Interim Brand Marketing Director in Gateshead

Interim Brand Marketing Director

12 Month Fixed-Term Contract (Maternity Cover)

Location: Vertu House, Team Valley, Gateshead

Salary: Competitive Salary + Excellent Company Benefits

Reporting to: Chief Marketing Officer

Role Overview

As Interim Brand Marketing Director, you will be responsible for defining and delivering the strategic direction for the Vertu brand. You will play a key role in ensuring our reputation remains strong, our creative output remains market-leading and all marketing activity aligns with our brand values, governance standards and commercial objectives. You'll lead a talented team of more than 20 colleagues covering Social Media, PR, YouTube, Content, Graphic Design and Audio-Visual production.

This role is based at our Head Office in Team Valley, Gateshead. We operate a hybrid working model; however, due to the leadership responsibilities of the position, regular office presence is required to support collaboration, stakeholder engagement and team development.

Key Responsibilities

Reputation Management

• Provide strategic leadership across PR, YouTube and Social Media.
• Protect and strengthen the reputation of Vertu Motors through proactive communications and brand storytelling.
• Act as the senior escalation point for reputational, compliance or brand-related issues.
• Drive positive media coverage and increase visibility of the Vertu brand across key audiences.

Brand Direction

• Lead the strategic direction of how Vertu Motors presents itself across all customer touchpoints.
• Ensure brand positioning, tone of voice, visual identity and creative standards are clearly defined and consistently applied.
• Maintain strong brand governance across all channels and stakeholder groups.
• Ensure all activity supports the wider brand strategy and commercial objectives.

Creative Production & Content

• Lead the Studio, Content and Audio-Visual teams to deliver compelling, commercially relevant creative assets.
• Oversee the production of advertising campaigns, marketing collateral, video content and branded communications.
• Ensure work is prioritised effectively and delivered to agreed standards and service levels.
• Support SEO growth through the creation of high-quality, data-led content.

Compliance & Governance

• Ensure all marketing activity remains fully compliant with regulatory requirements and internal governance standards.
• Provide oversight of FCA compliance across marketing communications.
• Manage brand risk and ensure appropriate approval processes are followed.

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, inspire and develop a team of marketing, creative and communications professionals.
• Set clear objectives, priorities and performance expectations.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Support colleague development through ongoing coaching and mentoring.

What Success Looks Like

• Building prompted Vertu brand awareness in England to 30%.
• Improving engagement with brand campaigns through stronger creative execution and more effective calls to action.
• Supporting SEO growth through the production of approximately 884 new pages of quality content.
• Increasing year-on-year positive PR coverage whilst maintaining strong brand sentiment.
• Delivering social media reach and engagement targets.
• Achieving YouTube performance and ROI objectives.
• Ensuring creative production is delivered on brand and within agreed service level standards.
• Maintaining strong brand governance and FCA compliance oversight.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Significant senior-level experience across brand marketing, PR, social media, content and creative leadership.
• Experience leading high-performing in-house creative and communications teams.
• A strong track record of managing agency relationships and delivering integrated marketing programmes.
• Extensive PR and media relations experience, with the ability to elevate brand reputation and build trust with external audiences.
• Exceptional judgement when managing sensitive reputational, compliance or brand-related matters.
• Experience establishing and maintaining brand governance, creative standards and tone of voice across complex organisations.
• Strong commercial awareness and the ability to connect marketing activity to measurable business outcomes.
• A solid understanding of marketing compliance, governance and risk management within a regulated environment.
• Excellent leadership, coaching and stakeholder management skills.

Desirable Experience

• Automotive retail experience.
• Multi-site retail experience.
• Experience operating within a customer-facing, highly regulated sector.

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• Hybrid working environment.
• Company pension scheme.
• Colleague discounts across vehicles, parts and servicing.
• Ongoing professional development opportunities.
• Access to a variety of colleague benefits and wellbeing initiatives.