Associate Director, Branding and Innovation

Huxly is brand strategy and innovation consultancy, launched in April 2018 and exponentially growing since then. Our goal is to be recognized as the finest branding and innovation consultancy in the world for the food, beverage and Consumer Packaged good / Food & Beverage products industry.

We help our clients grow by understanding the emotional, cultural and sensorial world of the consumer, to create compelling, coherent brands and innovation. We are changing the way our clients build brands, with a range of innovative approaches to help our clients to understand the true complexity of their consumers’ motivations. We use a well-developed approach to understand consumer emotions, helping us to develop creative brand positioning ideas. Our innovation teams work with sensory scientists and multisensory culinary experts to gain unprecedented insight into consumers’ product expectations, allowing us to develop rounded and coherent propositions for food, beverage and other CPG categories.

The Huxly ‘pitch’ has been highly successful. Our growth has come from a very high level of repeat business with happy clients, as well as new partnerships with several multinational organizations.

We are part of the MMR group, the UK’s largest privately owned market research company, and we have offices in Wallingford, London, Durban, Singapore, Shanghai, Sao Paulo and New York. This role could be based in our New York office, but consideration will be given to other locations, with the expectation of travel for team meetings and client work.

Joining Huxly is a unique opportunity – to be part of a small, fast growing start up, backed by the strength and stability of a large global research business with a fantastic team culture. We are a rare bunch we think - incredibly smart and creative while also amazingly kind, gracious and collaborative. Culture fit will play a significant role in the hiring process.

Specific accountabilities will include:

1. Designing superb proposals and leading inspiring, unforgettable innovation and brand strategy projects that make our clients come back to us for more work.

2. Leading cross functional teams to deliver great outcomes for our clients. Projects will be delivered alongside and with the support of:

a. Our sensory qual team, who provide sensory science support when making recommendations on food and drink innovation and positioning.

b. Our design team (internal and freelance) who help us make sure that project outputs are visually stunning

3. Supporting the head of Huxly in the US; building relationships with target clients to increase our profile within the organization and creating a global network of contacts who support Huxly.

4. Working with our new business communications team to ensure our clients receive a range of really engaging, strategic and thoughtful content that provokes conversation with our clients.

Based in the US, the role will involve global projects, often working alongside colleagues across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in Brand Strategy + Innovation within Consumer Products (this is a requirement for consideration)
• Proven experience of designing and delivering brand positioning, innovation and communications development projects
• The ability to work collaboratively with teams who have different skill sets and are from different cultures
• Passion for and experience in Consumer Packaged Goods research, strategy, and insights
• Excellence in proposal writing, research design and pitching
• Well-practiced client handling skills
• Qualitative fieldwork skills
• Experience of leading teams to deliver project work
• Observation of overseas fieldwork
• Report writing / delivery of presentations
• Articulate/expressive/credible/easy to work with

Desirable Skills / Qualities

• We’re particularly interested in applicants with a deep knowledge of cultural insight, and their use in creating brand strategies.
• We’re also particularly interested in bilingual candidates, with any major second language.
• Other core skills include:
• ‘Smarts’ – the ability to wow your clients with incisive thinking
• An ability to command an audience and present confidently in front of clients
• Ability to travel internationally

Benefits

Huxly is a small, informal and highly supportive team, and can provide a highly entertaining working environment. We’re also very proud to be part of MMR. MMR offers an open, dynamic, varied and non-hierarchical environment, where bespoke MMR Academy training is offered at every level. We also offer exciting secondment opportunities at our other global locations, as well as a selection of fantastic employee benefits. The MMR Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer