Summary

Doe-Anderson, Inc., is looking for a VP, Brand Strategy Director to lead brand planning on one of the agency’s biggest client accounts, Maker’s Mark.

Doe-Anderson has been the AOR for Maker’s Mark for nearly 50 years, and our passion for this brand runs deep. We partnered with our clients to build and grow it from its inception. We are now in need of a team of leaders to steward it into the next 50 years of this unique industry relationship.

While a majority of Maker’s Mark’s sales has historically been domestic, we have ambitious plans not only to continue to solidify its place in North America but also to help build it as a global icon. We have been tasked to help deliver this through big strategic thinking, brilliant and brave creative ideas, steadfast executional leadership and a deep respect for the brand’s distinctive voice and positioning.

The ideal candidate for this position is a team-builder, a problem-solver and a superior communicator with experience leading internal teams and working alongside other senior marketing professionals. 

The VP, Brand Strategy Director will work closely with brand planners and digital strategists assigned to the client account, actively leading and guiding the brand planning process to create an integrated and consumer-centric strategic approach that enhances the output of all team members in the cross-discipline brand team.

This is a very unique opportunity in our industry. You will lead integrated marketing for an iconic global brand, working with not only a sophisticated global marketing organization at Beam-Suntory but also the founding family of the Maker’s Mark brand. (That’s right, the founder’s grandson is one of our most senior clients.) And you’ll do all this in one of the most established, fully independent, employee-owned agencies in the country.

The ideal candidate will be a seasoned Brand Strategist who can harness the best of data, research, trends, category knowledge and old-fashioned creative instinct to lead teams to breakthrough ideas. This person will be able to effectively coach and guide junior team members along the way. The ideal candidate will demonstrate a high level of personal motivation and curiosity, lead with empathy and seek to inspire the best work from everyone. You will have outstanding long-term client relationship skills and the ability to earn the respect of those around you for your capacity to listen and lead. You will recognize that advertising is a team sport and know how to involve everyone to build a path to success.

Responsibilities

Strategic Planning:

• Help develop presentations and briefs that will effectively articulate recommended brand strategies to connect our clients’ brands to target consumers

• Lead, manage and analyze consumer and marketing research projects on behalf of our clients

• Participate and collaborate across agency disciplines to develop marketing solutions to meet clients’ marketing challenges

• Help build the agency’s brand planning capabilities, sharing proven approaches, frameworks and best practices to help enhance Doe Anderson’s offering

 Team Leadership:

• Guide, coach and manage the work of junior team members on shared accounts

• Mentor others in the strategy group, helping the team unlock its maximum potential and deliver best-in-class work for clients

• Help set standards and lead best practice development for the group

• Foster strong working relationships across agency disciplines, especially creative, analytics and media as well as client services

• Develop and oversee team-based projects like agency-sponsored research, white papers, workshops and more

Agency Thought Leadership:

• Work with Strategic Planning team colleagues to concept, obtain, synthesize, distill and distribute relevant industry information and marketing intelligence that helps build agency knowledge and expertise as well as its profile in the industry.

Qualifications

• Senior-level agency planning/strategy experience

• Critical thinking and analysis skills

• Strong presentation and persuasion skills

• Strong record of effective team leadership

• Fresh ideas and a willingness to share them

• The ability to embrace and empathize with diverse perspectives

• Spirits, CPG and/or Hospitality experience is preferred.

• Global brand experience a plus.

• Preference for willingness to relocate to the Louisville, Ky. area, however this role may be remote with heavy travel to Louisville, Ky.

Report to: EVP, Chief Strategy Officer

Qualified individuals may submit their credentials to hr@doeanderson.com. 

About Louisville

Our hometown since 1915 was recently dubbed “the new Austin.” We’re not sure what that means, but we’ll take it as a compliment. We like to think of Louisville as the place where Southern hospitality begins but Midwestern common sense and practicality stick around. It’s a blend of the best of both cultures. And speaking of culture, we’ve long been known for having one of the country’s most dynamic art scenes. Over the past decade, our food scene has caught up, with Louisville becoming recognized as one of the leaders in the farm-to-table movement. Oh, and did we mention bourbon? Mix in with a low cost of living and an ease of getting around. Stir well. Enjoy.

About Doe-Anderson

You know the cliché about a company being “like a family?” Well, sometimes clichés become clichés because they’re true. In the case of Doe-Anderson, you would be joining an organization that’s been nurturing careers (and the people attached to them) for well over a century. We like to think it’s because you can carve your own path here, supported by management and your peers. We try hard to keep the corporate politics to a minimum and the self-reliance to the max. That may be why almost half our employees are shareholders in the company – and why people tend to stick around nearly three times the ad agency average. There’s something about the place that makes it hard to leave. 

At Doe-Anderson, we have a long history of creating work that, well, works. To do this, we strive to reflect the world we live in and speak to every day. Building belief in brands begins with believing in and celebrating one another as individual members of a diverse and inclusive team.

We will never disqualify a potential team member based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, or veteran or disability status.