VP, Brand Experience Strategy

Merkle Italia; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 164,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, dental insurance

Life insurance

Short-term and long-term disability

401k

Flexible paid time off

At least 15 paid holidays per year

Paid sick and safe leave

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Dentsu Creative is seeking a VP of Experience Strategy in New York. You will lead the vision for how brands come to life across activation channels, connect strategy with market execution, and mentor strategists while guiding a large client portfolio.

You’ll align creative, media, and data, ensuring learning informs ongoing strategy and delivering growth for the business. Key responsibilities include driving integrated experience strategies that reflect shopper behavior and retail dynamics, and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of strategy experience with demonstrated expertise in shopper marketing, retail strategy, or commercial strategy.
• Foundation in experiential marketing and events.
• Track record of leading clients from strategic vision through successful execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead the vision for brand experiences across channels and drive business growth.
• Mentor strategists and manage a major client portfolio, fostering integrated thinking.
• Partner with creative, media, and data teams to translate strategy into market execution.

Skills

Strategy

Shopper marketing

Retail strategy

Experiential marketing

Job description

Job Description: About Dentsu Creative Business-Driven and Creatively Obsessed. We are dedicated to helping our clients achieve growth. We understand the challenge of standing out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. We recognize that experiences are becoming indistinguishable across industries, and new technologies can both enable creativity and risk commoditization. In this context, the need for a distinct competitive edge is crucial. We believe that embracing creativity is key for sustainable business growth. However, the conventional definition of creativity will not suffice. Our view on creativity goes beyond norms; it's not just how we execute, but a mindset that permeates our organization and our clients' businesses. We call it Transformative Creativity. It's outcome-focused creativity unleashed to solve business problems. This unique brand of creativity sets us apart and drives our clients to success.

About Our Strategists

We’re Proactive Leaders. Great strategists are proactive and take the initiative to lead teams and clients with new ideas and provocative thoughts. We get ahead of the ask, anticipating the next step and setting the agenda with the energy and optimism it takes to ensure that our work is fresh, our clients feel our partnership, and the team stays ahead of the curve and delivers exceptional ideas. We Challenge the Status Quo. Our strategists take pride in challenging the status quo, always seeking fresh angles and leading with innovative ideas. We push past right, to find what is interesting. We challenge assumptions. We generate the energy and enthusiasm needed to help our teams and clients find the next level in an ever-evolving world, embodying a challenger mindset. We’re Makers and Doers. At every level, from CSO to junior planner, our strategists are makers who take pride in creating things, not just managing projects. We hold ourselves to a high standard of creation, putting hands on keyboards and turning ideas into tangible outputs, fostering a culture of hands‑on involvement and tangible creativity that make ideas in our heads a reality in the world. We Cherish a Growth Mindset. We value and fuel a growth mindset, encouraging our strategists to be their best and embrace feedback that challenges their thinking and actions. Our culture is hard on the work but kind to our people, recognizing that personal growth is key to our agency's success. We’re Radical Collaborators. We are radically collaborative, working fluidly across teams and skill sets with the outcome in mind, not personal egos. Our strategists know that together we are stronger, actively seeking others' input to solve problems and elevate the work, fostering a culture of collective excellence.

Role Overview

The VP of Experience Strategy leads the vision for how brands come to life across all activation channels: retail environments, digital platforms, social media, experiential moments, and shopper marketing initiatives. You serve as the connective force across agency strategy team, bringing together creative, media, data, and internal stakeholders around a unified vision for how the brand's (or collection of brands') experiences work together to drive business growth. You own both the strategic vision and its translation into market, ensuring that the thinking, learning, and intelligence generated throughout the work flows back into the strategy and evolves it. You mentor and guide strategists while strategically leading a significant portion of a large client portfolio, demonstrating how integrated thinking becomes powerful, in market, integrated work. Serve as the connective thinker across creative, media, data, and internal teams, bringing different forms of intelligence together to strengthen strategic decisions and ensure learning flows throughout the work. Partner closely with creative teams to inspire powerful ideas rooted in strategic insight, ensuring excellence in market execution and the coherence between creative expression and strategic intent. You synthesize insights from a variety of sources to craft strategies that are both architecturally coherent and grounded in customer and business reality. Partner with clients to envision how experiential and shopper marketing strategies can grow their business, defining success metrics that matter and seeing strategies through to market execution. Drive the quality of strategic thinking on a major client portfolio, fostering integrated, experience‑led perspectives that account for shopper behavior, retail dynamics, and commercial realities. Lead new business efforts by framing strategic opportunities that demonstrate how brands activate across channels to accomplish business objectives. Mentor and manage strategists, elevating their thinking while modeling how integrated strategy becomes integrated work.

Qualifications

8+ years of strategy experience with demonstrated expertise in shopper marketing, retail strategy, or commercial strategy, as well as a foundation in experiential marketing and events. Proven ability to synthesize insights across consumer behavior, retail dynamics, and business objectives to craft integrated experience strategies. Track record of leading clients from strategic vision through successful execution, with ability to measure and articulate impact on business growth. Exceptional partnership and mentoring capabilities, with demonstrated skill in leading cross‑disciplinary teams and elevating others' strategic thinking. Understanding of performance marketing, experience with learning agendas, in market performance tracking and the ability to recommend learnings to continue to grow the business through marketing.

Additional Information

At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we’re connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in‑person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office. The annual base salary range for this position is $164,450 - $215,000. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law. Additionally, this position is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation.

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
• Paid parental leave

Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies. For more information regarding dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.

Location: New York 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.

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About dentsu

For over 120 years, innovation has been a core tenet of our offering – exploring new ways to reach, engage and nurture relationships with audiences. Together we drive a multiplier effect for clients at a global scale, through the development of Integrated Growth Solutions that are underpinned by our promise to clients: innovating to impact. Be a force for good. Sustainability is a vital part of our business and an important area of focus for our clients. We’re leading the way – helping to build a more sustainable planet. Dream loud. In this moment of transformation, we need our people to be fearless, embracing change and ambiguity, driven by the love for their work and excitement for the future. Team without limits. We create opportunities for connection and collaboration between our colleagues and clients, building a sense of belonging and having some fun along the way. Find out more about us Who we are Our Social Impact Our work