of strategist are you?Brand Strategist is the moniker we like best: 69% of us chose it as our type. But we let you pick more than one, and we saw a lot of overlap.

Brand

CreativeCommunications

DigitalBusiness

Technology

Social Media

Content

69%

58%48%

38%

26%24%

19%

9%

45%are ‘somewhat likely’

or ‘very likely’ to switch jobs in the next year

That’s almost half of your colleagues. Or your team.

30%have been laid off/ made redundant

one or more times

35%of us

have already changed jobs in the last 12 months

40%want to leave or have already left

the agency world altogether

95%have less than 20 years of experience

Where do all the OG’s with their experience go?

wild card question

do you consider yourself a growth hacker?

Those who do say, why not? Those who don’t feel it’s just another term du’jour.

37% said ‘Yes’

37% said ‘No’

26% said ‘I don’t know’

We’ve read the book and some articles and it does seem like a lot of what we do has simply been recast to be more palatable for the startup scene…

sources of inspiration

We asked for the one place you get inspiration that no one knows about.

the most obvious

the most funPsychedelics, weed

WARC, PSFK, Brain Pickings, The Account Planning group on Facebook, Iconoculture, springwise.com, slideshare.net

Podcasts came up a lot. These specifically: Hidden Brain, Invisibilia, This American Life, Brain Matters, 99% Invisible, Planet Money, The Digital Human, On the Media

the most auditory

the most functionalA lot of really helpful tools were offered up: The Noun Project (downloadable icons of almost EVERYTHING), unsplash.com (free high-res photos), iconosquare.com (Instagram analytics), Google Scholar

the oldesta 1974 JWT guide to planning, the Bible

sources of inspiration (cont.)

most likely already in your feed

the most magazine-likeEntertainment Weekly, Time Magazine, Esquire Magazine, Wired Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Bloomberg Business Week, Harvard Business Review, New Scientist Magazine

eConsultancy, The Next Web, TED talks

Science Fiction, Comedy shows, Form a group of friends who don’t work in advertisingthe most like having a real life

the most planneryMartinWeigel.org, juniorstrategy.com, Openstrate.gy

sources of inspiration (cont.)

Davos - Not sure if this person meant the city in Switzerland or the Game of Thrones character Steven Johnson’s books Stumbleupon SXSW CNN.com - to remind me what America sees/reads The Alpine Review - an ad-free, independent magazine that puts the present into long-term perspective Kinfolk Magazine The Skimm (for writing style, they add) stratechery.com Journal of Personality and Social Psychology motherboard.vice.com Sub-Reddit: Shower Thoughts insitum.com aeroli.to - another innovation firm pemberleydigital.com - innovative web video production company Working once a month as an assistant in a job I’ve never done before

Do Lectures Facebook affinity groups (moms group, makeup group, etc.) tvtropes.org - for thinking about archetypes John Oliver mymodernmet.com - a mixture of different art + inspiring stories Dezeen Magazine - architecture and design Indiegogo and Kickstarter as a measure of innovation Trivia nights I talk to my hairdresser and get her to ask her clients questions for me Benedict Evan’s mailing list Slack group by responsive.org Fraggl 99u.com - magazine, events and books for creative people digitaltonto.com - the blog of Greg Satell marketingritson.com - the site of professor and consultant Mark Ritson knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu producthunt.com - curation of the best new products

And a mix of everything that might prove useful else since you lot can find inspiration in all sorts of places.

u.s. salary details

assi

stan

t str

ateg

ist (

usa)

59 TOTAL RESPONDENTS

$70,000 MAXIMUM ANNUAL SALARY IN GROUP

26

8

25

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING

ANNUAL SALARY$53,947

MINIMUM ANNUAL SALARY IN GROUP

1.6 3.1

$46,050

$38,053

1.5 2.6

1.4 2.4

$32,000

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

$48,500

$42,192

$36,000

1.7 4.2

1.6 2.9

1.3 1.5

$60,000

$49,875

$41,333

2 3.3

1.4 2.1

1 1.3

$55,000

$48,730

$42,000

1.6 3.1

1.3 2.5

1.3 2

stra

tegi

st (u

sa)



65

36

25

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



4.6 8.2

$67,614

$48,821

3.2 5.7

2.1 3.7

$38,000

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

$85,545

$69,904

$46,523

5.4 9.5

3.5 6.4

2 3.8

$97,000

$73,083

$49,250

4.5 8.8

3.4 6.2

2.6 3.9

$86,869

$67,223

$50,363

4 7

2.8 4.8

2 3.5

seni

or st

rate

gist

(usa

)136 TOTAL RESPONDENTS


48

28

60

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



6.5 8.8

$96,842

$73,044

5.6 8

4.6 6.9

$49,000

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

$114,687

$92,425

$68,533

6.9 9.3

5.7 8.8

4.5 7.7

$126,666

$103,392

$82,400

5.8 8

6 7.9

5 6.7

$121,904

$97,258

$72,800

5.8 7.9

5.2 7.3

4.6 6

asso

ciat

e dir

ecto

r (us

a)38 TOTAL RESPONDENTS


14

9

15

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



8.7 11.3

$122,488

$91,929

7.1 10.3

5.2 9

$70,000

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

$141,666

$112,187

$84,666

7.1 11

6.2 10.3

4.5 7.6

$157.500

$131,666

$107,000

9 13.5

8.7 11.8

7.5 9.5

$163,000

$127,055

$97,833

9.3 11.9

7.3 9.5

5.2 8

dire

ctor

(usa



40

33

93

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



9.4 12.9

$144,044

$108,472

8.5 11.6

6.8 9.7

$70,000

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

$173,785

$138,700

$99,153

9.5 14.3

8.8 12.1

7 9.3

$198,333

$152,900

$118,545

12.8 15.2

9.6 12.3

9 10.7

$178,851

$143,460

$110,354

8.3 12.5

7.9 11

6.5 9.3

grou

p di

rect

or (u

sa)


$300,000+ MAXIMUM ANNUAL SALARY IN GROUP

10

22

56

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



13 17.6

$192,083

$137,138

12 16.6

11.5 16.8

$77,000

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

$221,666

$181,700

$140,666

12.3 15.3

15.1 17.7

11 14.6

$223,875

$183,818

$142,571

11.8 13.8

11.4 16.5

9.6 18.3

$263,933

$197,576

$133,555

13.2 17

11.8 16.6

15.3 10.4

head

of d

epar

tmen

t (us

a)71 TOTAL RESPONDENTS


27

18

26

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



14 19.5

$214,435

$145,826

12.9 18.7

11.2 17.7

$100,000

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

$255,555

$214,434

$121,125

15.5 17.5

12.9 18.7

13 23.1

$289,285

$223,888

$159,166

15.3 19.9

11.8 15.9

8.6 12

$291,250

$234,520

$167,875

12.1 18.8

13.2 20

11 19.4

glob

al d

irec

tor (

usa)

9 TOTAL RESPONDENTS


UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



15.6 26

$243,111

$180,000

12.8 18.2

10.6 13.6

$135,000

chie

f str

ateg

y offi

cer (

usa)



16

17

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



15.6 19.4

$234,529

$140,364

13.7 19.3

11.4 17.3

$90,000

SMALL

LARGE

$279,166

$197,750

$119,000

14.3 19.3

12.5 17.9

8.4 15

$300,000+

$260,666

$198,000

15.8 20.8

14.8 21.5

12.2 19.2

ceo/

pres

iden

t/md

(usa



UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING

ANNUAL SALARY$300,000+


21 27

$223,182

$128,333

18.9 30

13.7 34.3

$90,000

Ten of these 11 participants run small companies. And this is the first time we see 30+ years of experience.

free

lanc

e rat

es (u

sa)

8

AVERAGE SALARYASST. STRATEGISTS

+ STRATEGISTS

$143,167

SR. STRATEGISTS

AVERAGE % DESIRE TO BE BOOKED

AVERAGE % ACTUALLY BOOKED53% 53%

$8,500$483

AVERAGE DAY RATE AVERAGE MONTHLY RATE

11

AVERAGE SALARY

$128,636



$8,464$943


ASSOC. DIRECTORS +

DIRECTORS

14

AVERAGE SALARY

$118,231



$13,077$796


free

lanc

e rat

es (u

sa)

DEPARTMENT HEADS +

CEO/PRES/MD

6

AVERAGE SALARY

$169,667



$22,500$1317


GLOBAL, GROUP, AND REGIONAL DIRECTORS

6

AVERAGE SALARY

$161,500



$32,000$1,617


gend

er co

mpa

riso

n (u

sa)

40 20

YEARS IN STRATEGYYEARS WORKING

AVERAGE SALARYASST. STRATEGIST $45,4251.6 2.8

$46,8941.6 2.6

STRATEGIST

SR. STRATEGIST

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

FEMALES MALES

DIRECTOR

94$67,404

3.7 6.3

66$69,378

3.5 6.2

97$97,451

5.8 8.7

37$96,594

5.6 8.4

21$121,105

7.3 11.2

25$124,826

6.1 8.8

84$137,617

8.7 11.3

76$151,500

8.5 12.3

gend

er co

mpa

riso

n (u

sa)

GROUP DIRECTOR

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

GLOBAL DIRECTOR

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER

32 52


AVERAGE SALARY$188,90012.6 17.4

$192,72011.7 16.1

FEMALES MALES

31$216,967

14 19.4

37$206,944

11.8 17.8

4$233,750

12 19.2

4$241,250

12 15

9$223,125

12.1 18

23$244,565

14.4 19.4

Mot interesting is the shift in participation as we look at the more senior roles. There is large representation of females among younger strategists, then male participation overtakes. There was only 1 female CEO participant compared to 10 males.

u.k. salary details

assi

stan

t str

ateg

ist (

uk)


£28,000 MAXIMUM ANNUAL SALARY IN GROUP

UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING

ANNUAL SALARY£27,667


2 2.7

£26,250

< £25,000

1.4 2

1.7 2

< £25,000

stra

tegi

st (u

k)79 TOTAL RESPONDENTS


UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



3.9 9.2

£39,829

£27,000

3.3 6.2

2.5 3.8

< £25,000

seni

or st

rate

gist

(uk)



UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



7.7 14

£55,966

£34,429

5.7 11

3.3 6

£26,000

asso

ciat

e dir

ecto

r (uk



UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



14.7 16.7

£54,750

£33,333

6.8 11.1

3.3 7.3

£28,000

dire

ctor

(uk)



UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



15.3 21.6

£86,389

£60,000

9.3 14.1

5.8 11.4

£47,000

head

of d

epar

tmen

t (uk



UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



14.9 18.2

£98,211

£60,800

12.5 18

9.1 15.7

£45,000

chie

f str

ateg

y offi

cer (

uk)



UPPER QUARTER

LOWER QUARTER

AVERAGE

YEARS IN STRATEGY

YEARS WORKING



22.7 25

£154,909

£74,000

19.2 22.5

15.3 20

£40,000

gend

er co

mpa

riso

n (u

k) 11 3


AVERAGE SALARYASST. STRATEGIST £25,9091.5 2.3

<£25,0001.3 1.6

STRATEGIST

SR. STRATEGIST

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

FEMALES MALES

DIRECTOR

35£36,886

3 6.4

44£41,535

3.5 6.1

10£57,500

5.6 11.3

19£55,158

5.7 10.3

4£51,500

4.8 12.8

8£56,375

7.9 10.3

11£78,455

8.6 11.9

26£89,880

9.3 14.8

gend

er co

mpa

riso

n (u

k)HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

8 28


AVERAGE SALARY£93,37517.3 20.6

£99,82110.7 17

FEMALES MALES

the team

This report was made possible by generous contributions of limited spare time from these awesome people:

Megan Averell

Heather LeFevre

Paul Savaiano

Julia Lee

Sam Chotiner-Gardner

Emma Brooks

Willem van der Horst

Bori Toth

Jon Evoy

2012016strategist survey5

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