Senior Director, Industry Strategy (Creative Effectiveness)

Responsibilities

• Serve as an industry expert
• Bring strong expertise in advertising, marketing strategy, creative development, campaign planning and advertising programmes, with an understanding of how brands and agencies develop effective advertising
• Act as a senior subject matter expert on creative development, advertising effectiveness, campaign performance and the role of data and technology in informing creative decisions
• Understand how large enterprise organisations operate, including process, politics, agency dynamics, decision-making, budget pressures, stakeholder complexity, and media and creative timelines
• Stay ahead of emerging trends in advertising effectiveness, AI-generated creative, synthetic respondents, creative volume, digital and social testing, predictive models, and connected learning systems
• Function as a trusted internal advisor across the organisation
• Clarify where Zappi’s advertising solutions fit within the creative development lifecycle, from early creative exploration through evaluation, optimisation and campaign learning
• Own the competitive intelligence programme for advertising research and creative effectiveness, translating market, competitor, customer, and industry shifts into internal guidance and external-facing content
• Develop a visible external voice in the advertising effectiveness and creative development space
• Create thought leadership on the future of advertising research, better creative decision-making at scale, AI in creative development, synthetic methods in ad testing, and connected creative learning

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in advertising, marketing, creative development, brand strategy, campaign strategy or advertising effectiveness, ideally gained within an agency, advertising platform, ad tech business or in-house brand or marketing team
• A strong understanding of how advertising is developed and how creative development and advertising programmes support broader marketing objectives
• Experience working with brands, agencies, advertising platforms or marketing teams, with an understanding of their priorities, workflows and challenges
• An understanding of how data, consumer insights and technology can be leveraged to inform creative development and improve advertising decisions, without being primarily focused on research methodology or data analytics
• Experience working with enterprise brands and senior stakeholders across Marketing, Brand, Media, Creative, Commercial, Strategy or Insights teams
• Strong understanding of how enterprise teams make advertising decisions, manage creative risk, and connect consumer insight to campaign performance
• Ability to translate complex advertising concepts and capabilities into clear commercial narratives, sales guidance, executive-level storytelling, and customer-facing POVs
• Experience supporting strategic sales, enterprise customer conversations, thought leadership, or consultative growth motions
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and storytelling skills, with comfort representing a company externally as a senior industry expert
• We are particularly interested in candidates with backgrounds in advertising and marketing, rather than those whose experience has been predominantly focused on consumer insights or research methodology

Preferred

• Creative, advertising or media agencies, with experience in advertising strategy, creative development, campaign planning or effectiveness
• Advertising and media platforms, such as TikTok or YouTube, with experience understanding advertiser needs and how platforms support advertising development and performance
• In-house brand, marketing, media or creative teams at major advertisers
• Ad tech or marketing technology businesses, particularly where the role involves helping brands or agencies leverage technology to improve advertising
• Advertising research, market research or creative effectiveness businesses, where the candidate also brings a strong practical understanding of advertising, marketing and creative development

Benefits

• Three company-paid mental health days of rest per year (pre-scheduled)
• Generous PTO policy - Minimum of 20 days of paid time off per year, plus national holidays
• Leave over 30 days requires manager and People team approval
• Private medical healthcare cover
• Group risk, life & disability contributions
• Flexible working arrangements, including remote
• Thoughtfully designed offices to support both individual work and collaboration
• Wellbeing benefits such as free yoga and access to trained therapists / counsellors
• Enhanced parental leave policies
• Free lunch in the office Tuesday-Thursday