Senior Brand Manager, 12 Month FTC

The Brand Marketing Team hold the overarching view of all the ways in which we engage with our customers, and in which our customers engage with our brand. They create the campaign, calendars and activations strategies that deliver our customer KPIs, and ensure consistency in how these are realised across all our customer touchpoints. The Senior Brand Marketing Manager is accountable for ensuring the brand marketing strategy and creative concepts are delivered, in line with brand guidelines, and for driving the activity.

Key Accountabilities

• Develop and own the Brand & Retail Marketing Plan, taking ownership of the deployment of all brand marketing projects from brand seasonal campaign partnerships, collaborations, store re‑fits and local marketing activity.
• Maintain a full calendar of brand campaigns, partnerships and activations by liaising closely with commercial teams to align strategies, supporting effective sell‑ins through impactful brand marketing initiatives.
• With the Brand Exec support, deliver end‑to‑end activations and campaigns across all divisions in support of the brand marketing strategy and driving the business objectives.
• Work closely with the wider business stakeholders to maintain awareness of the progress of projects, any risks or barriers and support in resolving these to keep projects on track.
• Build strong relationships with Retail and Wholesale directors, Wholesale Account Managers and external Wholesale partners to understand their unique needs and opportunities to ensure alignment of brand & retail activations created for these channels.
• Develop and maintain a sound understanding of project management principles and critical paths, working closely alongside the Marketing Project Lead.
• Work closely with the Insight Leads to understand our brand health metrics and KPIs and ensure our brand campaigns are aligned to the business objectives.
• Have a good working knowledge and understanding of other marketing specialisms e.g. press, influencer, retail, social, community, content, editorial and creative design to have a 360 view and understand the part they play in delivering the brand plan.
• Is intentional in building trusted relationships across Marketing, Channels and Creative in order to engage at the right time and right way to deliver the Brand Marketing objectives.
• Monitors the impact of campaigns and activations through analysis, data and insight from multiple sources to understand if they delivered the intended outcomes.
• Seeks to understand gaps on own knowledge and perspective and takes steps to gain additional insight from internal and external sources, connecting the dots to gain a fuller picture of customer mindset and behaviours, to better align Brand Marketing plans.
• Develops good cultural awareness and understanding of socio‑economic factors that influence customer sentiment and behaviour, using these to shape the plan and anticipate changes needed.
• Takes the lead of defining the KPI’s, forecasts and deliverables for all brand campaigns.
• Manages the Senior Brand Marketing Exec and Retail Marketing Manager effectively, setting a clear direction and key objectives to be achieved, ensuring the team is aligned and working towards those objectives, providing timely feedback and support to enable each team member to work to the best of their abilities, and empowering others to make decisions and take action.

Key experience required

• A track record of successful delivery in a similar role.
• Experience within agency or in‑house marketing team in any industry.
• Experience within Brand Marketing and/or any Marketing specialism.
• A track record of delivering through others.

Job role competencies

• Analytical mindset, able to simplify and interpret multiple data points and insights.
• Strong verbal and written skills.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Good people management, coaching, mentoring and development skills.
• Good interpersonal and collaboration skills, emotional intelligence and self‑management.
• Highly organised, good prioritisation skills.
• Builds strong genuine relationships with peers, highly collaborative approach.
• Disciplined and conscientious, results oriented.
• Tenacious, resilient and adaptable to change, can quickly shift focus.
• Change advocate with a curious, continuous learning mindset.
• Forward‑thinking, innovative.
• Passion for product and the RI brand and customer.
• Passion and interest in popular culture that shapes and influences customer sentiment.

About Us

We’re a much‑loved brand with an exciting future. Our Islanders are a diverse bunch of bright, talented people who love working together – and are proud of the work they do. This role is based at our Head Office in West London.

What we can offer you

• Generous 50% staff discount and a bargain staff shop on site.
• Reducing Islanders everyday expenses through discounts, benefits, financial advice, wellbeing solutions and more through the Retail Trust.
• A free onsite gym, subsidised restaurant & café and various social events throughout the year.
• Support for families with maternity, paternity, adoption & fertility treatment.
• Flexible working, on top of payday and summer early finish Fridays.
• Give‑as‑you‑earn scheme, a ‘Giver Island’ day each year and matched funding.
• Support with upskilling through on‑the‑job training and qualifications and a succession plan.
• Generous bonus scheme & private pension plan.
• Choice to opt in for healthcare through AXA.
• 25 days paid holiday, exclusive of Bank Holidays, with option to purchase additional holiday twice a year.

Keeping You Safe

At River Island we are committed to the safeguarding of all our employees regardless of age or job role, and we will fulfil our obligation under the Prevent duty to stop extremism and extremist views from materialising in our business. We promote British Values, equality of opportunity and welcome all applicants. Flexible working requests are considered for all roles unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.