Director of Marketing & Communications

What’s the Job?

Oversees and directs all aspects of the Marketing activities. Responsibilities include overseeing the planning and development of promotional strategies and marketing and public relations plans; overseeing and assisting with the development and implementation of the sales and marketing plan; managing the marketing team; and reporting on the effectiveness of the plan.

Your Day-to-Day

• Produce the annual marketing budgets, forecasts, and plan.
• Strategize, develop, execute, and regularly review marketing and public relations plans to meet different market needs, drive hotel revenue, and increase awareness of the hotel to ensure the revenue plan objectives are achieved.
• Oversee the development of new marketing strategies.
• Analyze current and competitor marketing trends, and coordinate all marketing activities to maintain and increase revenue through added business volume and increased rate.
• Evaluate marketing and public relations activities to ensure the effectiveness of each campaign and optimize budget usage.
• Recommend to the Director of Sales & Marketing the kind of advertising that will be most productive for the hotel by analyzing the market effectiveness of past advertising campaigns and consulting with other department heads.
• Maintain regular contact with IHG hotels in your region and the regional reservation office, ensuring active participation in regional initiatives.
• Implement directions from the Director of Sales & Marketing and Regional Managers.
• Promote the hotel and maintain good public relations to uphold the prestigious image of the hotel. Duties involve planning, directing, controlling, coordinating, and participating in all public relations activities.
• Coordinate and support all methods of maintaining and increasing business volume, including advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity, community relations, and special sales projects.
• Enhance the image of the hotel in the local community.
• Review internal promotion pieces regularly for visual effect and ensure they conform with brand standards.
• Organize and promote, in cooperation with the Food & Beverage Department, special projects to stimulate food and beverage sales within the community, including but not limited to tournaments, balls, parties, and gastronomic festivities.
• Support the Rooms Division with revenue-generating promotions.
• Develop media contacts and other press activities. Act as the hotel’s liaison with the media to promote good publicity and counteract negative publicity.
• Develop and organize promotional activities; coordinate with departments concerned; invite media to promotional activities; prepare and issue press releases.
• Create promotional and hotel press releases and distribute them to different media based on content.
• Maintain good relationships with internal colleagues, local and international media, and third-party business partners.
• Provide information to other departments on activities within and outside the hotel that may be useful when dealing with guests.
• Accept media complaints and online guest complaints, requests, and inquiries; coordinate handling with departments concerned; ensure prompt replies in accordance with IHG brand standards.
• Maintain good public relations by extending personalized service to media, e.g., following up on reservations, assisting in greeting media and groups upon their arrival, and sending welcome letters.
• Maintain clipping files pertaining to the hotel(s) based on daily perusal of the media and provide them to the General Manager, other departments, other hotels, and corporate public relations, as appropriate.
• Maintain a mailing list/contact file.
• Maintain a hotel photo file.
• Liaise with the Human Resources Manager on matters affecting the corporate image.
• Build the hotel’s profile within the local marketplace through attendance at various events.
• Coordinate hotel photography when required.
• Monitor awareness of competitor activities and use the information when developing strategies.
• Plan and coordinate sponsorship activities.
• Participate in industry events.
• Work with your superior on manpower planning and management needs.
• Work with your superior in the preparation and management of the department’s budget.
• Be responsible for keeping our property safe and secure and participating in any hotel activity related to fire life safety.
• Perform any other duties that may be assigned by management from time to time.
• Ensure initiatives are in line with trends and resonate with followers and the hotel’s brand image.

Responsible Business

• Other ad-hoc duties – unexpected moments when we have to pull together to get a task done; Manager on Duty functions.

Accountabilities

• Number of employees supervised:
• Direct: Graphic Designer / Digital Marketing Manager / Marketing Executive
• Indirect: N/A
• Annual Operating Profit/Payroll Budget: N/A

Key Metrics:

• Number of sales leads from advertisements or promotional activities
• Success of a marketing plan, PR event, or promotion
• Online engagement: followers, likes, media coverage

Decision-Making Responsibilities (Decision Rights):

• Matters pertaining to Marketing and Public Relations in the hotel
• Within the authority assigned for a Hotel Band 4 role

What We Need From You

Required Skills:

• Demonstrated ability to interact with customers, employees, and third parties that reflects highly on the hotel, the brand, and the company
• Problem-solving, reasoning, motivating, organizational, and training abilities
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office
• Basic knowledge of Illustrator and Photoshop
• Good communication and writing skills

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or a related field

Experience:

• 3 years of relevant experience in a similar supervisory role, or an equivalent combination of education and work-related experience

How Do I Deliver This?

We genuinely care about people, and we show this through living out our promise of True Hospitality each and every day. It’s what connects every colleague in all IHG® hotels.

Each IHG® hotel brand delivers True Hospitality in its own way, and at the heart of it all are specific, core service skills.

• True Attitude: Being caring, wanting to make a positive difference, and building genuine connections with guests
• True Confidence: Having the knowledge and skills to perform your role, and giving guests the confidence that they can trust you to help and support them during their stay
• True Listening: Focusing on what your guest is saying, picking up on body language that is often overlooked, and understanding what the guest wants and needs
• True Responsiveness: Providing guests with what they need, and doing so in a timely and caring manner

There’s so much more to the job than we can capture here. It’s simply about creating great experiences, doing the right thing, and understanding people.

The statements in this job description are intended to represent the key duties and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be all responsibilities or qualifications of the job.