Advertising Art Director

Lactalis USA; Minnetonka (MN); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 105,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Education Reimbursement

Paid Time Off from day one

Retirement plan contributions

Insurance coverage

Job summary

Lactalis USA is seeking an Advertising Art Director to lead brand storytelling for our yogurt portfolio from Minnetonka, MN. You will shape visuals, campaigns, and experiences across broadcast, digital, social, and experiential channels with our in-house team.

You will partner with the Creative Director and Copywriter to drive award-winning work that resonates nationally, maintain brand voice, and manage external collaborators to deliver on tight timelines.

Qualifications

• Degree from nationally recognized portfolio school or comms program.
• 7+ years crafting high-profile integrated advertising.
• Award-winning portfolio demonstrating big-budget national work.
• Impeccable design sense and attention to detail.
• Ability to craft ideas from consumer insights.
• Experience leading large-scale campaigns and teams.

Responsibilities

• Create concepts and design brand experiences across channels (broadcast, PR, digital, experiential, social).
• Concept and pitch integrated campaigns that elevate brand creative nationwide.
• Ensure brand creative and messaging alignment with strategy.
• Partner with copywriter; lead intersection of communication and design.
• Lead visual direction for national spots and high-budget productions with directors and crews.
• Manage freelancers and external partners to maintain brand quality.

Skills

Top Agency Pedigree

Award-winning mindset

Big brand fluent

Education

Portfolio school degree/comms program

Tools

Paid social: META

Paid social: Pinterest

Paid social: Reddit

Job description

Job Type

Full-time

Description

Ready for more than just a job? Build a career with purpose.

At Lactalis in the USA, we're committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive-whether you're just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we're proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani Italian cheeses and ricotta, President specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone's cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond cheddar, and Parmalat milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi's, Stonyfield Organic, Brown Cow, Oui, Yoplait, Go-Gurt, :ratio, Green Mountain Creamery, and Mountain High, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun, Gopi, and Arz.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values-Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity.

Even if you don't meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy.

From your PASSION to ours

Lactalis US Yogurt, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Advertising Art Director based in Minnetonka, MN.

We at The FERM are looking for an award-winning advertising heavyweight to treat our yogurt brands as their ultimate creative playground. If you are tired of agency pitch-grinds and want to actually see your biggest, boldest ideas produced on a national stage, this is your next move. Reporting to the Creative Director, this role will work in a growing, talented, award winning in-house creative squad to build integrated world-class brand experiences that engage and inspire. The Advertising Art Director will work on a growing, talented, in-house creative team and build integrated world-class brand experiences that engage and inspire. This role will serve as the lead steward of US Yogurt's mission and brand voice, driving compelling messaging and storytelling across brands. Partnering closely with the Advertising Copywriter and broader creative team, the Advertising Art Director will bring campaigns to life through innovative visual storytelling across channels. The Advertising Art Director will report to the Creative Director.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

A Top Agency Pedigree: You've cut your teeth at top-tier shops and have the case studies to prove it.

An Award-Winning Mindset: Your work has caught the eye of award juries (Cannes, One Show, Clios, Pencils) or has actively driven national cultural conversation.

Big Brand Fluent: You know how to command a big budget, direct massive productions, and steer a brand that millions of people interact with daily.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• Create concepts and design brand experiences across all channels of marketing communications, including broadcast, PR and earned, experiential, digital, and owned and paid social.
• Concept and pitch culture-defining, headline-grabbing integrated campaigns that elevate our brands creative cache nationally.
• Ensure integration of core brand creative, campaign messaging, and sound strategic point of view into the work.
• Partner with copywriting and act as a strong command of the intersection between thoughtful communication and design.
• Lead the visual direction for major national broadcast spots, high-budget lifestyle photography, and experiential activations, collaborating with top-tier directors, production houses, and crews.
• Manage freelancers and external partners to ensure all outside work is consistent with the brand at the same quality and caliber.

Requirements

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

Education

• Degree from nationally recognized portfolio school or equivalent university comms program (VCU Brand Center, Miami Ad School, SCAD, Stan Richards School UT, SI Newhouse School Syracuse etc).

Experience

• 7+ years of experience crafting high-profile integrated advertising.
• A proven track record within world-class, creative-first advertising agencies.
• Must possess a stunning, award-winning portfolio demonstrating big-budget, national consumer brand work (Broadcast, Earned, Experiential, Digital).

Certifications and specific knowledge

• Ability to craft unique ideas from consumer insights.
• Impeccable sense of design, attention to detail, and consummate consumer of culture.
• Practice and application of effectiveness tools and metrics (pre-post creative testing, brand lift studies, MMM's)
• Paid social experience across META, Pinterest and Reddit
• Ability to prioritize and meet deadlines within specified time constraints.
• Ability to operate in a team environment as well as independently.

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.

#LI-Hybrid

Salary Description

$90,000 - $105,000