WPP global creative agency SET is bolstering its leadership team by promoting Alasdair Lloyd-Jones from president/CSO to CEO. Lloyd-Jones has spent nearly two decades holding top strategic and planning positions at renowned traditional and digital agencies including Big Spaceship, Cutwater, Ogilvy and Publicis.

The pivotal management move reflects SET’s steady evolution from a production design and execution shop to a full-scale brand/retail strategy, experience ideation and design, and retail activation agency. “What clients are seeking is a more holistic view on how their brands can transform into experience-led brands,” Lloyd-Jones says. ”We decided now was a good time to establish a leadership structure that enables us to communicate the power of experiences to propel every part of a brand’s business and drive the development of SET to align to clients’ evolving needs.”

As SET CEO, Lloyd-Jones will now oversee a network that spans Portland, Los Angeles, New York and London and collaborates on inventive, immersive experiences and activations for top-tier brands such as Nike, Sprite, Verizon and BMW. While his primary focus will be on delivering high-level work and developing talent across functions, the SET chief exec also places top priority on accelerating growth for clients by aligning their brand strategy to how they resonate physically with consumers through activations, retail stores or live events.

As he eases into his new CEO role, Lloyd-Jones acknowledges the challenges that lie ahead in clarifying and extolling the value of brand experience. “The toughest challenge we face is the adoption of the language of brand experience by all types of agencies,” he says. “It reminds me of the early days of the digital era where many costly mistakes were experienced and this slowed the progress of digital adoption among marketers. Our job is to ensure clients get the expertise they need when they make the leap into this space. It’s bigger than us alone, so we want to ensure that the category is well-served and its growth is sustained.”