Vice President, Cultural Strategy

UEG is an award-winning global agency specializing in entertainment, sports and lifestyle marketing. We create breakthrough marketing by leveraging the people, places and platforms that shape pop culture. Our suite of services includes celebrity/influencer programming, music-film-tv/digital-sports partnerships, communications, branded content and experiential.   
The team at UEG is a dynamic group, bringing together best-in-class expertise across entertainment, sports and lifestyle, paired with a strong understanding of brand building and effective marketing communications. This is a work hard, play hard environment where a true passion for culture are married with the desire to create business changing work for our clients.   
We are in relentless pursuit of an equitable and inspiring workplace that is respectful of all, reflects and represents the world in which we live, and fosters trust, collaboration and belonging. Consistent with this approach, we hire the best qualified candidates for all positions.
The Vice President, Cultural Strategy will serve as a senior strategic leader across a portfolio of high-profile, culturally resonant brands. With a deep understanding of cultural drivers, consumer behavior, and brand storytelling, this role will shape the agency’s most important creative strategies and integrated marketing campaigns. The expectation is that this individual understands consumer insights and trends across sports, music and entertainment and can provide unique perspective on how to resonate with established target audience(s).
The VP will lead the strategic development process from insight mining to creative activation, serving as a key partner to creative, research, account, and executive leadership. This individual should be equally confident in driving high-level strategy, managing and mentoring talent, and leading client engagements at the executive level. This role sits at the intersection of culture, creativity, and commerce—requiring a sophisticated blend of analytical rigor, creative intuition, and a pulse on what's next. 

Responsibilities

• Lead Strategic Vision: Drive the strategic vision for multi-channel, culturally grounded campaigns that span influencer, social, experiential, and traditional media; translate complex brand challenges into clear, compelling narratives and activation strategies. 
• Executive Client Partnership: Serve as a trusted advisor to senior clients and internal executives, guiding brand strategy, campaign development, and creative alignment. 
• Strategic Insights & Culture Leadership: Synthesize qualitative and quantitative research into powerful, actionable insights; identify and own cultural moments with strategic relevance for brand activation. 
• Creative Collaboration: Partner closely with creative leadership to ensure brand strategy informs and inspires breakthrough creative platforms; shape talent strategies, campaign narratives, and experiential touchpoints. 
• Sports, Music and Entertainment Savviness: Given a significant portion of the work under the portfolio connects brands to these cultural verticals, it is important that this individual can craft breakthrough positionings for brands in these spaces. 
• Creative Ecosystem Stewardship: Oversee development of end-to-end campaign strategies, including comms plans, journey mapping, channel strategy, and measurement frameworks. 
• Risk & Cultural Intelligence: Guide teams on brand safety, inclusive storytelling, and reputational risk mitigation rooted in cultural fluency. 
• Thought Leadership & Innovation: Lead development of thought leadership, trend analysis, and innovation planning that informs agency and client growth. 
• Team Leadership: Mentor and manage strategy talent, fostering a culture of strategic rigor, creativity, and collaboration; help scale team capabilities and influence across the agency. 
• Recognition & Growth: Lead strategic inputs for award submissions, case studies, and new business opportunities that elevate the agency’s profile. 

Qualifications

• Minimum 8+ years of experience in a senior strategy role within an agency or brand environment focused on creative, cultural, and consumer-driven marketing. 
• Proven track record leading large-scale, integrated brand strategy across diverse sectors, ideally with strong exposure to sports, entertainment, lifestyle, and pop culture brands. 
• Expert at crafting and presenting strategic narratives to C-level executives with clarity, confidence, and creativity. 
• Demonstrated ability to inspire and lead high-performing teams; experience managing and mentoring other strategists. 
• Adept at translating complex data and human truths into insights that move hearts, minds, and business results. 
• Exceptional written, verbal, and visual communication skills. 
• Nimble, resourceful, and driven by curiosity, with a strong pulse on evolving cultural, media, and consumer trends. 
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving forward momentum in fast-paced environments. 

Location

• This role is based in New York City and operates in a hybrid work environment. 

An employee’s pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, travel requirements, revenue-based metrics, any contractual agreements, and business or organizational needs. The range listed is just one component of DJEH’s total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, a Paid Time Off policy, and region-specific benefits.
DJEH offers a wide range of benefits: medical and dental insurance, vision, 401K, life insurance, disability insurance, paid time off, travel assistance and wellness programing. 
DJEH is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and believes in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We seek applications from all qualified candidates without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, physical or mental disability, military and veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law. If you require a reasonable accommodation in any part of the employment process, please let us know.