Brand Director, Penguin Random House Children's (9-12-month FTC)
Penguin Random House Children's is seeking a highly creative yet commercially aware and digitally-savvy Brand Director to lead the Brand, Marketing and PR team to further grow PRH UK’s largest and most profitable publishing Division. This is a 9-12 month FTC position to cover a period of parental leave, starting mid-December 2022.
The position of Brand Director is a key role in our Children’s leadership team. Working closely with our MD, your talents, experience and expertise will be instrumental in helping deliver the wider Division's UK and International growth plans within the world's leading Children's Publishing company.
This role reports to our Children’s MD and leads a wider team of c. 40.
About Penguin Random House Children’s
Penguin Random House Children’s is the single biggest children’s publisher in the UK. Our mission is to publish books for every child. We want every child to feel empowered through reading our books to believe they can be anyone, do anything they aspire to achieve.
Penguin Random House Children’s think beyond the book, not just as a publisher, but also as a brand owner. Penguin Ventures business, which is part of Penguin Random House Children’s, licenses our owned-brands – Peter Rabbit, The Snowman and Spot – through consumer products and tv production to find new ways to tell the world’s favourite stories, to continue to reach new audiences for our characters.
About you:
- You will have experience of developing and implementing smart and creative global consumer brand strategies across both on and offline, with a proven passion for building consumer-focused brands and IP.
- You will be able to understand, engage and retain consumers - across different audiences and interests - to make them love and buy our books, brands and authors via physical and digital channels.
- You will be able to spot global brand and marketing trends and new opportunities and clearly articulate how to effectively apply them to the world of Publishing.
- You will be able to provide inspirational leadership to an award-winning brand, marketing and PR team enabling them to hit their own commercial targets and personal goals.
- You love big ideas yet are target-driven. Being able to strategically and creatively stretch the thinking of yourself, your Brand, Marketing & PR team and the wider business as a whole.
- You will have a real enthusiasm for team leadership and proven experience supporting and developing an inclusive and high-performing team.
Core Responsibilities:
- Develop and lead the global consumer brand strategies for Ladybird and Puffin consumer brands and key author brands.
- Lead and help implement the digital brand strategies for both our consumer brands and authors, including the briefing and management of key strategic and creative agencies.
- Lead, manage and mentor the brand, Marketing and PR team as they develop, plan and implement all aspects of our consumer marketing and PR campaigns for our books, brands and authors.
- Lead the Owned Brand Team, responsible for the management and growth of our wholly owned brands (Spot, Peter Rabbit and The Snowman) with an emphasis on global growth.
- Work closely with our Penguin Ventures team to input - when required - into their own strategic growth plans.
- Liaise closely with peers and forums across the wider business to ensure the 'Children's Division's voice' is heard and carries relevant weight.
- Support the Managing Director by being a key member of the Division's core leadership team.
- Work closely with fellow Departmental Heads eg Editorial, Sales, Rights to deliver the core strategic aims of the Division.
- Support the Consumer insight team in helping the targeting and understanding of consumers (parents, teachers, children, grandparents, educators) within the Children's Division.
- Manage the overall brand, marketing and PR budgets.
- Create and relevant and measurable KPIs for the teams.
Please apply with your CV and cover letter (addressed to Francesca) by midnight on Friday 26th August. Interviews will be held in the first two to three weeks of September. Please flag if you will be unavailable over that time - it will not affect your candidacy, but will help us plan.
What you can expect from us:
Competitive compensation in line with the Penguin Random House UK leadership pay approach.
This role will be based at our Embassy Gardens office. We’re currently experimenting with hybrid working and involving colleagues across the business to shape our future ways of working. We’ll be happy to discuss this with you as part of the recruitment process.
Our employees are the heart of our business. We have a range of benefits to reflect our commitment to our employees, some of which are:
• 27 days paid holiday entitlement in year one (plus bank holidays), increasing a day each year up to 30 days
• Medical cover
• Life assurance
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Discounted gym membership
• Generous pension scheme
• Summer working hours (role dependent)
• Volunteering policy and charity matching
• Employee Assistance programme
• Mentoring programme
• Extended gender neutral parental leave
• Access to books and eBooks across Penguin Random House UK
• Each site has trained mental health first aiders
• We plant a tree for every new employee to our business
Our creativity is inspired by different perspectives, so we want our culture to be one of belonging, where everyone feels welcome and where differences are celebrated.
As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we’re part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can’t take all eligible candidates to interview.
We want to make sure disabled applicants can be their best at each step of the recruitment journey. If you need adjustments during the application process, we encourage you to get in touch with us at http://PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk.
Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your adjustment request. Find out more about our approach here: www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/applying-for-roles-with-a-disability
We partner with The Book Trade Charity, who provide financial assistance for people looking to get into the publishing industry; you can find more information and talk directly here: http://booktradeentrysupport.org/
Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.