Director, Audience & Activation Strategy

Location: New York, NY | Chicago, IL | Detroit, MI
Hybrid

About the Role

Dentsu is seeking a Director, Audience Strategy & Targeting to lead the development of audience strategies that drive measurable business outcomes across today's evolving media ecosystem.

This role sits at the intersection of audience intelligence, consumer data, identity solutions, media activation, and measurement. As a strategic leader, you'll help define how brands identify, reach, and engage their most valuable audiences across digital channels, while improving marketing performance and driving business growth.

You will partner with cross-functional teams across media, analytics, data science, technology, and product to develop innovative audience solutions that connect data-driven insights to real-world business results.

This is an opportunity to shape audience strategy at scale, influence enterprise-wide initiatives, and serve as a key voice in the future of audience targeting and addressability.

Why Join Dentsu?

The marketing landscape is changing rapidly as audience data, identity solutions, retail media, and AI-powered activation continue to evolve. We're looking for a leader who is excited by that transformation and wants to help shape what comes next.

In this role, you'll:

• Influence audience strategy across a diverse portfolio of leading global brands.
• Help shape Dentsu's audience, data, and targeting capabilities.
• Collaborate with experts across media, analytics, technology, and product teams.
• Work with industry-leading platforms and emerging technologies.
• Drive innovation in audience design, targeting, activation, and measurement.
• Translate complex data and audience insights into meaningful business outcomes.

If you're passionate about understanding consumer behavior and transforming audience insights into marketing performance, this role offers significant visibility, impact, and growth opportunity.

What You'll Do

Lead Audience Strategy

• Develop audience strategies aligned with client business and marketing objectives.
• Translate audience insights and data signals into actionable targeting recommendations.
• Build scalable frameworks for audience planning, segmentation, and activation.
• Ensure audience strategies support measurable business and media outcomes.

Design & Optimize Targeting Solutions

• Create and optimize audience segments using first-party, third-party, CRM, behavioral, and identity-based data.
• Identify opportunities to improve audience quality, precision, reach, and performance.
• Evaluate audience targeting approaches across channels and platforms.
• Develop recommendations to improve match rates, targeting accuracy, and campaign effectiveness.

Drive Cross-Channel Activation

• Partner with activation teams to bring audience strategies to life across:
  • Programmatic media
  • Social platforms
  • Retail media networks
  • Connected TV (CTV)
  • Search and emerging channels
• Ensure activation plans align with audience goals and business objectives.

Advance Audience Innovation

• Stay ahead of emerging trends in identity, data, privacy, and audience targeting.
• Evaluate new vendors, technologies, data providers, and audience solutions.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen targeting capabilities and competitive differentiation.

Measurement & Performance

• Establish testing and learning plans to evaluate audience effectiveness.
• Develop measurement frameworks that connect audiences to business outcomes.
• Analyze results and transform insights into optimization strategies and future recommendations.

Strategic Leadership

• Act as a trusted advisor to internal stakeholders and client teams.
• Partner with senior leaders across media, analytics, technology, and data functions.
• Mentor team members and promote audience strategy best practices across the organization.
• Drive thought leadership around audience planning, targeting, and performance measurement.

What We're Looking For

We are seeking a strategic leader with expertise across the audience lifecycle:

Audience Insights → Audience Design → Targeting Strategy → Activation → Measurement → Optimization

Successful candidates will bring:

• Deep expertise in audience strategy, segmentation, and targeting.
• Strong understanding of audience data ecosystems and identity solutions.
• Experience working across digital media channels and activation platforms.
• Knowledge of first-party, third-party, CRM, and identity-based audience approaches.
• Ability to connect audience strategy to measurable business outcomes.
• Strong consultative, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience influencing cross-functional teams and strategic decision-making.
• Passion for innovation, testing, and continuous optimization.

Join Us

At Dentsu, we help brands grow through the power of data, technology, media, and creativity. As Director, Audience Strategy & Targeting, you'll play a pivotal role in defining how audience intelligence drives business growth and marketing performance for some of the world's most recognizable brands.

If you're ready to influence the future of audience strategy and targeting, we'd love to hear from you.

Dentsu is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees. We do this without regard to race, color, national origin, sex , sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religious practices and observances, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

Dentsu is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with us, please send an e-mail to [email protected] by clicking on the link to let us  know the nature of your accommodation request and your contact information. We are here to support you.