Director, Brand & Experience Strategy

dentsu; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 119,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, and dental insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance (short-term &long

401k

Flexible paid time off

15 paid holidays per year

Paid sick and safe leave

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Dentsu Creative in Chicago is seeking a Director, Brand Strategy to lead data-informed, cross-disciplinary work at the intersection of creativity, performance marketing, and client outcomes. You will guide teams across brand, media, and creative to translate insights into actionable recommendations that drive results.

The role emphasizes developing test strategies, briefs, and learning agendas, while staying close to performance signals and evolving tools.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years as a creative performance strategist in digital, with exposure to programmatic video, display, and social platforms, or deep experience in at least one area.
• Total performance marketing experience of 5+ years with proven linkages between creative decisions and outcomes.
• Experience delivering strategic deliverables: briefs, test strategies, content frameworks, etc., with sound judgement.
• Strong analytical capability to synthesize data from multiple sources into clear client recommendations.
• Proven collaboration across account, creative, and media teams.
• Excellent client and internal communication, capable of leading discussions and presenting recommendations.
• Comfort with managing multiple accounts and client challenges simultaneously.
• Some familiarity with DCO platforms and know-how to apply them when needed.
• Eagerness to adopt the latest tools and technologies in performance marketing.
• Bachelor's degree in business-related field; additional marketing research fluency is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop creative test strategies and roadmaps, coordinating with creative and media teams for sound execution and measurement.
• Author creative briefs integrating audience insight, channel context, and messaging direction through to execution.
• Build strategic deliverables beyond briefs, such as learning agendas and messaging hierarchies.
• Establish always-on campaign listening: track assets, identify winners, and translate performance into optimization recommendations.
• Organize and analyze data from multiple sources to surface actionable insights for clients and internal teams.
• Partner with brand and media strategy to ensure distribution logic and audience segmentation are considered from the start.
• Operate as connective tissue across strategy, creative, media, analytics, and technology.
• Maintain working knowledge of DCO platforms and apply where appropriate.
• Stay current on emerging tools and technologies shaping performance marketing.

Skills

Creative performance strategy

Data analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication skills

Client management

DCO platforms familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree in business or equivalent

Tools

DCO platforms

Job description

The Director, Brand Strategy is a multi-discipline operator: equal parts analyst, strategic thinker, and connective force across brand, media, and creative teams inside and outside the agency. They move fluidly across client portfolios, embedding themselves wherever performance creative strategy is needed, and they leave every engagement sharper than they found it. They are integral connective tissue between teams, fluent in media, and skilled at developing the strategic briefs, test approaches, content and messaging frameworks, or plans needed to keep work moving with clarity and purpose. They work closely with creative and media teams to ensure accurate, high-quality execution, and they stay close enough to the work to know when something needs to shift. This person has a strong command of data — knowing how to organize it, pull meaningful insight from it, and translate those insights into clear recommendations for clients and internal teams on what to do next, regardless of where that data originates. They take an always listening and learning mindset to everything they do, from tracking creative assets in market to reading trends or interpreting performance signals. Strong communicators and critical thinkers, they lead client and internal discussions with confidence, always guiding smarter decisions, and always looking for opportunities to improve marketing efforts and grow the business. This is an opportunity for someone who wants to sit at the intersection of creativity, data, and modern performance marketing.

Responsibilities

• Develop creative test strategies and roadmaps, coordinating with creative and media teams to ensure sound execution and measurement of recommendations.
• Author creative briefs that bring together audience insight, channel context, and message direction and working alongside creative teams through to execution
• Build strategic deliverables beyond the brief, including things like learning agendas, content frameworks, messaging hierarchies, competitive analysis
• Establish always-on campaign listening practices: tracking creative assets in market, identifying what's working, and translating performance into clear optimization recommendations to guide decisioning
• Organize and analyze data from multiple sources, surfacing actionable insights and communicating next steps clearly to clients and internal teams.
• Partner with brand and media strategy teams to ensure creative is built with distribution logic and audience segmentation in mind from the start.
• Operate as connective tissue across strategy, creative, media, analytics, and technology.
• Maintain a working understanding of DCO platforms and apply that knowledge where appropriate for client needs.
• Stay current on emerging tools and technologies shaping performance marketing, bringing that knowledge into strategic recommendations proactively.

Qualifications

• At least 3 years of experience as a creative performance strategist working in digital, ideally across programmatic video, display, and multiple social platforms, or with significant depth in at least one of these areas.
• At least 5 years of total experience in performance marketing, with a demonstrated ability to connect creative decisions to measurable performance outcomes.
• Experience developing a range of strategic deliverables: creative briefs, test strategies, content frameworks, etc, as well as the judgment to know what the moment calls for.
• Strong analytical thinking with the ability to organize data from multiple sources, pull meaningful insight, and translate findings into clear, confident recommendations for clients and internal teams.
• A track record of collaboration with account, creative and media teams.
• Strong client and internal communication skills, with experience leading discussions, presenting recommendations, and identifying opportunities.
• Comfortable managing across multiple accounts and client challenges simultaneously.
• Some experience with DCO platforms; deep expertise not required, but familiarity with how and when to apply them is expected.
• Genuine enthusiasm for the latest tools, platforms, and technologies shaping performance marketing.
• Bachelor's degree in a business-related or equivalent field.
• B2B2C experience and fluency in marketing research methodologies are a plus.

The annual salary range for this position is $119,000-$150,000 annually. We base placement within the salary range on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, and other factors permitted by law.

Benefits available with this position include:

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance,
• Life insurance,
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance,
• 401k,
• Flexible paid time off,
• At least 15 paid holidays per year,
• Paid sick and safe leave, and
• Paid parental leave.

Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including providing time off according to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, following its plans and policies. For further details regarding Dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.

Location

Chicago

Brand

Dentsu Creative

Time Type

Full time

Contract Type

Permanent

Dentsu is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees. We do this without regard to race, color, national origin, sex , sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religious practices and observances, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

Dentsu is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with us, please send an e-mail [e-mail] clicking on the link to let usknow the nature of your accommodation request and your contact information. We are here to support you.