Senior Marketing Strategist

About Waste Creative:

Waste is a fan-first creative agency founded in 2006. We connect entertainment brands with their fans, to drive creativity, culture and commercial success.

We recently became part of the Keywords family, the largest technical and creative services provider to the gaming industry. We employ 80 wasters globally, covering strategy, creative, social, experiential, OOH, and TV. Our HQ is in London, and we’ve recently opened a new office in Tokyo, Japan, and also have an animation team in Manila, Philippines. 

Our vision is to become one of the most sought-after creative agencies in the game, and you will be part of this adventure. 

The Waste strategy team is defined by curiosity, collaboration, and communication. We operate at a high pace and hold each other accountable to the highest standards. If you’ve been operating at a high level in marketing and found yourself asking "Yeah, but why?" a lot, you could be a Waste Strategist. 

Job description

Waste Creative Japan (WJP) is looking for an experienced and passionate Strategist to join their award-winning team. You’ll primarily be working on WJP’s largest account developing ad-hoc strategies and helping with messaging strategies. This is a key account that expects the highest quality in both creative and strategy. You need to expect tight deadlines and frequent change of scope with this client.

You will also be involved in WJP business development efforts in Japan and Asia, by leading the Strategy in our proactive or reactive pitches to new clients. You will be an essential element in our efforts to bring in new accounts.

You will also be expected to support our UK Strategy team, serving a large client roster including among others EA, Riot, Sega, Supercell & Zynga. You’ll help create world-class game marketing that reaches millions around the world.

You may also help Keywords Japan’s with their business development efforts. Keywords Japan is pro-actively pitching clients for the development of games (new games, ports, remasters etc.), but they need a Marketing strategist to provide relevant market insights and helping the BD team to understand the risks and opportunities associated with each project and IP.

Responsibilities

As a Strategist at Waste, you will play a key role in independently leading projects in APAC to collaborating on bigger thinking briefs in the UK. You’ll be involved in a wide range of projects all the way from Brand Strategy to UA Campaign planning to Social strategies.

You will be the go-to person at Waste for APAC gaming insight, and User Acquisition and Campaign strategy.

Your main responsibilities will include:

• Meeting and presenting: This is a client-facing role, where you will offer everything from strategic insight to brief writing support, essentially operating as an extension of the client’s team.
• Your clients will be mainly Japanese game developers or publishers. Besides speaking the local language, your cultural background and past experiences will be key in understanding and relating to your client’s objectives and expectations.
• Translating our main client’s business objectives into campaign strategies, messaging strategies and communication plans, that our Creatives can act upon and turn into amazing creative work.
• Writing quarterly campaign reports and presenting them back to the client.
• Conducting research across consumer, category, company, and culture to find exciting and actionable insights, with a deep understanding of the APAC mobile gaming market.
• Defining vivid target segments based on real insights.
• Using a wide range of strategy tools, including GWI, to base your work on hard and verifiable data.
• Developing distinctive positioning ideas that connect with future fans.
• Writing brilliant briefs and running brilliant briefings that inspire creative teams.
• Developing UA Campaign Strategies, Social/Community Strategies, or brand strategies, solo or as part of a team
• Working with Client Services to proactively spot new opportunities for clients.

Location

Since this will be a client-facing position, the candidate should be located or willing to relocate to the Greater Tokyo Area, e.g. ideally 1 to 2 hours away from Shinjuku Station.

While WJP’s team is fully remote, this position will be hybrid, including regular meetings with stakeholders (Creative leads, BD team) at the office several times a month, at maximum once per week.

• 8 to 10+ years’ agency experience, ideally 5+ years’ experience in gaming (console or mobile)

• You must have already pitched and delivered several Marketing campaigns (please provide a relevant portfolio).
• Strong experience in desk research, primary research and insight generation, using a wide range of tools and data sources.
• Deep understanding of the APAC gaming market, on mobile and console
• Main target markets: Japan/ Korea/ Taiwan
• Secondary markets: Indonesia/Malaysia/Philippines/Thailand
• Strong experience defining UA Campaign Strategy and Social/Community Strategy.
• Strong experience writing briefs and delivering briefings in Japanese and English
• Hands-on experience working with gaming brands.
• Language:
• Native level in Japanese
• Fluency in English

The Waste Way: Creativity is the beating heart of Waste.

We live by three key cultural pillars and expect ALL Waster’s to live up to these principles. This is what Waste was founded on:

• In it together:
• We trust each other and share ideas early and often
• We win together, we lose together & we learn together
• We keep things friendly and honest even when we’re up against it
• Walk the talk:
• We are a source of expertise, and are trusted by our peers and our clients.
• We are industry experts and straight talkers who never hide behind meaningless jargon
• We’re always looking for ways to improve our work, our agency, and ourselves.
• Ownership:
• We take pride in our work and own the outcome
• We proactively take charge, we're already working on what's next without being told
• We are direct & open in communication while being approachable and kind

Our ideal candidate: 

• Has a long experience in game marketing, both inside and outside of Japan.
• Is innately curious about gaming, gamers, and why humans play games.
• Is a wonderful mix of creativity, exuberance, and professionalism. (i.e. A Waster!)
• Loves marketing. The perspiration, the inspiration, and everything in between.
• Loves research. From using tools to judicious Googling to running focus groups.
• Loves rolling their sleeves up to find the little details that make all the difference.
• Is proactive, self-reliant, and knows how to manage their time and tasks effectively.
• Takes responsibility for their projects and strives for true excellence.
• Knows to share early, share often, and take feedback from their peers.
• Cares about making effective work and knows how to inspire creatives to do the same.
• Wants to flourish in an agency doing effective and exciting work.

Application process

① Online selection

We review resumes and portfolio from all applicants within 2 weeks. If your profile matches our requirements, we will contact you to schedule the first interview.

② Interviews

We generally conduct three interviews to assess your character, passions, skills, and interest in what we do. We also take the time to share our vision and values, as we believe you are interviewing us as much as we are interviewing you. Please note that since you may be involved with different teams across different countries, this may increase the number of interviews.

③ Reference check and Mandatory testing

We will ask candidates to participate in a Strategist test to get a first feel for your marketing abilities. The test should only require a couple of hours of your time, but it is mandatory. This test should take place between the second and third interview to validate your strategy skills.

Before sending our final offer, we will conduct reference checks from your previous companies, to confirm the information that was provided during interviews and in your resume/portfolio.

④ Offer

We make our final decision within 2 weeks after the final interview and send a detailed offer upon success.

Onboarding process

We strive to make the onboarding process as smooth and worry-free as possible.

Upon acceptance of our offer, you will receive our working agreement and our rules of employment.

Ideally, we want you to join us within a month, but we can adjust to your current work situation.

On your first day, your manager will introduce you to your team and will set a schedule for reviews over the 6 month probation period. We will give you all the support you need to complete it successfully.

Senior staff will support you and provide mentorship. You will also have access to digital learning material, and your manager will help you define a training curriculum based on your career aspirations.

Contract Type

1-year contract with the possibility of permanent employment at a later stage, depending on individual performance and business situation.

Business hours and Location

Flexibility in time

We all have different creative clocks, and you know yours better than we do. 

We will expect you to work 8 hours per day from Monday to Friday with core hours 

between 11:00 and 16:00 (excluding a 1-hour break). The rest will be up to you. 

Flexibility in location

Waste Japan fully embraces telework, and most of us work from home. Office space is also available for your convenience, and you will have access to meeting rooms and hot desks.

We may require you to work onsite in specific occasions when using highly specialized equipment.

Offices are located at 1 Chome-22-19 Izumi 8~9F, Suginami City, Tokyo 168-0063 (🗺 map)

You must reside in Japan during your employment at Waste Japan. We offer legal support for visa applications. Depending on your situation, we may allow you to work outside of Japan during your probation period.

Raises and bonuses

• You will be reviewed once a year in March and your salary will be adjusted to match with gained experience and project contributions.
• Pay raises are awarded around April each year, in line with our budget and financial forecasting for the subsequent year.
• Bonuses are dependent on the overall company’s performance and the individual’s performance, but are not guaranteed. 

Additional benefits

• Monthly allowance for home office equipment and supplies (15,000 JPY/month)
• Private language tutoring (Japanese and/or English)
• Commute fees (however, train passes are not reimbursed)

Holidays and vacations

• Weekends and national holidays
• Summer/winter vacation: 5 days per year (paid, applicable after the probation period)
• Annual Paid Leave: 10 days per year (first year, following the probation period)
• Bereavement/funeral leave
• Sick leave: 5 days per year (paid, applicable after the probation period)

Welfare

• Social insurance
• Parental leave (learn more here)