Brand Strategy & Activation lead

Location: Amsterdam

Salary: ING Salary Scale 13

Job type: Full-time

In Brand & MarCom we are looking for a Brand Strategy & Activation lead with a passion for building the most desired banking brand in the financial services industry.

ING is a global bank with a strong European base. Our more than 57,000 employees serve around 37 million customers, corporate clients and financial institutions in over 40 countries. Our purpose is to empower people to stay a step ahead in life and in business.

We put trust in our employees and encourage them to design their career in a way that works best for them. Enabling them to grow in their own way, without being held back. Because doing great things starts by doing your thing. We dare to say our culture is unique. Liberating even. But don’t take our word for it. Discover what our colleagues think.

The opportunity

At ING’s Global Communications, Brand and MarCom department , we aspire to be the most impactful, collaborative and forward-looking community in our field. Driving reputation, brand and internal engagement, we help ING to win the trust and admiration of all our key stakeholders, and to be the most appealing banking partner for those who want to make a difference for people and planet.

We are looking for a Lead for the Brand Strategy & Activation team, part of Brand & MarCom. As Lead you will be responsible for shaping and driving ING’s global brand positioning, brand direction and activating the strategy globally. The Lead will combine an engaging and motivating personality with strategic thinking and creativity.

The ING brand is one of the strongest brands in the industry and well known for its sustainable and customer centric approach to banking. Over the past years, ING has built global brand platform ‘do your thing’ and successfully transformed into one global brand with high ambition of becoming the most desired brand in banking.

To successfully manage the brand and keep it live and fresh globally, we need to continuously calibrate our brand strategy, and activate it in line with our brand and business objectives..

The team

The Brand Strategy & Activation team is responsible for ING Brand positioning and brand direction, activating and embedding brand strategy in business lines and functions across the organization globally.

As a lead you’ll work closely with other areas in Global Communications, Brand and MarCom, with Communications, Brand & MarCom organisations in the markets, with our Retail and Wholesale Banking business operations and with senior management.

Roles and responsibilities

Roles and responsibilities of the Brand Strategy & Activation Lead include:

• Shaping the evolution and future direction of the ING Brand. The global brand strategy ‘do your thing’ is a key pillar of the ING brand brought to life by this team;

• Acting as a bridge between the ING strategy and brand performance;

• Leading, driving, shaping and influencing ING’s brand strategy to deliver increased commercial value for ING and emotional engagement built on ING’s overarching strategic priorities;

• Translating insights into actions for brand and marketing communications strategy development.

• Managing the brand strategy and activation tools globally i.e campaigning, sponsoring and social media;

• Responsible for aligning global social media channels strategy with our brand, comms and business ambitions and execute on it by managing the creative process of social media content

• Providing thought leadership, frameworks and guidance for the strategic direction of the ING brand;

• Supporting the various business lines and functions to keep the focus on the customers’ needs and benefits as well as providing specialist brand support on new propositions and activities.

• Responsible for Brand Strategy and Activation budget for strategic initiatives and activation programs

Key responsibilities of the role are:

• Leading the development of the brand positioning within the overall brand strategy and articulate the desired brand positioning to the business;

• Working closely with the business, key functions and a variety of internal stakeholders to develop, integrate, enable, and ensure the execution of the brand and Customer Experience strategy;

• Developing global creative concepts for Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Employer Branding, Sustainability, global propositions and overarching priorities for ING working with creative agencies and inhouse creative teams.

• Leading social media strategy for global social channels to increase brand engagement and presence in digital ecosystem amplifying the brand story;

• Leading the global sponsoring strategy in line with the brand strategy, and continuously looking for global opportunities.

How to succeed

We hire smart people like you for your potential. Our biggest expectation is that you’ll stay curious. Keep learning. Take on responsibility. In return, we back you to develop into an even more awesome version of yourself.

We’re looking for a passionate and creative brand leader who can drive the Brand Strategy & Activation team forward. Key capabilities are:

• Level of experience: 15 years;

• A proven track record in setting global brand strategy and activation, and supporting the business strategy with brand management;

• Significant experience in Brand Strategy and Brand Management in global and local brand roles;

• Experience in leading virtual teams across geographies and business lines to achieve common objectives;

• Ability to manage high ambitions and conflicting goals from a wide range of stakeholders, to successfully reach impactful and pragmatic solutions, is patient and knows how to balance progress with keeping people on board;

• Strong expertise in digital brand and reputation management;

• Ability to incorporate and lead efforts in the digital marketing ecosystem specifically the integration of social and digital channels into the traditional marketing framework;

• Demonstrable track record in brand strategy, integrated marketing comms plans, advertising, sponsoring and social media as well as creative agency management;

• A strong business sense, preferably in financial services and retail banking;

• Flexible and has experience with working with different nationalities and cultures;

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to act with integrity and credibility, both internally and externally.

Rewards & benefits

We want to make sure that it’s possible for you to strike the right balance between your career and your private life and reward our people with a generous benefits offer and employment conditions.

Questions?

Contact Sander Dirks ( sander.dirks@ing.com ) in our recruitment team for more information about this role. Want to apply directly? Please upload your CV and motivation letter by clicking the “Apply” button.