Place Activation Manager – London

We are DS.Emotion. We make places successful. DS.Emotion is a highly innovative, industry leading independent agency that specialises in place making, branding & marketing. We have over 30 years’ experience in helping to make the amazing places we work with commercially and socially successful. For us, this means developing authentic place brands that attract and engage with wide and diverse audiences, creating places that make long-term positive changes to people’s lives.

We have branded and marketed some of the UK’s most exciting and inspirational residential and commercial destinations. We’re proud to have won national awards over the years in recognition of our team’s hard but rewarding work.

Who we work with

The DS.Emotion client-base consists of some of the UK’s most dynamic and influential private-sector development companies, land owners and pension funds. We also run inward investment initiatives and place marketing campaigns for numerous local authorities, LEPs and BIDs, providing brand-driven marketing campaigns, events and promotions to advance and promote physical development and economic growth.

The DS.Emotion London team largely supports retail destinations, providing brand and marketing services from digital to physical that really engage our visitors and communities, and ultimately bring the place to life.

The team

Our innovative, creative and strategic teams across the country bring experience and enthusiasm to all projects. We pride ourselves on our industry expertise and the breadth of services we provide for our clients across all channels. Our skills range from brand consultancy, strategy development, campaign creative and digital and physical delivery – including events and activations.

The London team consists of expert account handlers, designers, strategists plus social media and place activation (events) teams. We are a small but effective team of marketers who really enjoy our work but who also socialise outside of office hours, taking full advantage of all that London has to offer!

The role

The way we shop has transformed over recent years and the role of our high streets, city centres and shopping destinations has changed as a result. It is our job to ensure that the places we market not only keep up with the changing retail landscape, but set the trends for others to follow.

We create place activation programmes to ensure that our destinations offer a 360 experience over and above a traditional shopping trip. We have won awards for our independent pop up strategies, our fundraising Pride events and community engagement activities.

We are looking for candidates with self-motivation who are excited to get stuck in. You will need to have excellent accuracy and attention to detail. You will also need excellent communication skills and the ability to spin multiple plates!

Successful candidates will be able to both give and take direction, working within a close-knit, busy team and also work effectively in silo. We are looking for an innovative and hard-working professional who can get going from day one.

Key responsibilities

• Work closely with a cross functional team in planning and execution of overall activation strategy and on-site events
• Deliver excellent project management and communication from brief to delivery
• Develop strong working relationships with clients, building trust and reassurance of delivery
• Ensure work is delivered on brief, on time and on budget
• Take the lead on creative briefing for activations and events, collating insight and devising propositions to deliver creative executions which add significant value
• Responsible for managing event costs & client billing, including managing time allocation and tracking – ensuring accounts deliver a profit to the agency
• Responsible for overall Place Activation budget for your clients
• Effective communication channels ensuring that all parties, internal and external, know exactly what is required and what is happening at all stages in the project
• Formulate a concise and comprehensive brief for the design studio with all information from relevant parties complete
• Work closely with internal teams to brainstorm ideas and wider placemaking initiatives
• Present creative work to internal and external audiences
• Formulate regular reports measuring success and ROI (both internal and presenting to clients)
• Seek ways to generate new business from within existing client accounts

Skills & experience

• Educated to degree level – preferably in a marketing subject
• Experience in events management preferred (any size event)
• A commitment to delivering excellent customer service – via phone calls, email & virtual meetings and face-to-face channels
• Excellent administrative and organisational skills with great attention to detail
• Unafraid to get stuck in on any number of responsibilities making you a strong team player
• Commercially aware – a solid business acumen and financial management skills
• A touchstone for clients and the agency
• Confident, passionate and innovative with an ability to remain calm and approachable under pressure
• An innovator with a fresh, creative and ever-changing approach to problem-solving and making things happen
• Demonstrable initiative and enthusiasm, and the ability to multitask
• Proactive and reliable

Our offer

• Work in a creative environment as part of growing and ambitious team of specialists
• 20 days of annual holiday, increasing annually after two years (up to 25) plus our office closes between Christmas & New year
• Private Health Care
• Use of apple MacBook
• Ongoing training and career development
• Regular, varied (and fun!) staff socials