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Toronto ad fish 🤠 I’ve spent most of my career working as a copywriter in London (6 years here, 2 years Toronto) and the market is pretty different here. I’m planning on moving back home but wondered….how do you find work in Toronto? Agencies barely post openings, is the recruiter scene strong? Is it mostly who you know?
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120 - 175. Big range depending on experience, what accounts can afford, etc.
Generally, I’ve seen the following:
Analyst / Entry: 50-75k
1-3 year Strategist: 65 - 85k
3-5 year Sr. Strat: 75 - 95k
Early Strat Director: $110 - 130k
Mid / Late SD: $120 - $175
Early VP: $160 - $180
Late VP: $175 - 220
SVP: $220 - 250
EVP / CSO: $250+
Again, all those ranges are approximate and may fluctuate based on rarity of skills for the role, “danger pay” for hard to staff roles, what a specific piece of business can bear, subjective willingness of an agency to pay for certain individuals, ability for multiple accounts to help fund, etc.
The above does not include bonuses, which again will vary by agency and role.
Source: I am senior in the industry and believe more salary transparency is necessary. This is not tied to one specific agency and is based on my personal experience, anecdotes from colleagues, and working with recruiters.
@SD2 I’d say GSD is in line with VP at a slightly lower band - 160 to 200. I think 220 would be an outlier - you’d have to be a GSD on a huge piece of business for that to make sense
Currently salary band in my large agency on a big client is 165-190.
They’d report into a VP or SVP and would have 2-3 direct reports.
Rising Star
I was being a bit facetious… wondering which agency pays strat directors that well.
How does one even become a strat director? Is that something you go to school for?
You work your way up as a strategist on large accounts and be ready to demonstrate that you do actual strategy work.
Some skills to be strong at:
-Develop Research practices
-Develop consumer insights
-Build strong creative briefs
-Work with clients on full year plans
-Understand and create effective segmentations, comms plans, social strategies
- know how to defend your work and creative concepts
- be able to manage and train more junior strategists