Open roleExternal
Interim Brand Marketing Director
- gateshead, england, NE8, United Kingdom
- Contract·Hybrid
Job Description
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.