Dove Experiential Specialist

Experience Specialist Vaseline (Part of Power Brand Demand Creation Squad)

Function: Marketing

Work Level:  1CU

Reports to: Head of Demand Creation BWPC Southern Africa

Scope: Local

Location: South Africa (Durban or Johannesburg)

Terms & Conditions: Full-Time; Permanent

JOB PURPOSE
The Brand Experience Specialist supports Power Brand Lead in creating integrated brand plans as part of the Demand Creation Squad. Lead in developing and executing Brand activation, shopper & retail experiences (POS/ Materials/artwork, in-store activations, sampling experiences).

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE

• Develop and execute unmissable, engaging and impactful Power Brand experiences that connect with the target audience/social cohort, reinforce brand positioning, and drive measurable results including awareness, penetration and brand power.

• Lead the planning and execution of in-store activations; main shelf and additional visibility; retail / sampling experiences, creating memorable moments that enhance the shopper journey, driving penetration, sales and UBS.

• Collaborate with the Influencer & PR Lead and Content team to integrate into brand experiences, leveraging their reach and engagement to amplify events and generate content.

• Manage external activation agency relationships, providing clear briefs, overseeing development; whilst ensuring seamless execution within budget and timeline parameters.

• Analyse the performance of brand experiences, tracking key metrics such as attendance, engagement, social media buzz, sales impact to measure ROI and inform future strategies.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED

• Experiences & Qualifications

• Proven Experiential Marketing: Typically 3+ years of experience directly conceiving,

• planning, and executing brand activations, ideally with a digital-first approach.

• Track Record in Beauty (preferred): Experience within the beauty industry or with beauty brands, understanding the target audience/social cohort and trends.

• Shopper Journey Optimisation: Demonstrated success in analysing and improving

• customer experiences across multiple touchpoints (online store, social media, shelf, etc.).

• Project Management Prowess: Evidence of managing complex projects with multiple

• stakeholders, budgets, and timelines, ensuring successful delivery and budget ROI.

• Digital Marketing Expertise: Confidence with digital marketing channels, tactics, and their role in amplifying brand experiences.

• Innovation Execution: success in delivering brand experiences across the shopper journey to drive trial, desire and conversion.

Other

• Retail Experience: Experience with visual merchandising, store design, shelf visibility, in[1]store events, sampling.

• Agency Experience: Working at an experiential marketing agency with diverse experience across multiple brands and projects is an advantage.

• Data Analysis Skills: Confidence using data to track activation performance, measure ROI, repeat post sampling to inform future strategies.

Skills

Brand Strategy & Vision:
• Brand Understanding: Deep understanding of brand identity, values, and how experiences can effectively translate and reinforce them to consumers and drive brand power.
• Product Understanding: In-depth understanding of the brand formulation and how to bring product superiority to life during the shopper journey to drive desire and conversion.
• Strategic Alignment: Ability to align activations with overall brand and marketing objectives, ensuring consistency in messaging and brand expression across touchpoints (including social / digital / instore).

Experiential Marketing Expertise:

• Creative Concept Development: Generating innovative and engaging brand experience

• Concepts that align with brand objectives, target audience/social cohort and budget.

• Event Planning & Execution: Strong organisational and logistical skills to plan, manage, and execute brand activations, events, and retail experiences flawlessly, whether online or offline (eg pop-up events, integration with influencer partnerships, interactive digital campaigns, sampling experience).

• Online and Offline Experience: While the role requires a digital-first approach, proven

• Success in designing and executing impactful brand activations in both online and offline

• environments and touchpoints.

• Innovation Execution: curating unmissable brand experiences across the shopper journey

• whilst delivering 50% awareness before Innovation media breaks.

Shopper Journey & Retail:

• Shopper Journey Mapping: Analysing and optimising the customer journey across all

• Touchpoints (online store, social media, physical retail, sampling); including identifying pain

• points and opportunities to enhance the experience at each stage.

• Retail Understanding: Knowledge of visual merchandising, store design principles,

• creating shelf visibility and in-store customer experience tactics.

Project & Budget Management:

• Project Management: Strong organisational skills to manage multiple activations, budgets, timelines, and stakeholders (internal teams, agencies, vendors); delivery on time and in budget.

• Budget Management: Experience managing budgets, negotiating with vendors, and

• optimising spending for maximum impact, no overspend.

Digital Fluency & Technology:

• Digital Marketing Integration: Understanding of digital marketing channels and tactics to amplify brand experiences, drive online engagement, and track results.

• Technical Proficiency: Familiarity with project management tools, and other relevant

• Technologies, including those specific to beauty activations (e.g., AR/VR try-on experiences, shoppable social content, interactive video).

Beauty Consumer & Trend Insight:

• Passion for Beauty: A demonstrable passion for the beauty landscape, its products,

• keeping up with trends, innovations, and key players, reflecting a genuine enthusiasm for the field.

• Beauty Consumer Insight: Deep understanding of beauty shoppers' motivations,

• Behaviours, and preferences. This includes the ability to tailor experiences that resonate with the target audience/social cohort and drive desired actions and conversion.

• Trend Awareness: Keeping up with emerging technologies, experiential trends, and

• Competitor activations in the beauty space to stay ahead of the curve and identify new Opportunities.

Creative & Analytical Skills:

• Visual & Sensory Storytelling: Strong aesthetic sense and understanding of how to create visually captivating experiences that appeal to the senses, which is particularly important in the beauty industry: storytelling of the product science / product superiority which is on brand but engaging and ownable.

• Data Analysis & Reporting: Ability to track and measure the impact of activations, using data to optimise future experiences, demonstrate ROI, and inform strategic decisions.

• Teamwork & Collaboration: Ability to effectively collaborate with internal teams (eg. marketing, sales, creative) and external partners (eg agencies, vendors) to deliver seamless and desirable brand experiences.

• Communication & Presentation Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills to articulate ideas, present concepts and inspire stakeholders.

Leadership

You are energized by delivering fantastic results. You are an example to others – both your results and your resilience. You are constantly on the lookout for better ways to do things, engaging and collaborating with others along the way.
• As an individual you are the one responsible for your own wellbeing and delivering high standards of work. You must also focus on the Consumer and what they need. You are humble and have your head up, looking around to interpret evidence and data smartly, spot issues and opportunities to make things better.

Critical SOL (Standards of Leadership) Behaviour

• PASSION FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE: We are hungry to win together, prioritise ruthlessly and own the outcome.

• PERSONAL MASTERY: We bring our best, whatever the challenge.

• TALENT CATALYST: We inspire people to grow, with support and honesty.

• CONSUMER & CUSTOMER LOVE: We delight our consumers and serve our customers better than anyone else.

• PURPOSEFUL IMPACT: We care deeply about delivering positive impact for business, people and planet.

• AGILITY: We are curious, courageous and adaptable to change.

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicates from all walks of life! This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. 

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.