DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Reports to the SVP of Marketing, position is exempt
THE ROLE
As the Director of Marketing, you’ll play a significant role in driving a consistent and cohesive marketing strategy that aligns the value proposition of our individually branded hotels. Following the guest journey from start to finish (and retention), you’ll develop content strategies and ensure we’re communicating consistently across our owned, earned, and paid media channels. This role will lead cross-promotional efforts that amplify our brands and collection of properties along with overseeing marketing efforts for all new openings within our growing pipeline. This leadership role will also oversee the field marketing managers and creative freelancers ensuring marketing strategies are properly implemented, executed, and ultimately deliver on desired KPIs.
Who You Are
You’re a builder with an entrepreneurial mindset. A self-starter that’s comfortable with ambiguity and playing in a grey space. You are confident in your abilities to be a strategic thinker and a tactical doer. Your experiences have led you to understand that there is an art + science to the how and what a marketing expert is responsible for; the passion to understand and support the direction of the business and the importance of knowing how people drive the success of the company.
You’re collaborative and communicative with the ability to think creatively to identify and resolve issues. You enjoy the solidarity of a team and know that everyone plays an important role, no matter what their title is. When one of the members of the team goes down, you are the first to jump in and pick them up. You maintain awareness of trends influencing our business and bring forth innovative ideas + solutions that drive customer awareness and retention for the hotels, restaurants and the brand. Your experience will shape how you approach this role, but you are always striving to learn more.
Who We Are
Hotels done differently. It’s not just a slogan or catchphrase, it is who we are in everything we do. We believe in the power of People, Place + Character; ensuring our hotels are a place where individuals are valued and celebrated as a tribute to the neighborhoods and the people of the communities in which we operate; elevating our associates’ pride in who they are, where they live and who we serve.
Aparium has been named Travel + Leisure's Top 25 Hotel Brands in the World. Driven by the belief that all hospitality experiences should be fueled by the poetics of their surroundings, Aparium was born with an intense focus on unearthing the amazing moments unique to every city. Since its founding, Aparium has grown into a new kind of hotel brand, one that ventures off the beaten path, both geographically and philosophically. It is a sophisticated hotel brand known for its singular ability to combine the business acumen of large hospitality companies with the charm of boutique hotels, bringing disparate forces together in bustling, smaller markets.
What You Will Do
As Marketing Director at Aparium, you will oversee the field marketing managers who provide essential support to all our properties (and more as we expand!) and serve as the marketing voice for each property. You will be essential in providing leadership with a structure that prioritizes all the tasks and needs of our properties, equipping the managers with resources that contribute to their success. Furthermore, you will ensure marketing strategies are executed and track key performance indicators that result from those efforts.
Content Strategy Across all Channels
- Own connected channel marketing strategy (Paid, Owned, & Earned), including channel plans, identification of needed technology, content/marketing frameworks, content, promotion, and editorial calendars for all Aparium Brands.
- Stay up to date on trends of the broader travel industry and how Aparium fits into current and emerging markets.
- Build brand content and tell stories in engaging, compelling and consistent ways across channels to drive long-term revenue growth and brand awareness.
- Drive strategic vision for a broader content strategy framework for operating and new properties.
- Collaborate with the Marketing and revenue strategy team to execute and analyze success of content frameworks and optimize as necessary.
Campaign Strategy/Property Partnership
- Maintain the pulse of changing priorities around the marketing/creative strategy for each property
- Maintain the campaign calendar and report on effort during monthly marketing calls.
- Share creative tests results, options and insights with properties and build a partnership across Aparium properties.
Creative Oversight
- Manage the identification, development, and deployment of in-house content creation, guidelines, templates, and processes, as well as sourcing and managing external creative freelance partnerships
- Developing highly creative and effective content and distribution strategies across the web, mobile, social, video, and other multimedia channels that entice key audiences with compelling imagery, messaging, and storytelling
- Serve as the “gate-keeper” and champion of each property’s brand from a marketing perspective, aligning the marketing team members on the creative processes and well-coordinated execution of campaign and messaging strategies across all channels. This collaboration ensures that these visual elements align seamlessly with our brand's aesthetic and propel our narratives forward through all marketing channels.
- Collaborate with Director of Digital to ensure all brand assets, tone and messaging are represented on all digital platforms
- Manage Creative services fee allocation and usage through validating freelance production hours to support the properties creative needs and to determine best use of creative resources.
- Ensure that all external agencies and freelancers adhere to company guidelines and maintain brand consistency.
Repositioning Exercises/Oversight
- Spearheading the identification, development, and deployment of repositioning and new position strategies for Aparium
- Developing highly creative and effective content and distribution strategies with compelling imagery, messaging, and storytelling for property repositioning.
- Own the review and analysis of health, market and industry data to understand current positioning trends and opportunities within Aparium properties to deliver on the commercial needs of individual brands.
- Work with need properties (Those in a declining situation for at least one quarter) to understand positioning and marketing efforts.
- Actively understand and connect the guest expectations and journey to marketing efforts and confirm consistency between marketing and operation execution.
Brand
- Partner and collaborate with Brand Team as the marketing liaison as brand books are finalized. Helping to bring the brand to life in marketing executions and monitor consistency of brand tone and voice usage across all creative and messaging
- You play a critical role as the “Protector of Brand integrity” ensuring brand compliance across all individual hotel and restaurant brands in all marketing channels, promotional materials and collateral. As the brand enforcer you are quick to address and correct instances where the brand is misrepresented, or guidelines are violated.
- Collaborate with General Managers & Lifestyle Directors to ensure the brand voice and messaging is consistent and a prominent priority in all marketing materials.
- Collaborate with SVP of Marketing to execute go-to market plan across owned, earned and paid channels in the lead up to property openings.
The list of tasks and duties mentioned above is just the beginning of the adventure. Be prepared for more exciting challenges! You might be called on to tackle extra duties or tasks that aren’t listed here, all to meet the ever-changing needs of our business.
What You Will Need
- Minimum of 5 years of marketing strategy experience
- Minimum of three (3) years within a regional and/or Home Office capacity in overseeing multiple hotels, properties or business units
- 2-3 years of experience within restaurant marketing (preferred)
- Willingness to be based in the Chicago Office, located in the West Loop (this is not a remote role)
- Comfortable in working in an open-space office environment at headquarters.
- Strong experience in developing content strategy across owned, earned and paid channels.
- Agency management experience in prior positions
- Achieved a bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications or similar
- Experience in upper-upscale, independent, boutique or lifestyle hotels (preferred)
- Experience with B2C and B2B marketing
- Proficiency with digital marketing and traditional marketing
- Demonstrated ability to build out email framework and grow databases as a marketing and revenue channel.
- Experience with Revinate Marketing similar CRM/email marketing tools, a plus
- Data-driven individual who enjoys utilizing large sets of data to interpret findings, analyze trends, recognize anomalies, and make recommendations for testing.
- Familiarity with the latest GDPR laws, CAN-SPAM and privacy policies.
- Strong project management experience
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Meticulous attention to detail and organization; highly analytical
- Have a strong bias for getting stuff done quickly and with high quality
Pay rate: $125K to $145K plus position is eligible for our short-term incentive plan
Benefits: Aparium offers a variety of benefits to include medical, dental, vision, 401(k), short term disability, long term disability, life insurance, commuter benefits, discounted parking, travel benefits and more.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Aparium Hospitality Services celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an equitable and inclusive environment for all employees to ensure they feel a sense of belonging. We do not discriminate and believe every individual should be proud of who they are, where they come from and take pride in who we serve. Aparium is an E-Verify employer.