Vice President, Media Strategy

Company description

Mars United℠ Commerce is a global commerce marketing practice that aligns people, technology, and intelligence to make the business of our clients better today than it was yesterday. Our worldwide capabilities coalesce into four key disciplines — Strategy & Analytics, Content & Experiences, Digital Commerce, and Retail Consultancy — that individually deliver unmatched results for clients and collectively give them an unparalleled network of seamlessly integrated functions across the entire commerce marketing ecosystem.

These disciplines are powered by our industry-leading technology platform, Marilyn®, which helps marketers understand the total business impact of their commerce marketing activation, enabling them to make better decisions, create connected experiences, and drive stronger, measurable results. Learn more at

We’re seeking a Vice President, Commerce Media Strategy to lead the evolution of our commerce media strategy practice, team and product.
Candidates must reside within a commutable distance from our New York, Chicago or Detroit (Troy) office for a hybrid work schedule.

The VP will set the strategic vision for how we plan and activate commerce media, strengthen integration across our connected media approach and embed data, technology and AI more deeply into our media strategy and plans. This leader will shape the evolution of our approach to commerce media planning in response to rapidly changing consumer behavior, including the growth of AI, social commerce, retail media, shoppable media and new forms of digital discovery.

This role owns the strategy and planning discipline for commerce media, while partnering closely with the Ecommerce capability, which leads PDP, Digital Shelf and Retail AEO strategy and solutions. The primary focus for this role will be on third-party (3P) commerce media, bringing a strong working understanding of retail media networks (RMN) and how commerce media connects to the broader consumer journey, national media and commerce ecosystem.

This role will support multiple clients and both CPG and Alc/Bev media experience are preferred.

• Lead, develop and inspire the Commerce Media Strategy practice, establishing clear priorities, ways of working and expectations for strategic excellence across clients.
• Partner with leadership to define the vision and roadmap for the future of commerce media strategy, evolving our approach as shopper discovery, media platforms and commerce behaviors continue to change.
• Serve as the senior capability lead for commerce media planning and strategy, partnering with agency, Groupe and cross-functional teams to integrate commerce media into broader connected media strategies.
• Define how Connected Identity, audience intelligence, technology and measurement are applied across commerce media planning, including audience definition, investment strategy, activation and performance evaluation.
• Partner closely with Ecommerce, Retail Consultancy, Media Investment, Analytics, Data and Technology leaders to ensure commerce media is connected to the broader commerce ecosystem, while maintaining clear ownership boundaries across capabilities.
• Lead the development of our commerce media planning approach across clients, including annual planning, investment strategy, audience definition and test-and-learn roadmaps that translate business objectives into actionable recommendations and growth opportunities, while still playing a hands-on role for key clients building plans and strategies that map to our new vision.
• Integrate commerce media into the agency’s Connected Media pillars, advancing how Connected Identity and other data assets inform planning, strategy, audience development,…