VP, Financial Services Strategy Industry Lead

Company Description

Merkle is a technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company. For over 30 years, Fortune 1,000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with us to build and maximize the value of their customer portfolios.

Job Description

As Financial Services Industry Lead for Strategy, you will join a team of talented and experienced marketers who focus on helping Merkle clients achieve their business goals through understanding of their market and customers, a focus toward customer experience transformation, and customer-centric communication.

The FiServ Industry Lead operates as an important member of both the Strategy leadership team and the Vertical leadership team, ensuring that the go-to-market value proposition we present and the programs we build are based on our understanding of our client's strategic objectives and the broader landscape.

This role will be a leader in Merkle's presence in the Financial Services sector, so you must also possess the ability to articulate Merkle's 'right to win' in the space through evolved and cutting-edge thinking. You must show the ability to bring foundational credibility to Merkle through strong thought leadership, as well as build strong relationships with clients and the internal client team.

You are the ideal candidate for this role if you have a deep understanding of how sub-categories of Financial Services operate – specifically Banking, FinTech, Insurance, and Wealth Management.

This position has a deep comprehension of how businesses, brands and customers interact, with an advanced understanding of the rapidly evolving role that data and technology play in this relationship.

Candidates must possess the ability to identify business growth opportunities to support the growth of client relationships.

Key Responsibilities

The three main components of this position are specific to industry thought leadership, strategic planning expertise, and new business solutioning:

• Lead creation and optimization of Merkle's Financial Services market value proposition, inclusive of IP such as supporting thought leadership webinars, whitepapers, conference engagements, etc.
• Build external brand and credibility of self and Merkle through relationships with third party resources (i.e. Forrester) as well as thought leadership activities described above.
• Bring focus and direction to key Financial Services themes and ongoing conversations such as emerging tech, evolving AI in FinTech, rapid evolution of payments, digital banking, response to changing regulations, marketplace saturation/differentiation, etc. to bring a distilled point of view to our clients and illuminate their path forward.
• Lead or solution new business opportunities within Financial Services, whether for existing or net new clients.
• Drive internal and external growth conversations with FiServ clients
• Lead and align other Strategy team members in growth of existing client and partner relationships, both inside and outside of the Strategy team.
• Encourage existing strategists to socialize valuable insights and work through ongoing case study creation, award submissions, and externally facing thought leadership pieces such as articles, blogs, and conference engagements.
• Establish community of practice for FiServ Strategists-facilitate Financial Services community meetings to discuss ongoing strategic engagements, market assessments, vertical themes or evolutions, and seasonal considerations.
• Oversee or lead the building, development, and delivery of strategic omni-channel marketing plans.
• Continually monitor current marketing trends, new technology solutions, and competitive strategies – and then translate them into new direction for our clients.
• Develop trusted, long-term relationships with key client contacts and executives.
• Ensure meaningful client value is delivered through a mix of best-practice solutions, skills, capabilities, and original thinking.
• Collaborate and develop relationships with internal Merkle teams (account management, operations, creative, analytics etc.), and partner agencies to understand the feasibility of cross-channel recommendations/ plans.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree required.
• 15+ years' experience in data driven marketing – specifically CX transformation, Relationship Marketing, Lead-gen/demand gen, nurture, online media, offline media, trade shows/webinars, etc. Deep expertise specific to Financial Services across most lines of business (Checking, Savings, Wealth Management, Commercial Banking, Consumer Banking, Mortgage, Lending, FinTech, Retirement, etc.) is a must.
• 3- 5+ years working in an agency or consulting firm.
• Proven experience in developing solutions to support the sale of new service