Associate Vice President, Strategy

About this role

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth.

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

Role Summary and Impact:

OPENMIND is WPP Media’s dedicated agency for Nestlé, built on Mindshare and part of WPP, the world’s largest media investment company. In Vietnam, OpenMind partners Nestlé across its full brand portfolio, from Milo to KitKat and Nescafé to Maggi. We are currently looking for an AVP, Strategy to join OpenMind Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.

The AVP, Strategy is the strategic centre of excellence for the Nestlé business in Vietnam. The role sets the strategic standard for every integrated proposal, leads the agency-wide adoption of WPP Open, owns the roll-out of first-party-data (1PD) activation and the Brand Building the Nestlé Way (BBNW) process, and builds OpenMind’s reputation through awards and thought leadership.

Reporting to: Agency Lead, OpenMind Vietnam

Works closely with: OpenMind BU teams (planning, digital, performance, commerce), WPP Media Vietnam data & analytics, Nestlé brand and media teams, and platform partners (Google, TikTok, Admicro, Meta)

3 best things about the job:

• Own the strategic agenda for some of Vietnam’s most loved brands – KitKat, Nescafé, Milo, Maggi and the wider Nestlé portfolio – inside a dedicated unit with direct access to senior Nestlé clients.

• Be the agency’s first mover on WPP Open: you decide how AI-powered planning is adopted across every OpenMind BU team, and you train the agency to use it.

• Build a visible industry profile through award-winning case studies (MMA Smarties, Effies, Festival of Media), published thought leadership, and innovation partnerships with Google, TikTok and Admicro.

Measures of success

In 3 months:

• Fully immersed in the Nestlé portfolio, brand plans and the BBNW process, with a working knowledge of each BU team’s briefs and campaign pipeline.

• Certified on WPP Open and have mapped where Open fits into each BU team’s planning workflow.

• Led the strategy on at least one live campaign brief for a key brand (KitKat, Nescafé, Milo or Maggi) and presented it to the client.

• Audited the current year’s work for award-worthy cases and set the awards calendar across MMA, FOMA, FOMG and Effies.

In 6 months:

• WPP Open training programme rolled out to all OpenMind BU teams, with adoption tracked and reported.

• 1PD activation roadmap agreed with Nestlé and platform partners, with the first activation live on a pilot brand.

• BBNW process running consistently across Nestlé brands, with BU teams applying it to every brief.

• First award submissions and case videos delivered; first thought-leadership article or newsletter published.

In 12 months:

• Recognised by Nestlé as the go-to strategic partner, with a visible lift in the quality of integrated proposals across brands.

• WPP Open is the default planning way of working across OpenMind, and 1PD activation has scaled across priority brands.

• Award recognition for OpenMind and Nestlé work at at least one of MMA Smarties, FOMA/FOMG or Effies.

• A strategic capability programme in place with a regular training cadence and a pipeline of strong strategists across BU teams.

Responsibilities of the role:

CORE

Brand strategy leadership. Lead strategy for key brands such as KitKat, Nescafé, Milo and Maggi. Work with the OpenMind BU teams on campaign briefs and guide them to create integrated proposals – from consumer insight and communications strategy to channel and content strategy – and present the strategy to Nestlé clients.

• Interrogate client briefs and translate business and brand objectives into clear strategic platforms and measurable communication tasks.

• Set the strategic standard for integrated proposals and quality-check the strategic thinking in every major BU team response.

• Lead strategy in key client engagements: annual brand plans, quarterly reviews and major campaign presentations.

Agency-wide roll-out of WPP Open. Lead the adoption of Open across all OpenMind BU teams through training programmes.

• Act as OpenMind Vietnam’s Open champion and super-user; design and run the training curriculum for planners, strategists and client leads.

• Embed Open into the day-to-day planning workflow (audience, insight, channel planning, creative and measurement) and define where it adds value in the Nestlé process.

• Track adoption and quality of use across BU teams and report progress to agency and WPP Media leadership.

Innovation and partner solutions. Work with partners such as Google, TikTok, Admicro and others to understand their solutions and ensure relevant adoption in strategies across brands.

• Maintain a working knowledge of partner products, betas and data solutions, and identify where they solve a Nestlé brand problem.

• Run a test-and-learn agenda with BU teams and partners, and codify learnings into planning guidance.

Awards. Lead awards initiatives for OpenMind: work with BU teams to identify and craft case studies, case videos and submissions across MMA Smarties, FOMA, FOMG and Effies.

• Own the annual awards calendar, shortlist candidate work early, and coach BU teams to build the results evidence a winning case needs.

• Write and edit the strategic narrative of each case, and manage case-video production with creative and production partners.

1PD roll-out. Own the project to roll out first-party-data activation for Nestlé.

• Build the 1PD roadmap with…