Head of Awards Growth

This position is based in London and will require you to be in the office 3 days a week. The LIONS brand is synonymous with Cannes Lions, The International Festival of Creativity, the definitive meeting place for the global creative communications and advertising community. It’s five days of inspiration, aspiration, unlimited magic and potential. The Festival has been championing creative excellence since 1954 with the goal of providing a global destination and the definitive benchmark for creativity that drives progress. LIONS is going through an exciting time as it’s recently repositioned as The Home of Creativity, new advisory, learning and intelligence services. Our purpose is to drive progress through creativity for an incredibly diverse and talented global creative community. You will join a team of change makers. The team’s purpose is to champion change to create the most powerful global creative community and drive growth for the brand.

As the Head of Awards Growth, you will drive global growth for the Awards by attracting new entrants and increasing participation across untapped markets and industries. Your efforts will be key to scaling the Awards’ audience and ensuring sustained business growth. This is a hands-on role that will prioritise delivering data-driven growth initiatives, with a focus on audience acquisition, new segment identification, and global market expansion. You will work closely with internal teams to expand our reach, lead audience acquisition efforts, and play a key role in implementing growth strategies across diverse markets, industries, and geographies. You will also act as an ambassador for the Awards, representing the brand and strengthening relationships with potential entrants, increasing visibility and communicating the value of the Awards to drive participation.

Key accountabilities

• Develop and execute growth strategies that expand the reach of the Awards by attracting new entrants, identifying new business segments, and increasing participation globally.
• Track progress towards annual and event-specific goals and KPIs focused on new business growth and audience acquisition, ensuring alignment with the Awards’ long-term goals.
• Align all new business initiatives with the Awards’ mission and values, ensuring messaging and strategies resonate with potential entrants across diverse global markets.
• Lead and inspire a high-performing team, establishing clear goals, supporting professional development, and ensuring alignment with organisational objectives.
• Leverage customer insights to refine content and growth strategies, ensuring outreach efforts effectively engage new entrants, increase participation, and drive sustainable growth.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Product Development and Customer Engagement teams to identify high-potential audience segments and develop tailored strategies that expand participation and engagement.
• Represent the Awards as an ambassador, strengthening relationships with potential entrants and enhancing visibility within the industry through public speaking and global outreach, ensuring the Lions position as the definitive benchmark for creativity and effectiveness.

Qualifications

• Strategic growth leader: Proven experience in developing and executing audience acquisition and growth strategies, driving measurable participation growth in line with business objectives.
• Audience growth specialist: Expertise in identifying and engaging new audience segments, expanding market reach, and driving participation growth through targeted acquisition strategies.
• Data-driven decision maker: Skilled in using analytics, audience insights, and campaign performance data to refine strategies, optimise engagement, and drive growth.
• Commercially aware leader: Strong understanding of business growth drivers, revenue opportunities, and industry trends, ensuring strategies align with both short-term objectives and long-term sustainability.
• Engaging ambassador: Confident public speaker with exceptional presentation and facilitation skills.
• Relationship builder: Adept at establishing and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships across internal teams, industry partners, and senior leadership.
• Strategic communicator: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft high-impact messaging that engages new entrants and effectively communicates the value of the Awards, ensuring alignment with growth objectives and audience acquisition strategies.
• Talent developer: Proven track record of leading and motivating a team focused on new business growth, setting clear goals and fostering professional development to drive results and achieve growth targets.
• Industry-aware: Deep knowledge of branded communications, creative industries, and emerging trends, with a proactive mindset to leverage new opportunities.
• Project management proficiency: Skilled in leading multiple projects simultaneously, with the ability to prioritise, meet deadlines, manage budgets and align cross-functional teams.

Additional Information

We work hard to make sure Life at Informa is rewarding, supportive and enjoyable for everyone. Here’s some of what you can expect when you join us. Our benefits include:

• Freedom & flexibility: Colleagues rate us highly for the flexibility and trust they receive and most of us balance time in the office with time working remotely.
• Great community: A welcoming culture with in-person and online social events, our fantastic Walk the World charity day and active diversity and inclusion networks.
• Broader impact: Take up to four days per year to volunteer, with charity match funding available too.
• Career opportunity: The opportunity to develop your career with bespoke training and learning, mentoring platforms and on-demand access to thousands of courses on LinkedIn Learning.
• Time out: 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days after two years, plus a birthday leave day and the chance to work from (almost!) anywhere for up to four weeks a year.
• A flexible range of personal benefits to choose from, plus company funded private medical cover.
• A ShareMatch scheme that allows you to become an Informa shareholder with free matching shares.
• Strong wellbeing support through EAP assistance, mental health first aiders, a healthy living subsidy, access to health apps and more.
• Recognition for great work, with global awards and kudos programmes.
• As an international company, the chance to collaborate with teams around the world.

We’re not solely focused on a checklist of skills. We champion energy and ambition and look for colleagues who will roll their sleeves up, join in and help make things happen. If it sounds like a match and you have most – although not all – of the skills and experience listed, we welcome your application. At Informa, you'll find inclusive experiences and environments where all perspectives and backgrounds are welcomed. As part of this approach and our diversity and inclusion commitments, we are also formally an Equal Opportunities Employer.