Experiential Marketing Lead

📋 Description

• • Standard Bots, a pioneering force in industrial robotics, is seeking a visionary Experiential Marketing Lead to redefine how the company engages with its audience and establishes a commanding presence in the market. This pivotal role is designed for an individual who can blend a sophisticated understanding of experiential design with sharp commercial acumen and exceptional operational execution. You will be instrumental in crafting and directing unique, unforgettable brand experiences that capture the attention of engineers and operators, effectively communicating Standard Bots' groundbreaking vision for Physical AI and fostering a strong desire for engagement.
• • The Experiential Marketing Lead will oversee the entire spectrum of brand experiences, from major industry trade shows and customer summits to bold, unconventional activations. The primary objective is to ensure Standard Bots stands out in an industry where many competitors tend to blend into the background, creating a distinct and memorable brand identity. This role reports directly to marketing leadership and will collaborate closely with the CEO and Chief Commercial Officer to ensure that every experiential initiative not only amplifies brand impact but also contributes demonstrably to measurable commercial outcomes.
• • This is a creative leadership opportunity for a professional who possesses a strong experiential design sensibility, coupled with a solid understanding of commercial objectives and the operational rigor required to achieve them. You will be the architect of Standard Bots' event and activation strategy, making critical decisions about which platforms and events are most crucial, designing experiences that authentically reflect the company's brand and core values, and establishing the necessary systems and partnerships to execute these experiences at scale. A key responsibility will be to meticulously measure the impact of these initiatives, focusing on what truly drives business results.
• • Looking ahead to 2026, Standard Bots aims to be recognized as America's most distinctive and memorable exhibitor in the robotics sector. This ambitious vision necessitates expansion into new and diverse verticals, including aerospace, defense, automotive, food and beverage, packaging, healthcare, and construction. Each event and activation will serve as a strategic opportunity not merely to generate leads, but to fundamentally reshape how manufacturers perceive automation and the integral role Standard Bots plays within it. The planned 2026 calendar is robust, featuring major industry events such as Automate, IMTS, Fabtech, Pack Expo, Modex, Shot Show, alongside a dedicated Summer Open House and numerous other strategic activations. Each of these will require a distinct creative brief and a meticulously designed experience.
• • Key responsibilities will include defining the overarching experiential strategy and event portfolio. This involves making strategic choices about which trade shows to participate in and the rationale behind those decisions, establishing tiered investment levels based on strategic intent and commercial goals, and constructing annual calendars that align with the vision of becoming the premier robot exhibitor. The role demands challenging existing assumptions, prioritizing initiatives with ruthless efficiency, and ensuring resources are focused on areas where winning is most critical.
• • A significant part of the role will be to conceive and direct brand experiences that actively break category norms. This includes leading creative ideation for a wide range of activations, from guerilla marketing stunts and immersive booth designs to convention center takeovers, exclusive customer summits, and impactful product reveals. The goal is to effectively communicate the company's Physical AI vision and create genuinely memorable moments. Close collaboration with creative, product, and leadership teams will be essential to ensure every experience tells a cohesive story and authentically represents the company's values.
• • Furthermore, the Experiential Marketing Lead will be responsible for building scalable experiential systems and playbooks. This entails developing repeatable frameworks for the design, construction, and execution of events. These frameworks will encompass modular experience kits, optimized staffing models, standardized operating procedures for logistics and transportation, robust demo protocols, and efficient vendor management systems. The implementation of these systems is crucial for scaling quality and consistency across an expanding portfolio without compromising the creative integrity and innovative spirit of the brand.
• • Leading cross-functional creative and commercial planning is another core function. This involves orchestrating kickoff meetings to align sales, applications engineering, product, and leadership teams on experience goals, creative direction, and commercial targets. The role requires adept management of interdependencies, proactive problem-solving, and conducting thorough post-event retrospectives to capture learnings and inform future iterations.
• • Defining and owning experiential KPIs and attribution models is paramount. Working closely with sales operations, the lead will establish real-time dashboards to monitor critical metrics such as audience quality and engagement depth, net new contacts generated, MQL and SQL conversion rates, deals sourced, pipeline value, revenue attribution, and overall return on marketing investment. This ensures a clear, data-driven understanding of how experiential marketing directly contributes to business growth.
• • Finally, the role involves managing and evolving vendor and agency partnerships. This includes cultivating strong relationships with booth builders, AV providers, experiential agencies, logistics partners, and show organizers. It also involves evaluating and onboarding new partners as the company's ambitions grow, negotiating contracts that align with the company's vision and budget, and holding partners accountable to the highest creative standards.