Senior PR Manager - D&AD

Location: London E2 / Hybrid

Salary: £50-£64 depending on experience plus benefits

Contract: Full-time/Part-time, Permanent

Introduction: Reignite the Global Spark of Creativity with D&AD. At D&AD, we’ve spent over six decades championing the very best in design and art direction across creative industries with a mission to stimulate, enable and celebrate creative excellence for those we serve. The creative world never stands still - and neither do we. We are now on a mission to reassert D&AD’s position at the heart of the global creative conversation.

This is a defining moment for our brand. We’re looking for a Senior PR Manager with the strategic vision, cultural fluency, and storytelling firepower to put D&AD back on the global creative map and calendar. From London to Lagos, São Paulo to Seoul - we want the world talking about D&AD again.

You’ll lead the charge in shaping how D&AD shows up across the media landscape, building bold narratives that resonate beyond traditional industry press. But just as importantly, you’ll develop and activate an international network of influencers, cultural tastemakers, and creative ambassadors - people who can speak to our legacy while helping write our future.

This is about more than publicity. It’s about cultural relevance. You’ll be instrumental in designing and scaling ambassador and influencer programs that connect D&AD to new audiences, amplify our voice in emerging creative communities, and keep us top of mind year-round - not just during Awards season.

We’re looking for someone who gets the power of relationships, understands the nuance of global markets, and is excited by the opportunity to make D&AD not just relevant, but unmissable again. If you’re ready to drive influence, shape perception, and reignite a global creative icon - get in touch.

Key Responsibilities

• PR Strategy and Execution: Develop and lead a global PR strategy that supports D&AD’s mission and business goals, balancing long-term brand building with timely media opportunities. This includes proactive planning around the annual calendar of events, initiatives, and campaigns such as the D&AD Awards, education programmes, and thought leadership content. Plan and execute media campaigns that align with key organisational priorities, including creative briefings, embargoed releases, exclusive interviews, and campaign launches. You’ll identify strong story angles that resonate across regions and sectors, and tailor your outreach accordingly. Proactively build and maintain strong relationships with journalists and editors across a range of outlets - spanning creative, trade, national, and international media. You’ll be expected to stay ahead of industry trends and media interests to ensure D&AD’s voice remains relevant and respected. Secure high-impact media coverage that positions D&AD as a global thought leader in creativity and design. This includes identifying opportunities for op-eds, interviews, media partnerships, and event coverage. Craft compelling press materials including press releases, media kits, Q&As, briefing documents, and core messaging. You’ll adapt tone and content to suit different audiences, ensuring a consistent and clear brand voice. Act as a key point of contact for media enquiries, providing thoughtful, well-prepared responses and briefing internal stakeholders for press engagements and public appearances.
• Influencer and Ambassador Engagement: Own the strategy and day-to-day management of D&AD’s ambassador and influencer network, leveraging this community to amplify key campaigns, initiatives and events. Work closely with alumni, trustees, judges, speakers and partners to ensure they are informed, engaged and activated around relevant moments - this includes providing them with assets, messaging, and timely communications to support their advocacy efforts. Identify and cultivate relationships with new voices in the design, advertising and broader creative communities, with a particular focus on up-and-coming talent and underrepresented perspectives. Develop and maintain an always-on influencer engagement programme, working across platforms (especially LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and emerging channels) in collaboration with our social media team to ensure D&AD is authentically represented in the right conversations, by the right people. Integrate influencer and ambassador participation into broader marketing and communications strategies, collaborating with colleagues on campaign planning, social media amplification, and content creation.
• Leadership and Collaboration: Serve as a strategic advisor on reputation management, helping senior leaders and spokespeople navigate media opportunities and risk. This includes preparing talking points, interview briefings, and crisis comms support if required. Collaborate with internal teams particularly across marketing, partnerships, education and awards/events teams to align messaging and storytelling across all channels. You’ll ensure earned media and influencer activity dovetails seamlessly with paid and owned campaigns. Manage and mentor external PR agencies and freelance contributors, overseeing their output and ensuring it meets D&AD’s brand standards and strategic goals. Monitor and report on PR and influencer campaign performance, using tools to track media coverage, sentiment, reach, and ROI. You’ll use these insights to optimise future efforts and demonstrate impact to internal stakeholders. Champion continuous improvement in PR and influencer best practices, staying on top of industry developments, media consumption trends, and platform innovations that can shape D&AD’s external communications.

About You

You’re a confident communications professional with a proven track record in PR, preferably within the creative industries, and with experience managing influencer and ambassador programmes. You understand the nuances of storytelling across earned and owned channels, and thrive in a fast-paced, ideas-driven environment.

Essential Skills And Experience

• Experience in PR, ideally in an agency, cultural organisation or creative brand.
• A strong network of media and influencer contacts across creative, design, advertising and culture sectors.
• Demonstrated success in securing impactful press coverage and managing media relationships.
• Experience developing and executing influencer or ambassador programmes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strategic thinker with strong planning and project management abilities.
• Comfortable managing multiple projects, deadlines and stakeholders.
• A genuine passion for creativity and an understanding of the creative landscape.

D&AD is committed to diversity, equality, equity, inclusion and respect for all. Providing a work environment in which all employees are treated with fairness, respect and dignity and which is free of discrimination, victimisation, bullying and harassment. At D&AD we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you!

Please email vanessa.knight@btinternet.com to let us know if you need any reasonable adjustments to be made for any part of the recruitment process.

In order to comply with the Prevention of Illegal Working, Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act, you will need to provide appropriate documentation that proves that you are eligible to work in the UK.

Due to the number of applications we receive, we regret that you will not be contacted unless you are shortlisted for an interview. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date of your application you should assume that you have not been successful on this occasion.

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