Associate Connections Director, Connections Strategy

At VMLY&R, we create connected brands. We resist the usual ways of seeing, doing and thinking — harnessing creativity, technology and culture — to reimagine the entire connected consumer experience. Our goal? To create work that becomes part of people’s lives, to drive value for our clients and, in the best of cases, to impact the world.

VMLY&R is seeking a digital media native to join the agency’s connections marketing group as Associate Director, Connections Strategy. Working directly with clients and internal teams, the associate director of connections strategy will be primarily responsible for developing and implementing compelling, holistic communications programs, setting the vision for bringing the consumer experience to life across paid, owned and earned channels. This role will be central to planning for dynamic, addressable content that will establish relevance, engagement, and conversions.

The right candidate will be passionate about architecting consumer experiences and communications; have an astute understanding of developing data-based and consumer-inspired journeys; possess the vision to help develop the connections strategy practice; feel inspired working alongside creative, media, data and strategy team members; be an organizational leader who believes in and promotes collaboration.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Serves as the bridge between creative and media strategy, building the framework that inspires personalized communications at scale:

• Architects holistic, omni-channel approach to connections strategies, designed to change behavior and provide media and creative guidance
• Identifies opportunities to bring personalized messaging to life across data-driven, consumer-led journeys
• Champions communications strategies that deliver on personalization at scale and dynamic creative optimization (DCO)
• Leads collaborative workshops resulting in DCO briefs for creative, media, production & analytics.
• Authors personalization matrices, wireframes, and DCO decision trees
• Serves as a DCO subject matter expert and participate in evaluation and selection of tools within Martech and Adtech stack
• Facilitates development of communication strategies and frameworks to be used across global, regional, and local market stakeholders
• Champions new ways of thinking, and developing new models, templates, or processes that achieve the best results for internal teams and clients

As part of the WPP Group, VMLY&R offers one of the best overall compensation packages in the business.

REQUIRED SKILLS

• Strong knowledge of the digital ecosystem and use of 1st, 2nd and 3rd party data across paid and owned channels
• Problem solver and strategic thinker; ability to distill complexity for non-technical audiences
• Comfort in fast-paced, ever-changing environment; forging relationships and building consensus across client and inter-agency teams
• Demonstrated success with client relationships, team management and business development
• Exceptional writing skills
• Focused attention to detail

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• Eight or more years of experience in a strategic marketing role – media strategy or communications planning
• Experience developing and supporting marketing strategies that are data-led and deliver on performance results and client business objectives
• Experience leveraging DMPs/CDPs, external data triggers, creative sequencing, DCO, etc.
• Team leadership with mid-senior level clients and potential new business

VMLY&R is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.