Through-the-Line (TTL) Strategist & Brand Lead
Role Purpose
The Through-the-Line (TTL) Strategist & Brand Lead is responsible for leading the development and delivery of integrated media strategies across the Nestlé portfolio. This role serves as both the strategic lead and brand custodian, ensuring seamless alignment between business objectives, brand ambitions, communication strategy, media investment, creative requirements, and campaign execution.
The successful candidate will own the end-to-end strategic process and maintain a total view of budget allocation across all channels, ensuring investments are optimally distributed to deliver against brand, category, and commercial objectives. The role requires strong strategic thinking, commercial acumen, stakeholder management expertise, and the ability to collaborate across media, digital, creative, commerce, production, and analytics teams.
Key Responsibilities
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Lead the development of through-the-line communication strategies across multiple Nestlé brands.
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Translate client business challenges into integrated communication and media solutions.
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Develop annual, quarterly, and campaign-specific strategic recommendations.
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Define channel roles across paid, owned, earned, ATL, digital, social, shopper, retail, and experiential touchpoints.
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Use consumer, category, market, and competitive insights to inform strategic direction.
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Ensure all activity aligns to business objectives, brand KPIs, and growth opportunities.
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Budget Stewardship & Investment Management
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Maintain full visibility and ownership of marketing investment across the entire communication ecosystem.
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Manage budget allocation across all channels, ensuring investments are aligned to strategic priorities.
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Identify opportunities to optimise media effectiveness, efficiency, and ROI.
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Monitor campaign investment throughout the planning and implementation cycle.
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Partner with planning and buying teams to ensure investments are delivered as approved.
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Provide clients with clear investment recommendations supported by data and strategic rationale.
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Client Leadership & Account Management
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Act as the primary day-to-day strategic client partner.
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Build trusted relationships with brand managers, marketing teams, and regional stakeholders.
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Lead client meetings, strategic reviews, annual planning sessions, and campaign presentations.
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Ensure client requests are translated into clear internal briefs and actionable outputs.
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Manage timelines, deliverables, and stakeholder expectations across multiple concurrent projects.
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Ensure consistently high levels of service and account performance.
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Integrated Campaign Planning
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Develop through-the-line campaign frameworks covering ATL, digital, social, commerce, influencer, shopper, OOH, radio, TV, partnerships, and emerging channels.
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Guide channel strategy and investment distribution to maximise business outcomes.
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Work closely with media planners, buyers, digital specialists, creative teams, and analysts to ensure flawless execution.
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Ensure strategic consistency from brief through to implementation and post-campaign analysis.
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Drive integrated thinking across all consumer touchpoints.
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Performance & Optimisation
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Define measurement frameworks and KPIs for all campaigns.
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Analyse campaign performance and convert findings into actionable recommendations.
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Lead campaign reviews, learnings sessions, and optimisation discussions.
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Ensure strategic recommendations are grounded in data, insights, and business performance, utilising Publicis bespoke tools and available industry tools.
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Drive continuous improvement across planning, reporting, and campaign effectiveness.
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Collaboration & Team Leadership
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Collaborate closely with internal specialists across Strategy, Planning, Buying and Data.
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Mentor junior planners and strategists where required.
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Ensure all stakeholders remain aligned around strategy, timelines, and investment decisions.
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Promote a culture of collaboration, accountability, and strategic excellence.
Key Deliverables
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Channel & Investment Strategies
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Integrated Campaign Frameworks
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Budget Allocation Plans
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Quarterly Business Reviews
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Campaign Performance Reviews
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Strategic Recommendations & Growth Plans
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Client Presentations & Workshop Facilitation
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5–8 years' experience in media strategy, integrated communications planning, or account leadership.
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Proven experience managing FMCG brands and multi-channel marketing campaigns.
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Strong understanding of ATL, digital, social, commerce, and emerging media channels.
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Experience managing client relationships and presenting to senior stakeholders.
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Strong analytical and commercial capabilities.
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Experience managing significant marketing investments and budgets.
Key Competencies
Strategic Thinking
Ability to connect business challenges, consumer insights, media opportunities, and commercial objectives into actionable growth strategies.
Commercial Acumen
Strong understanding of media investment, budget management, ROI, and business performance drivers.
Account Management
Exceptional stakeholder management, organisation, communication, and client servicing skills.
Integrated Planning
Deep understanding of how channels work together across the consumer journey.
Data & Analytics
Comfortable using data, insights, and reporting to support decision-making.
Project Management
Able to manage multiple projects, timelines, stakeholders, and deliverables simultaneously.
Communication & Influence
Strong presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and storytelling capabilities.
Success in this role looks like:
"The strategist owns the total communication ecosystem for their brands, ensuring every Rand is invested with purpose, every channel has a clear role, and every campaign is connected through a single strategic vision that delivers measurable business growth for Nestlé."
