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VP of Digital Advertising and Marketing recruiters running executive search for VP and SVP of Advertising and Media. We place leadership-team operators who own the working-media budget, advertising strategy, media planning and investment, and the agency relationships, and build the org beneath them, not single-channel managers. Short list in 30-45 days.
VP of Digital Advertising and Marketing recruiters running executive search for VP and SVP of Advertising and Media
A VP of Advertising and Media is trusted with the largest discretionary line in marketing: the working-media budget. We assess each short-list candidate on the media investment they actually stewarded, the return they drove on it, and how they made the mix and agency decisions, because that fiduciary judgment is what separates this seat from a channel lead.
This VP carries the media number into the exec team, defends the budget across the business, and manages the agency relationships that spend it. We assess for the commercial judgment, agency-management track record, and executive presence the seat demands, because a mis-hire here wastes the budget and the year.
Our VP of Digital Advertising and Marketing recruiters work inside a collective deep in advertising, media, and performance talent. She reads a VP candidate's media-investment stewardship and org-building record the way a peer on the leadership team would, not the way a resume presents it.
Our VP of Digital Advertising and Marketing recruiters run retained executive search for the senior leader who owns advertising and media. VP of Advertising and Media, SVP of Media, and VP of Digital Advertising. These searches open when the working-media budget becomes a leadership-team responsibility: a brand consolidating advertising, media planning, and buying under one VP, a company bringing media strategy in-house from an agency, or an organization that needs an executive to own the media investment and the org that runs it.
Every retained search starts with a 60-minute working session that ends in a written scope. The scope names what the role owns, advertising strategy and creative, media planning, buying, and investment, ad operations and technology, the scale of the working-media budget, the agency relationships, the org being built or inherited, where it sits on the leadership team, and who it reports to. We calibrate to the leadership media mandate, not a senior-director profile with a bigger title.
This search turns on two things a resume understates: the media investment the candidate genuinely stewarded and the return they drove on it, and the org they built and led to run it. We assess each short-list candidate on the budget they owned, the mix and agency decisions they made, and how they hired and structured the team beneath them. The written candidate document maps each candidate's investment stewardship and org-building record to your business.
Searches surface candidates from our direct-placement network first, deep in advertising, media, and performance leadership, then expand via targeted, often confidential, outbound to sitting VPs. Short list lands at roughly 6-8 named candidates with a written assessment per name.
Most retained searches at this level bundle these workstreams.
| Feature | Chameleon Collective | Traditional retained search firm | Contingency recruiter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to short list. | 14-21 days | 30-45 days | Variable, volume-driven |
| Media-investment + org-building assessment. | Yes, written per short-list candidate | Variable, often a polite glance | Rarely, resume-keyword driven |
| Budget-stewardship + agency-management read. | Yes, assessed explicitly | Inconsistent | No |
| Dedicated advertising / media recruiting depth. | Yes, recruiters who know the media business | Generalist |
Common questions from CMOs, CEOs, and CFOs evaluating a VP of Advertising and Media search.
A VP of Digital Marketing leads acquisition and performance. A media director runs planning or buying. This VP seat sits on top of the whole paid mandate: advertising strategy, media planning, buying, and investment, ad ops, the working-media budget, and the agency relationships, plus the org that runs them. We assess for budget stewardship and org-building, the rare profile this hire requires.
Yes. This combined seat owns advertising strategy and creative alongside media planning, buying, and investment, and ad operations and technology. We calibrate to how your seat balances strategy versus investment and assess candidates against that mix.
Most retained searches at this level close in 45-60 days from kickoff to signed offer, with the short list in 14-21 days. Searches run longer when the seat is being defined or media is being brought in-house, which we flag during calibration.
Most Chameleon retained searches at the VP level run $45K-$95K with a fixed cap, depending on the budget scale and the size of the org beneath the seat. We quote a fixed number after calibration, not a percentage of comp.
Both. We screen against the leadership mandate first, then you and your exec team review every short-list candidate yourselves with our written media-investment and org-building assessment as a reading aid.
Yes. Our collective includes Fractional and Interim VP-level advertising and media operators who can hold the leadership seat while the search closes, then hand off cleanly to the permanent hire.
Our retained agreements carry a 12-month no-fee replacement guarantee. If the placement leaves or is asked to leave within 12 months, we run the search again at no fee. At the VP level, where a mis-hire wastes the most budget, the calibration depth is what keeps us from using it.
Directly. The engagement partner runs your search end to end, with no junior researcher layer between you and the recruiter.
The working-media budget cannot drift for a 45-60 day search. Our collective includes Fractional and Interim VP-level advertising and media operators who can hold the seat and steady the spend while the search closes, then hand off cleanly to the permanent hire.
Get In Touch
Tell us the working-media budget this seat owns and the org being built beneath it. We'll tell you what kind of search fits, how long it should take, and what the fixed cap will be.
Our retained agreements carry a no-fee replacement if the placement leaves or is asked to leave within 12 months. We invest heavily in mandate and budget calibration at the VP level, where a mis-hire wastes the most money, so we rarely have to use it.
| Generalist |
| Engagement fee structure. | Retained, fixed cap | Retained, % of comp (typically 25-30%) | Contingency, % of comp on placement |
| Replacement guarantee. | 12 months, no fee | 6-12 months variable | 30-90 days typical |
| Interim VP bridge. | Yes, from internal collective | No | No |
| Onboarding support. | 90-day post-placement bridge | Limited to start date | None |
Tell us the working-media budget this seat owns, the agency relationships, and the org being built beneath it. We'll tell you what kind of VP search fits and what the leadership-team bar should be.
Spotlight
A deeper read on a few of the operators above: who they are and what they bring.
VP and SVP of Advertising and Media placements across consumer brands, retailers, and growth companies, where the seat sits on the leadership team and owns the whole paid mandate: advertising strategy and creative, media planning, buying, and investment, ad operations and technology, the working-media budget, agency relationships, and the org running it.
Featured Case Study
Mansur Gavriel
Retail & eCommerce
Luxury retail brand Mansur Gavriel was transitioning into a direct-to-consumer business model and needed to rebuild their marketing team to align with this new direction. The challenge was not just about hiring top talent but also ensuring that the new hires seamlessly integrate with Mansur Gavriel's brand values and the new business model.
Chameleon Collective's Dan Clifford stepped in as Mansur Gavriel's Interim CMO. He collaborated with the Mansur Gavriel team to create a marketing and hiring plan that aimed to fill 12 critical roles in brand, eCommerce, and creative fields. The approach involved extensive candidate identification and hiring, with a keen focus on the candidates' alignment with Mansur Gavriel's business transformation.
Under the interim leadership of Dan, Mansur Gavriel successfully hired for crucial roles including Creative Director, Social Media Manager, Growth Marketing Manager, Retention Marketing Manager, PR Coordinator, and eCommerce Manager. In addition, they also successfully replaced their former Director of eCommerce. The transition led to the creation of a strong and culture-aligned marketing team. Chameleon Collective continues to maintain a robust relationship with Mansur Gavriel's leadership, further aiding their growth plans. The placement of their full-time CMO in 2022 marked a significant milestone in the transformation journey.
“When a business needed a leader who could own the working-media budget and build the team behind it, Chameleon ran the search calibrated to leadership-team scope, placing an executive who could steward the media investment rather than one who could only run a channel.”
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