Strategists use their power of curiosity about people, culture, and brands to drive strategy for advertising and brand communications.
Representing the voice of the consumer, strategists use research to understand people: what matters to them, what motivates their decisions, and what drives the cultures around them. The insights discovered along the way illuminate the best way forward and inspire their creative partners in developing powerful creative ideas.
If you want to be a Strategist or Account Planner at ad agencies, in-house creative studios for brands, consultancies, content studios, or tech startups, the Strategy concentration is for you.
Join our next cohort.
Launch your strategy career in advertising and branding.
You often find yourself falling through interesting rabbit holes on the Internet
You like to use both sides of your brain—creative and analytical—to solve problems
You have good intuition about the people around you and why they behave like they do; you are interested in people in general—be it psychology, sociology, history, or even why some songs have become popular while others haven’t
You love having deep conversations with people about anything, and people feel comfortable opening up to you
You’re always looking for a better way to do things—from the best spot to wait for the subway to the non-obvious, but ideal parking area at the airport
If a day in the life of a strategist sounds fun:
Conducting primary research (qualitative and quantitative), secondary/syndicated research; category and competitive reviews
Developing brand positioning, brand strategy, comms plans, creative briefs, user personas, as well as platform, product, and service design strategy
Understanding the culture of, and how people are using, new media and tech platforms, and how brands can participate
Building and connecting campaigns into ecosystems across media and tech platforms
Being the best partners in the building—working with traditional creatives, account and brand managers, and experience designers
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Brand Experiences Live-Client Project / 2023: Kennedy Thompson (Strategy), Lindsey Evans (Art Direction), Grace Hudson (Art Direction), Leo Cvitanovich (Copywriting), Victoria Nguyen (Account Management), Patrick Nguyen (Experience Design)
The Ask: Get Gen Z to see Upwork as a place for real opportunities
The Insight: Gen Z draws a thin line between their work and their passion
The Opportunity: Show Gen Z that Upwork doesn’t have the gatekeepers of the corporate world. With Upwork, you build your career, your way.
Strategy: Your Career, Unscripted
Campaign Idea: Free Your Work
Master’s in Strategy at the Brandcenter
Studying Strategy at the Brandcenter prepares you to hit the ground running as a Strategist or Account Planner at ad agencies, in-house creative studios for brands, consultancies, content studios, or tech startups.
Strategy Alumni Job Placement & Careers
Strategy alumni work at top agencies, consultancies, brands and more.
Average Strategy alumni salaries
Our Alumni Salary Survey, fielded every two years, captures our graduates’ average starting salaries, career trajectories, and more. Read the full survey.
Junior – $65,000
Mid – $90,800
Senior – $126,200
Director – $210, 000
Executive – $236,450
Strategy careers & positions
While titles can differ at individual agencies and companies, we’ve gathered the top job titles for Creative Brand Management alum to give an idea of potential career trajectory. Read the full Alumni Salary Survey.
Junior – Junior Strategist, Account Planner
Mid – Strategist
Senior – Senior Strategist
Director – Strategy Director, Group Strategy Director, Strategic Advertising Director
Executive – Chief Strategy Officer
“Brandcenter not only provided me with the foundational knowledge I needed for a new career path, it also prepared me with the soft skills needed in the world of advertising like presentation skills, working in cross-functional teams, navigating competing deadlines, and working with live clients.”
Alyson Gaiser(Strategy, 2019)Senior Strategy Director / AKQA
Strategy Career Preparation
Portfolio Development & Skill Refinement
Advanced Portfolio Class – Take the skills and work honed over your time in the program and turn them into recruiter-worthy pieces. While you’re always pushing to make your best work at Brandcenter, we devote dedicated time to polishing specific projects for your final portfolio.
Career Prep Workshops – Receive specialized training in all things career from building a standout resume to mastering networking, interviewing, and more.
Personalized Guidance & Mentorship
Individualized Career Support – From answering interview prep questions to connecting you with the right person at an agency, you’ll have dedicated staff to help guide and root for you throughout your job search.
Assigned Industry Mentors – All students are paired with an alum mentor during their second year, coordinated by concentration, specific interests, and long-term career goals.
Recruiter Access
Recruiter Session to Launch Your Job Search – The spring of your second year in the program, recruiters join us in-person in Richmond, VA to get the first look at (and hire) Brandcenter grads. Learn more about Recruiter Session.
Curated Recruiter Lists – Agencies actively look for talent here. When they reach out to us, we send back curated lists of graduates who fit specific job openings.
Recruiter Website – In addition to our in-person Recruiter Session, we distribute digital portfolios of our graduating class directly to an extensive network of recruiting contacts.
The Brandcenter Alumni Network
Brandcenter Alumni Network – The community you join as a Brandcenter student keeps growing with you long after you graduate. It’s a powerful, built-in network that delivers a form of career ROI extending well beyond your diploma. In our latest Alumni Salary Survey, 70% of respondents from said that a Brandcenter alum or connection has helped them land a job, and 84% have used at least one Brandcenter alum resource since graduating.
Read more about job placement
See where recent strategy grads are landing jobs, where current strategy students are interning, and more.
At the Brandcenter, you will not only perfect your craft in Strategy, but you will also work collaboratively with your classmates across concentrations.
Here’s what you’ll do on all-concentration team projects as a Strategist, as well as what your teammates will do:
What each concentration does on all-concentration team projects
STRATEGISTS
Focus on consumers + culture
Lead research efforts (develop a research plan, conduct field research, and analyze results)
Turn research data into insights; develop strategic direction and work with creative partners to create concepts/work inspired by strategic direction
CREATIVE BRAND MANAGERS
Focus on a client’s business, category, and competitors
Lead internal, cross-functional teams
Ensure creative work meets business objectives; evaluate ROI when possible
ART DIRECTORS + COPYWRITERS
Using business insights from creative brand managers and consumer/cultural insights from strategists, develop creative ideas to solve business challenges, engage consumers, and bring brands to life
While copywriters generally focus on writing and art directors generally focus on visual design, most CW/AD teams collaborate on all creative aspects
Here’s what your sixty weeks at the Brandcenter will look like:
Summer Between Your First and Second Years / Internship
A summer internship is not required, but we’ll give you the tools to help you land a great one at agencies and companies doing some of the industry’s best work.
Semester 3 (Fall) / Weeks 31-45
Brand Experiences (All concentrations)
Creative Fusion (Art Directors, Copywriters, and Strategists)
Cultural Impact: Advanced Account Planning
Semester 4 (Spring) / Weeks 46-60
Innovation (all concentrations)
Creating Gravitational Pull
Advanced Portfolio for Strategists
Strategy Prerequisites
All applicants must have a bachelor’s degree.
While there are no other specific prerequisites for Strategy applicants, we look for these essential abilities:
Think out of the box and also bring the ideas down to earth
Demonstrate the ability to see how seemingly unrelated ideas might come together
Tell an engaging story and present it in a compelling way
Make hard choices for the good of a project
Communicate clearly and concisely through writing
Passion for current events, culture shifts, and trends
Drive to be “in the know” and enjoy sharing your favorite finds
Defying the norm for the category, Arm & Hammer’s scratch-and-sniff will smell like nothing.2022: Abby Fine (Strategy), Molly Barnett (Account Management), Corey Hambly (Copywriting), Zey Masunu (Art Direction), Ryan Shih (Experience Design)
Background: The deodorant category, focusing mostly on scent and performance, has two main messages: “Smell like a man, man.” and “Don’t sweat it, handle it.” These messages don’t resonate with everyone—particularly the people who don’t believe that your deodorant/scent has anything to do with what kind of man you are; it just needs to work and keep you from smelling like BO. Arm & Hammer (and its secret weapon, baking soda) is known for and has a proven track record of neutralizing smell.
Strategy: The next worst thing to smelling like BO is to smell like a try-hard. The best smell is not smelling at all.
Idea: Smell boring
Tuition & Financial Aid
Tuition & Fees
Tuition and fees for the 2026-27 school year (one year of the two-year program):
In-State: $27,149
Out-of-State: $27,839
Tuition and fees are subject to change. We’ll update tuition and fees for the upcoming year when it’s available. Visit VCU Student Financial Services for tuition and fee details.
Parking, room and board, and meal plans are not included in tuition.
Brandcenter Annual Scholarships
Brandcenter scholarships are awarded annually to eligible Brandcenter students in the full-time master’s program.
Scholarships typically range between $500 and $5,000.
Applicants can apply for scholarships for their first-year after submitting materials for admission, and may apply again for their second year.
Business-, people-, and leadership-savvy, Creative Brand Managers lead client and agency teams to accomplish business objectives through creative solutions.
