2. imma let you finish…
but first, a few things from the strategy community
3. 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.
4. 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
paul.savaiano@gmail.com.
5. 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.
Thisonewaswrittenbyagirl.
Ew,gross.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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
10. 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!
11. 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
12. 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.
,55
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
14. 21%
are expats
79%
are in their home country
This is 4 points higher than
last time.
Yay for trying new countries!
15. we lean toward communications
Our 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.
16. 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
Creative
Communications
Digital
Business
Technology
Social
Media
Content
69%
58%
48%
38%
26%
24%
19%
9%
17. 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
18. 95%
have less than 20 years of experience
Where do all the OG’s with their experience go?
19. 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…
20. sources of inspiration
We asked for the one place you get inspiration that no one knows about.
the most obvious
the most fun
Psychedelics, 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 functional
A 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 oldest
a 1974 JWT guide to planning, the Bible
21. 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 advertising
the most like having a real life
the most plannery
MartinWeigel.org, juniorstrategy.com, Openstrate.gy
22. 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.
24. assistantstrategist(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
25. strategist(usa)
169 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$175,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
65
36
25
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY
$89,772
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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
26. seniorstrategist(usa)
136 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$200,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
48
28
60
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY
$121,261
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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
27. associatedirector(usa)
38 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$190,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
14
9
15
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY
$152,867
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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
28. director(usa)
166 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$255,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
40
33
93
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY$180,075
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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
29. groupdirector(usa)
88 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$300,000+
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
10
22
56
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY$254,083
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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
30. headofdepartment(usa)
71 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$300,000+
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
27
18
26
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY$286,818
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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
31. globaldirector(usa)
9 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$300,000+
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY$287,667
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
15.6 26
$243,111
$180,000
12.8 18.2
10.6 13.6
$135,000
32. chiefstrategyofficer(usa)
36 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$300,000+
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
16
17
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY$299,583
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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
33. ceo/president/md(usa)
11 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
$300,000+
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY$300,000+
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
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.
34. freelancerates(usa)
8
AVERAGE SALARY
ASST. 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
AVERAGE % DESIRE
TO BE BOOKED
AVERAGE %
ACTUALLY BOOKED65% 60%
$8,464$943
AVERAGE DAY RATE AVERAGE MONTHLY RATE
ASSOC. DIRECTORS
+
DIRECTORS
14
AVERAGE SALARY
$118,231
AVERAGE % DESIRE
TO BE BOOKED
AVERAGE %
ACTUALLY BOOKED65% 72%
$13,077$796
AVERAGE DAY RATE AVERAGE MONTHLY RATE
35. freelancerates(usa)
DEPARTMENT HEADS
+
CEO/PRES/MD
6
AVERAGE SALARY
$169,667
AVERAGE % DESIRE
TO BE BOOKED
AVERAGE %
ACTUALLY BOOKED73% 70%
$22,500$1317
AVERAGE DAY RATE AVERAGE MONTHLY RATE
GLOBAL, GROUP, AND
REGIONAL DIRECTORS
6
AVERAGE SALARY
$161,500
AVERAGE % DESIRE
TO BE BOOKED
AVERAGE %
ACTUALLY BOOKED65% 75%
$32,000$1,617
AVERAGE DAY RATE AVERAGE MONTHLY RATE
36. gendercomparison(usa)
40 20
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
AVERAGE SALARY
ASST. STRATEGIST $45,425
1.6 2.8
$46,894
1.6 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
37. gendercomparison(usa)
GROUP DIRECTOR
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
GLOBAL DIRECTOR
CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER
32 52
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
AVERAGE SALARY
$188,900
12.6 17.4
$192,720
11.7 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.
39. assistantstrategist(uk)
14 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
£28,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY
£27,667
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
2 2.7
£26,250
< £25,000
1.4 2
1.7 2
< £25,000
40. strategist(uk)
79 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
£105,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY
£61,100
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
3.9 9.2
£39,829
£27,000
3.3 6.2
2.5 3.8
< £25,000
41. seniorstrategist(uk)
29 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
£92,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY
£76,857
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
7.7 14
£55,966
£34,429
5.7 11
3.3 6
£26,000
42. associatedirector(uk)
12 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
£86,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY
£83,333
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
14.7 16.7
£54,750
£33,333
6.8 11.1
3.3 7.3
£28,000
43. director(uk)
36 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
£145,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY£114,556
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
15.3 21.6
£86,389
£60,000
9.3 14.1
5.8 11.4
£47,000
44. headofdepartment(uk)
38 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
£175,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY£136,600
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
14.9 18.2
£98,211
£60,800
12.5 18
9.1 15.7
£45,000
45. chiefstrategyofficer(uk)
11 TOTAL RESPONDENTS
£250,000
MAXIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
UPPER QUARTER
LOWER QUARTER
AVERAGE
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
ANNUAL SALARY£227,333
MINIMUM ANNUAL
SALARY IN GROUP
22.7 25
£154,909
£74,000
19.2 22.5
15.3 20
£40,000
46. gendercomparison(uk)
11 3
YEARS IN STRATEGY
YEARS WORKING
AVERAGE SALARY
ASST. STRATEGIST £25,909
1.5 2.3
<£25,000
1.3 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
48. 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