Commercial Marketing Manager: Events / Hospitality in Edinburgh

This is a brand new role within a growing third sector organisation who need a hands-on, commercially focused Marketing Manager to join the team. The main aim of this role is threefold:

• Launch a new venue hire sub-brand (take ownership)
• Encourage footfall to existing venues
• Events programme - finding new audiences in the Edinburgh market

Essentially our client is looking for someone with an extremely strong marketing and digital marketing campaign development background within the hospitality/events/leisure industry. Someone who has a proven track record of building sales via various marketing channels. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who wants to get their teeth into a brand new job, taking ownership of outcomes and results. You will have roughly 2 years experience of marketing campaign strategy and delivery within the hospitality/events/audience development sector. The role is based in Edinburgh - 3 days in the office/2 days working from home, but you must be flexible as there may be some event attendance required evenings/weekends (with time back in lieu).

Strategic Purpose of the Role

The Commercial Marketing Manager position is a new full-time role within the Marketing & Communications team, created to strengthen the Association’s commercial marketing capability at a pivotal time for the organisation’s venues, food and beverage offer, and events portfolio. Working closely with the Trading Operations, Business Development and Festival teams, and external stakeholders, the postholder will lead on translating agreed commercial priorities, offers and programming into effective, insight-driven, marketing campaigns and creative output that drive sales, footfall and engagement across our commercial outlets and venue hire services.

The postholder will be responsible for delivering the commercial marketing service and contributing to the development of the digital marketing service, ensuring both areas work cohesively to support income-generating priorities. You will also be responsible for delivering both commercial marketing and venue hire marketing services, ensuring activity supports revenue, footfall and enquiry-generation targets. Interpreting and using insights from the organisation’s loyalty app, digital analytics and wider market trends, the postholder will shape and optimise campaigns to maximise performance. This is a hands-on creative and strategic role requiring strong commercial marketing expertise and will have responsibility for shaping and delivering campaign creatives, including producing design assets where appropriate, while working alongside our in-house design team to ensure high-quality creative output.

The postholder will contribute to the future strategic development of the commercial marketing service, including shaping long-term approaches to revenue-generating marketing and will play a key role in developing the future direction of commercial marketing within the organisation, working within the strategic framework set by the Director and Head of Marketing and other stakeholders. The post holder also requires an understanding of B2B and B2C marketing techniques. They will support the growth and performance of our varied income generating activities including, but not limited to:

• The brand new venue hire business by developing targeted promotional activity, optimising search engine performance for the bespoke website and producing compelling content that attracts clients from within and outwith the community
• Trading outlets including bars, restaurants, and cafes. Helping promote brand identities, F&B specials and drive footfall.
• Promotional programme for our new loyalty app.
• Events and entertainment promotions for our one-off and recurring events, including club nights, live music, ceilidh and a range of other events. Attracting customers from across the city.

The post holder will also support the wider goals of the marketing team, helping connect the commercial activity to their charitable purposes and supporting the goals of other stakeholders as appropriate. The role demands a solid understanding of marketing principles, creative flair, up-to-date knowledge of current marketing trends and have a professional approach to process, deadlines and internal client support.

Marketing Strategy & Campaign Delivery

• Drive the conversion of trading priorities into commercially effective marketing strategies that deliver revenue growth, increased footfall and stronger customer engagement across venues, F&B and events.
• Lead and direct the end-to-end planning, development and execution of strategic campaigns that maximise sales performance across food, drink, entertainment and venue operations.
• Develop and oversee a rolling programme of promotions and commercial campaigns aligned to business priorities, audience insight and seasonal opportunities, continuously optimising activity to maximise sales impact and engagement.
• Collaborate with the Business Development and Trading Operations teams and external stakeholders to ensure all marketing activity aligns with delivery of revenue targets, product launches and seasonal trading opportunities.
• Deliver both commercial marketing and venue hire marketing services, ensuring activity supports revenue, footfall and enquiry-generation targets across B2C and B2B markets.
• Contribute to the development of the digital marketing service where it intersects with commercial priorities, ensuring cohesive delivery across channels.
• Take responsibility for monitoring and optimising the loyalty app offering, interpreting insights to identify promotional opportunities, shape user engagement approaches and support revenue-generating activity across venues, events and F&B outlets.

Creative Production & Content Development

• Lead the development of creative concepts and campaign assets that effectively promote the Association’s commercial activity and drive engagement with target audiences.
• Work collaboratively with the in-house graphic design team to brief, develop and deliver high-quality creative outputs across digital and physical channels, ensuring work is timely, commercially effective and aligned with campaign objectives.
• Where appropriate, develop or commission rapid-turnaround creative assets to support time-sensitive commercial promotions, events and campaigns.
• Brief the Digital team or create where appropriate, engaging content for social media channels, including short-form video, photography and campaign-led storytelling that resonates with student audiences and wider commercial markets.
• Ensure all creative output maintains brand integrity while remaining flexible enough to respond to commercial opportunities, audience trends and venue-specific marketing needs.
• Develop creative approaches that enhance the visibility and appeal of the organisation’s commercial offer, ensuring campaign concepts remain contemporary, competitive and aligned with the student, hospitality and events marketplace.

Digital Marketing & Performance

• Use analytics tools, campaign reporting and audience insights to evaluate marketing effectiveness and continually refine promotional activity to improve commercial performance.
• Work with the Senior Digital Marketing Officer to ensure organic digital activity, search engine improvements and user experience enhancements are aligned and optimised across commercial web pages and the event microsite.
• Support the development of digital marketing approaches that enhance commercial performance, contributing to the evolution of the digital marketing service where relevant.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• The post holder will work closely with the Trading Operations, Business Development and venue managers team to understand commercial priorities and ensure they are translated into effective marketing activity that reflects operational practice and supports commercial objectives.
• Collaborate with Venue Managers and Trading Operations to ensure planned promotions are operationally feasible, well-timed and effectively delivered.
• Represent the Marketing team in commercial planning meetings and project groups, ensuring marketing considerations are integrated into decision-making.
• Play a key role in developing the future direction of commercial marketing within the Association, ensuring the service evolves in line with organisational priorities and market trends.

Standards and Service

• Ensure all marketing output meets high standards of accuracy, creativity and professionalism.
• Uphold the organisation’s values and ensure commercial marketing activity aligns with brand standards and organisational messaging.
• Support colleagues across the organisation by providing marketing guidance and creative input where required.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

A senior commercial marketing professional with a strong mix of strategic thinking, creative delivery and analytical capability. Experienced in translating agreed commercial priorities into insight-led marketing campaigns that drive revenue, footfall and engagement across hospitality, events and venue hire. Works with a clear level of autonomy to plan and deliver end-to-end campaigns, briefing and coordinating internal design, digital and commercial teams to ensure high-quality, effective outputs. Skilled in developing promotional programmes, producing and commissioning marketing assets, and interpreting data and audience insight to inform decisions and optimise performance. Confident working across both B2C and B2B audiences, collaborative in approach and highly organised with a focus on delivering impactful work in a fast-paced environment.

Knowledge & Skills

• Strong understanding of marketing strategy, campaign planning and promotional delivery.
• Ability to interpret insights and data (e.g. loyalty app, analytics) to inform decisions.
• Ability to create engaging social media content, including short-form video.
• Understanding of B2B marketing techniques for venue hire growth.
• Knowledge of SEO and how to optimise content for search performance.
• Understanding of student audiences and campus-based marketing.
• Familiarity with CRM, loyalty platforms or digital analytics tools.

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
• Qualification in marketing, design, communications or related field.
• Experience delivering marketing campaigns in a commercial, hospitality or events environment (minimum 2 years, preferably up to 4 years).
• Experience managing social media channels for an organisation.
• Experience using insights and analytics to shape marketing activity.
• Experience supporting B2B marketing or lead generation activity.
• Experience monitoring market trends and responding to them.
• Experience working in a student-focused or membership organisation.
• Experience working with design teams to create promotional materials for print and digital.

Attitudes

• Creative, proactive and audience-focused approach.
• Positive, collaborative and solutions-oriented mindset.
• Commitment to the Students’ Association’s values and purpose.
• Enthusiasm for continuous learning and development.

Salary range £32,000 - £36,000 (ideally looking for someone seeking £33,000). A brilliant, defined career path and solid benefits.

FURTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Gilchrist Recruitment Partnership are a specialist recruitment agency and recruiting partner within the Marketing, Digital communications/PR, Creative & Design and Advertising industry for Scotland, both agency and client side. When submitting your application, please outline your current salary, salary expectations and notice period. It is also essential that you are already legally permitted to work in the UK with the associated paperwork if you are not a UK citizen. If you are not currently living in Scotland, please explain/outline your plans and timelines for relocation to Scotland. We are a Scottish based recruiter who generally do not represent “remote” opportunities - thus you will be either living in Scotland or have solid plans to relocate. We cannot guarantee a response to each individual application, made necessary by the level of response we receive. We will contact only those candidates we wish to shortlist. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. We aim to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to ensuring that no applicant receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status or race. Unless clearly stated otherwise, the advertised position is a permanent contract.