Campaigns Executive, Penguin General in London

We’re looking for a Campaigns Executive (marketing) to join us on a permanent basis to help deliver creative, audience-led campaign activity that supports our books.

About the team

Penguin General is home to Viking, Hamish Hamilton, Fig Tree, Penguin Life and Sandycove. With roots stretching back to the original Penguin Books and Allen Lane’s founding vision, we publish an extraordinary breadth of fiction and non-fiction, driven by curiosity about the world and a passion for great storytelling. We look for books that stand out, connect and endure — carefully chosen books by exceptional authors, published with ambition, imagination and care, for readers of all kinds.

Our authors include Richard Osman, Emily Henry, Arundhati Roy, Marlon James, Han Kang, Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak, Ben Macintyre, Dolly Alderton, Zadie Smith, Ali Smith, Stanley Tucci and Meera Sodha, as well as major international voices including Michelle Obama and Barack Obama. We value curiosity and are looking for people who notice the world, ask questions, and bring fresh perspectives to what we do. If you’re endlessly curious and love discovering and sharing new ideas, you’ll feel at home here.

About the Penguin General Communications Team

The Penguin General Communications team connects books with readers. We bring publicity and marketing together in one integrated team, creating imaginative, reader-led campaigns across an extraordinary range of books, authors and subjects. We’re an attentive, curious and collaborative team. We stay alert to culture and changing reading habits, combining creativity, insight and judgement to give every book the best chance of finding its audience. We’re always learning — paying attention to what’s connecting, trying new approaches and adapting as opportunities emerge. We welcome people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. You don’t need a traditional publishing background to thrive here — what matters is curiosity, initiative, a willingness to learn and a desire to connect great books with readers.

The role

Day to day, you’ll have responsibility for running reactive marketing activity across a broad range of our books, running your own smaller campaigns and supporting marketing leads on higher priority titles. You will also have a select number of defined team responsibilities such as creating sell-in materials, proofs, coordinating influencer newsletter activity, and uploading and updating content on penguin.co.uk. You will be a curious, proactive and organised multi-tasker with strong communication skills, confidence using digital platforms, and have a broad interest in books.

Key responsibilities:

• Deliver marketing campaigns independently and to budget, agreeing the audience, messaging, planning channel activity, briefing assets and sell-in materials including regular sales updates.
• Execute reactive marketing activity as required across a number of titles, including creating A plus pages, sell-in materials, social media assets and outreach to partners and influencers.
• Support campaign leads as the second marketer on high-priority titles and brands.
• Action tasks delegated and when required own key strands of activity as directed by lead.
• General ad-hoc support for marketing team and campaigns, including creating assets, sell-in materials, organising influencer mailings and briefing reactive digital media campaigns.
• Managing our POS process and leading reporting.
• Helping manage our imprint social media channels: devising content plans and posting content that engages and connects.
• Helping manage our influencer newsletter: writing email copy and organising mailings.
• Uploading content to penguin.co.uk website.
• Ad hoc events support.

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria:

• Effective time management, balancing own priorities with those of the team.
• Able to work to deadlines and manage multiple internal and external stakeholders.
• Keen attention to detail when planning and in the preparation of marketing materials and other written communications.
• Proactive, taking ownership of your work and using initiative to make things happen.
• Knowledge of social media and posting content e.g. Instagram, TikTok, Substack etc.
• Skilled at building close working relationships internally and externally, working closely and collaboratively with colleagues from other departments.
• Excellent spoken and written communication skills.
• Able to craft strong marketing copy, tailored to audience, which is attention grabbing and memorable.
• Strong visual skills with an ability to brief design clearly with market awareness.
• Flexible with the ability to immerse yourself in different subjects and genres and using insight to identify and understand different audiences for our books.
• Keen to share knowledge and learnings with the team.

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV and cover letter (both in pdf format) outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on 25th November 2026. The cover letter should be uploaded as an additional document. As part of your Cover Letter, we’d like you to include your response (in a maximum of 250 words) to the following question: When did a piece of marketing activity last catch your attention and why?

Salary

Up to £31,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

Hybrid working

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect the In-Market Campaigns Manager to be in the office 2-3 days per week.

AI

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team. We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.