Commercial Lead - Brand Experience Agency – Midlands

DNA Recruit; Exmouth; On-site; GBP 81,000 - 99,000; Full time

Job summary

DNA Recruit is partnering with an award-winning brand experience agency in the Midlands to hire a Commercial Lead. You will own a flagship retail account, guiding strategy, revenue growth and cross-functional delivery teams to drive measurable outcomes.

As a senior leader, you will develop long-term growth plans, optimise campaigns, manage budgets and present insights to senior stakeholders, while nurturing client partnerships and expanding commercial opportunities across retail media and

Qualifications

• Significant senior-level experience within a marketing/advertising/retail agency.
• Proven experience leading major retail client accounts and cross-functional teams.
• Strong understanding of retail environments, shopper behaviour and omnichannel.
• Track record of growing client accounts and expanding partnerships.
• Excellent commercial and financial management skills (budgeting, forecasting, margins).

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic direction and commercial performance of a major retail client account.
• Develop long-term account growth plans to expand services and revenue.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and provide strategic guidance.
• Coach and develop multidisciplinary client development and delivery teams.
• Oversee planning and delivery of integrated retail, shopper marketing, and experiential campaigns.
• Use insights and data to improve customer engagement and retail performance.
• Manage budgets, forecasts and reporting with strong financial control.
• Drive innovation across retail media and experiences.
• Establish governance and reporting frameworks for timely delivery.
• Monitor performance and demonstrate ROI and KPIs.
• Collaborate across creative, strategy and operations to ensure quality.

Skills

Senior leadership

Retail marketing

Stakeholder management

Budgeting & forecasting

Team leadership

Education

Degree required

Job description

Commercial Lead - Brand Experience Agency - Midlands

Are you a Commercial Lead looking for an exciting new opportunity?

DNA Recruit are working with an award-winning brand experience agency seeking a commercially minded and strategically driven Commercial Lead to lead a flagship retail account. This is a senior leadership opportunity for an experienced client services professional to drive account growth, strengthen senior client relationships and bring client development and delivery teams together to deliver outstanding results.

About the Role

As Commercial Lead, you will take strategic and commercial ownership of a major retail account, acting as a trusted partner to senior client stakeholders and leading the development of a high-performing, integrated account team.

Working closely with client development, delivery, creative and operational teams, you will shape account strategy, identify new revenue opportunities and ensure campaigns deliver measurable commercial impact. You will combine strong financial acumen and client leadership with a deep understanding of retail environments, shopper behaviour and omnichannel activation.

The role will also involve developing long-term growth plans, driving innovation across retail media and experiential, and using insight and performance data to continually improve campaign effectiveness.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic direction and commercial performance of a major retail client account, aligning activity with client objectives and business priorities.
• Develop and execute long-term account growth plans, identifying opportunities to expand services, increase revenue and strengthen the client partnership.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, providing proactive recommendations and commercially focused strategic guidance.
• Lead, coach and develop multidisciplinary client development and delivery teams, fostering collaboration, accountability and high performance.
• Oversee the planning and delivery of integrated retail, shopper marketing, sampling, experiential and brand activation campaigns.
• Use shopper insights, behavioural data and category knowledge to develop effective strategies that improve customer engagement, conversion and retail performance.
• Manage budgets, revenue forecasts, profitability, margins and resource planning, ensuring strong financial control and accurate reporting.
• Drive innovation across retail media, digital and physical experiences, new activation formats and data-led solutions.
• Establish effective account processes, governance and reporting frameworks, ensuring campaigns are delivered on time, within budget and to the highest standards.
• Monitor campaign performance, identify opportunities for optimisation and demonstrate measurable value through sales uplift, ROI and other relevant KPIs.
• Work collaboratively across creative, strategy, operations and wider agency teams to deliver consistent quality and continuous improvement.

Skills and Experience Required

• Significant senior-level experience within a marketing, advertising, experiential, shopper marketing, retail or brand experience agency.
• Proven experience leading major retail client accounts, ideally with an embedded or head office-based client partnership.
• Strong understanding of retail environments, store operations, shopper behaviour, category dynamics and in-store execution.
• Experience working with major retailers, ideally across grocery, health, beauty, pharmacy or high street environments.
• A strong track record of growing existing client accounts, identifying new opportunities and expanding commercial partnerships.
• Excellent commercial and financial management skills, including budgeting, forecasting, profitability and margin control.
• Demonstrable experience leading, motivating and developing multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong understanding of retail marketing, experiential campaigns, sampling, shopper engagement and omnichannel activation.
• Strategic and analytical thinking, with the ability to translate insight and data into actionable plans and measurable outcomes.
• Experience managing complex campaign delivery, including logistics, staffing, compliance, risk and operational requirements.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and presentation skills, with confidence operating at senior client and agency level.
• A creative, solution-focused approach, with a passion for innovation, continuous improvement and delivering measurable results.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-profile environment.
• A degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject.

Salary: Up to £90,000 per annum plus bonus

Location: Midlands

Job reference: AW 12248

DNA is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community and welcomes applications from candidates of all backgrounds.

Although we try to respond to all applications, unfortunately, due to the high number we receive, we are unable to respond to all of those who are unsuccessful.