Senior Director, Industry Strategy (Creative Effectiveness)

Zappi is looking for a senior advertising effectiveness and creative development expert to help strengthen our authority, differentiation, and commercial success in the advertising research and creative effectiveness space. This person will serve as both:

• A trusted expert, educator, and industry advocate externally
• A strategic, cross-functional SME and connective layer internally

We are looking for an experienced advertising and marketing professional with a strong understanding of creative development and advertising program building. The ideal candidate will bring a marketing-led perspective, with experience working in/with brands, agencies or advertising platforms, and understand how data and technology can be leveraged to inform better advertising decisions. While an understanding of consumer insights and advertising effectiveness is valuable, this is not primarily an insights or research methodology role. You should be credible with senior Marketing, Brand, Media, Creative, Commercial, Strategy and Insights leaders, and able to connect a practical understanding of advertising with a modern, scalable approach to advertising research and creative effectiveness.

What you'll do:

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.

Help drive cross-functional GTM readiness

• Work closely with Sales, Customer, Product, Product Marketing, Marketing, and Research Science teams on strategic narratives and customer engagements.
• Help Product Marketing build messaging, frameworks, demos, POVs, enablement, competitive guidance, and customer-facing materials when expertise-level knowledge is needed.
• Support enterprise opportunities as a strategic expert and advisor, speaking directly to customers and prospects when senior advertising expertise is needed.
• 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.

Build external credibility

• 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.
• Speak at conferences, webinars, customer events, and industry forums.
• Engage with analysts, strategic customers, and industry communities.
• Co-create customer education materials and programmes with Customer Marketing.

Influence product and strategy

• Translate customer realities, workflow needs, agency dynamics, and competitive gaps into actionable product and GTM recommendations.
• Partner closely with Product, Research Science, and Commercialisation teams.
• Align with Product Marketing, Product, and Commercialisation to pressure test emerging AI, synthetic, predictive, diagnostic, and connected-learning capabilities from both methodological and commercial perspectives.
• Bring a practical advertising and marketing perspective to product and commercial strategy, ensuring product direction aligns with the needs of marketers, brand teams, agencies and the realities of creative development.
• Serve as a second voice outside of Product to help ensure product direction aligns with real-world customer workflows, buyer expectations, and unmet needs.

What success looks like

• Zappi has a stronger, clearer, and more differentiated point of view in advertising effectiveness, creative development, and modern creative decisioning.
• GTM teams are more confident and effective in advertising conversations, with stronger discovery, sharper positioning, and better objection handling.
• Zappi’s advertising offerings are easier for Sales and Account teams to position as a strategic growth opportunity, not simply a set of point solutions or individual ad tests.
• Enterprise buyers increasingly view Zappi as a strategic partner for advertising effectiveness, creative development, and connected campaign learning.
• Product and GTM strategy are more closely aligned to customer realities, creative development workflows, competitive dynamics, and emerging market needs.
• Zappi builds greater external authority through thought leadership, customer education, industry participation, and expert-led advertising narratives.

What we’re looking for:

• 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. Relevant backgrounds include:

• 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.

Why join us:

• Three company-paid mental health days of rest per year (these are pre-scheduled, so the entire company can take the same days off regularly to reset)
• 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 (unless otherwise specified)
• Thoughtfully designed offices to support both individual work and collaboration without interrupting others
• Wellbeing benefits such as free yoga and access to trained therapists / counsellors
• Enhanced parental leave policies
• Free lunch in the office Tuesday-Thursday
• Tax efficient pension contributions via salary sacrifice scheme
• Salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme
• Salary sacrifice nursery scheme
• Tailored personal development through training allowances, coaching, mentorship and career frameworks

Why join us? We’ve been recognized as one of the hottest martech companies in 2022 by Business Insider and named Best Place to Work by Quirk’s Media for our engaging and inclusive workplace culture. We’re committed to both people and the planet. Our belief in inclusion means we’re building an organisation of diverse individuals and helping brands eliminate cultural presumptions in their research. Read our Diversity Manifesto here. We are a values and behaviours driven business and believe that Trust, Truth, Ownership, Ambition and Humility describe Zappi employees on our best day. This is how we strive to show up for our customers, for each other and for our communities. Earning B Corp certification assures us we’re on the right track and have structures in place to become the business we want to be. Our commitment to minimise our impact on the environment means being honest with ourselves and transparent with you—about everything from carbon emissions to tree-planting initiatives. We achieved our goal of becoming Net Zero in 2021! Zappi Company Culture Highlights

• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company for Women 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company Work-Life Balance 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company Compensation 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best CEO for Women 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company for Diversity 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company Culture 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best CEO 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Happiness 2022
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Leadership Teams 2023
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best CEOs for Diversity 2023
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Engineering Teams 2023
• Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company Outlook 2023
• Winner of Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces in the UK 2022 & 2023
• Recognised by Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators 2023
• Winner of Best Marketing Insights Platform in the MarTech Breakthrough Awards 2023 & 2024

Equal OpportunityZappi is an equal opportunity employer; our diversity is a major strength. We are committed to providing equal opportunities for all individuals, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. We believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce fosters innovation, creativity, and success. Our hiring decisions are based solely on merit, qualifications, and abilities, ensuring fairness and equity throughout our recruitment process. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and encourage candidates from underrepresented groups to apply. Join our team and contribute to an inclusive environment where everyone's unique perspectives and talents are valued and respected.

10+ years in advertising, marketing, creative development, brand strategy, campaign strategy or advertising effectiveness; experience with enterprise brands and senior stakeholders; strong communication and storytelling skills.

Key Responsibilities

• developing thought leadership
• supporting go-to-market
• influencing product strategy

Job Details

• Category: Marketing
• Seniority: Senior Level
• Commitment: Full Time
• Workplace: Remote — New York, United States
• Salary: USD 180,000 – 200,000 / year
• Languages: English

Benefits

• Generous paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Generous parental leave

About Zappi

A consumer insights platform that helps brands make faster, smarter, consumer-driven decisions through AI-powered software. — Industry: Information Technology

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