Marketing & Communications Manager

Marketing & Communications Manager Push the Boat Out 2024

Fee: £8,100 (£180/day – 45 days)

Location: Remote with regular meetings (including in person) and onsite during festival

Hours: Flexible to meet needs of festival

Contract type: Freelance until Feb 2025

Application - BY EMAIL AND COVER LETTER - see below. We will not accept applications through quick apply.

Push the Boat Out: Edinburgh’s International Poetry Festival is a new platform for poetry, spoken word and performance which is entering its 4th year in 2024, and our first as a registered SCIO. It will take place in November 2024 in Summerhall, Edinburgh, with online and in person events. We also have a growing year-round programme including our monthly open mic, Rock the Boat, and plans for other regular events.

We want to recruit an exceptional candidate to create and implement our marketing strategy as our Marketing & Communications Manager on a freelance basis. The role will give the right candidate the opportunity to create and deliver an exciting marketing plan, contributing to the growth and profile of one of Scotland’s most exciting new organisations all year round. Your work will ensure that the festival is enjoyed by the broadest possible audience and maintain high levels of engagement across the year.

We are looking for a dynamic, imaginative person who will bring enthusiasm and a high level of accuracy to the role in equal amounts. Applicants should have demonstrable experience of leading in a busy marketing role, ideally within an arts or festival environment. You’ll need to be comfortable both working with autonomy and a team player. A brilliant communicator, you’ll thrive on getting other people excited to be part of our festival and engaging a range of audiences across a variety of channels. You will report to the Director and will have some responsibility for selecting and managing our relationship with a PR company.

Key Responsibilities:

• Create and implement a confident, imaginative and engaging marketing campaign for PTBO, referring to our Audience Development Plan, which boosts the profile of the festival overall, the individual events within it and the year round programme.
• With the Creative Producer and Designer lead on the creation and distribution of the overall festival brochure and other marketing collateral
• Create engaging, consistent content across all PTBO social media channels and monthly newsletter, create schedules for the festival campaign and year round programme, and manage responsive/spontaneous social media content to ensure the reach and impact of each channel is maximized
• Analyse and report on social media and website analytics to understand the effectiveness of the festival campaign and year round marketing
• Work with the Website Designer to update the PTBO website ensuring all relevant information is communicated online.
• Judiciously coordinate photographic/video documentation of the festival
• Work with the team to ensure that the festival is ‘well networked’ and has a high profile locally and nationally, including creating targeted mail outs and other content, and Push the Boat Out is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC052742) 2 maintaining a database of partner contacts and regularly liaising with them to ensure that cross promotional opportunities are maximized
• Lead on coordinating print and digital advertising with media partners and through our social media channels
• With the Director, liaise with our PR company to facilitate press and media opportunities for the festival overall and individual events with specific artists. Support response to any media enquiries or emerging communications issues.
• With the Director, manage the marketing/advertising budget
• Advise on evaluation to enable the success of the marketing campaign to be assessed
• Contribute to the festival report
• Coordinate invitations to the festival programme launch and opening night Support stakeholder communications
• Attend and support events as required, including the festival period
• With the whole team, work towards an equalities-driven approach across the festival and ensure this is embedded in all areas of our work.
• Provide wider, flexible support to the team as required including attending regular team meetings and individual meetings
• Create clear lines of communication and information flow for the Director and other team members, developing clear updates and reports on progress, maintaining files in shared locations, and appropriately using designated software
• Carry out other reasonable duties as may be ascribed to the post by the Director Required Skills and Experience
• Passionate about the arts and their ability to create meaningful, developmental, inspiring experiences
• Demonstrable experience of developing and delivering imaginative and complex marketing campaigns across multiple channels
• Experienced in creating and distributing engaging content across a range of social media platforms and Mailerlite.
• Ideally, confident in creating visually appealing content using Canva
• Strong copywriting and proof-reading skills, with excellent attention to detail
• Experience of effectively coordinating and distributing print marketing
• Experience in developing partnerships, making links and maintaining effective working relationships with partners
• Understanding of the role of PR and experience of coordinating PR input
• Experience of coordinating effective ad campaigns, including with media partners
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
• Excellent organisational and time management skills, ability to remain calm and work to deadlines under pressure and in dealing with unexpected situations
• Flexible, thrives on collaboration as an enthusiastic team player, as well as being someone who can work effectively on their own, managing their own time and priorities.

Fee and contract

£8,100 (£180/day, 45 days approx) from June 2024 to February 2025

This is a freelance position, and we are looking for someone to start as soon as possible. The contracted period is to February 2025 but may be extended subject to funding. You’ll be able to work from home and flexibly around your other commitments, though regular meetings will be required both remotely and face to face, and you will be required to be in Edinburgh in the lead up to the festival, and during November 22nd to 24th for the festival itself.

It is vital to understand and be comfortable working with the fluctuating needs of a festival, where there are some periods of intense activity (e.g. the key programming period, festival launch and lead up to and delivery of the festival itself) alongside quieter times. We would expect that you will need to be more available from August to November. It is our intention that this post be year round if funding allows. To give an idea of the scale of the role, for the duration of the contract there will be no more than two, small scale monthly events including Rock the Boat, and a monthly newsletter. It will not be possible to work a set number of days each week throughout the contracted period, but we are happy to discuss this at interview and on an ongoing basis.

Application

To apply please email Emma Collins, Director, (recruitment@pushtheboatout.org) your CV detailing your relevant experience and cover letter of no more than 2 sides of A4 outlining your experience and suitability for the role. If you’d like to discuss the role in advance of application, please contact Emma on emma.collins@pushtheboatout.org

Closing Date: Thursday 23rd May; Interviews: Thursday 30th May 2024

Access and Equal Opportunities

We strive to foster an inclusive working culture. We encourage applications from all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from those who are currently under-represented within the sector, including those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled candidates, LGBTQIA and/or those from a low socioeconomic background or requiring flexible working arrangements.

If you’d like to submit an application in an alternative format, please contact us at recruitment@pushtheboatout.org in the first instance to discuss your requirements.

If you are selected for interview, we will ask you to let us know if you have any access needs or may require reasonable adjustments to the interview or assessment (if applicable) at that stage. Please be assured that we will be supportive in discussing reasonable adjustments with you at any stage of the recruitment and selection process.

All candidates are expected to complete an anonymous equalities monitoring form.

Job Type: Freelance

Pay: £180.00 per day

Benefits:

• Work from home

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Edinburgh, EH9 1PL

Application deadline: 23/05/2024