Senior Brand & Marketing Manager

About Lapland UK

LaplandUK is a purpose driven entertainment company that was conceived in 2007 by Mike & Alison Battle, a couple with a passion to reimagine the Father Christmas myth and create the ultimate immersive Christmas experience where families could celebrate the wonder of childhood and specifically, their children’s precious fleeting years of belief.

Frustrated by multiple experiences of the poor treatment of their own sons’ ‘belief’, Mike and Alison Battle, embarked on a 17-year journey to elevate this special moment of childhood through their original storytelling world and so bring it to life: Lapland. Their ground-breaking immersive show opened in Tunbridge Wells in 2007 and immediately captured the attention and hearts of parents nationwide. Powered by their purpose to ‘honour childhood together,’ the couple partnered with Hollywood set designers and West End performance professionals to produce an experience of unprecedented quality and detail. The show moved to Ascot in 2013 and has now welcomed over 1.5 million ‘believers,’ with tickets selling out on release for what the press now terms ‘the Glastonbury of Christmas’.

During 2023, the Battles strengthened their senior leadership team with the recruitment of a proven Live Show Director from IMG who is preparing the launch of a second live show in Cheshire, UK in 2025. The opportunity to continue show expansion is material, both domestically and internationally, through 1st party and 3rd party (franchise) operation, with plans to launch a first international show in 2026/27.

Alongside plans for the live expansion, Lapland has also turned its attention to two additional channels to reach parents and children outside of the live event itself. Firstly, the consumer product opportunity based on their story IP, and how they could bring the authentic magic of the LaplandUK live show into the home via eCommerce. In 2024 Lapland launched a number of initiatives (personalised Letters from Lapland, Christmas Eve Boxes and more), which drove their eCommerce revenues by x10 in 2023.

Secondly, more attention was spent on Lapland’s Story IP, with the launch of their Elfcast (podcast), which hit number 1 in the UK Family Charts (and top 10 podcasts worldwide) over Christmas. The content team are now exploring options to bring their characters and stories to life through more audio and video throughout the year, resulting in greater connection to both parents and children yearlong.

The combination of our Live, commerce & content/IP verticals sets Lapland on the path to become the definitive, global Christmas brand for the 21st Century.

In early 2024, LaplandUK commenced a strategic review with proven growth consultancy The Growth Foundation to codify a plan and help guide LaplandUK’s expansion, with particular attention to requirements in their executive, senior operational team, technology and systems architecture and tactical plans in eCommerce to enable and unlock their huge growth potential. The growth plan sees the upgrade of LaplandUK’s system architecture with new ERP, Single Guest (Customer) View and material improvements in Lapland’s digital front end (website & app to allow Ticketing, eCom & Content to be accessed in one place) as well as investment in new strategic / leadership and tactical / execution roles across all business functions.

About the role

This is a career-defining role, and allows the right candidate to make their mark, learn while doing and work to propel LaplandUK into a global multi-channel, international brand from the solid foundation built to date.

As Senior Brand Marketing Manager, you’ll work with our Brand Director (Matt Battle) to design and build a brand team capable of managing multiple live sites, a wider and deeper consumer product proposition and a burgeoning content revenue stream for the business. While doing this, you’ll lead campaign planning, content / creative ideation & production, building & maintaining our organic social content & communities and in the short term our CRM activity, where we plan to build a dedicated team in the future).

Responsibilities include...

Campaign Management

• Lead the planning, execution, and optimisation of multi-channel brand & marketing campaigns to drive awareness, customer acquisition, retention and engagement. Own the Campaign / Trading Calendar/s;
• Project Coordination: Manage project timelines, budgets, and resources effectively to ensure timely delivery of all marketing initiatives;
• Performance Analysis: working closely with the wider demand creation functions, monitor and analyse the performance of campaigns and content, using data-driven insights to optimise future strategies and tactics;
• Where possible, be the catalyst / devise campaigns with the aim of hitting LLUK’s objectives;

Content

• Manage the production of all content following direction from Director of Brand & Product;
• Build an in house content team to support growth and engagement across all social channels;
• Batch content though the year ready for high cadence of posting at Christmastime;
• Support production of content for all ecom product launches (hype driven drop model) through the year;
• Creative feedback: Provide creative guidance to graphic designers, copywriters, videographers, and other creative professionals to ensure that all content aligns with brand guidelines and resonates with the target audience;
• Tell our story and build authenticity through ‘behind the magic’ Youtube Vlog series.

Brand Guidelines

• Build and maintain Lapland’s brand guidelines and tone of voice to enable all business functions to remain true to our brand, with a clear distinction between out and in world;
• Manage the documentation and continuous improvement of live show, consumer product, commerce & content brand guidelines to enable accurate and productive growth into new live shows / revenue streams in the future;

Social

• Work with Director of Brand & Product to build social strategies and tactical execution plan for for each live channel (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn);
• Grow followers and engagement across all channels for both Lapland & Founder channels;
• Design a winning strategy and tactical plan to launch the Lapland Tik Tok account and grow this as quickly as possible to similar follower / engagement levels as our other social channels.

Community

• Create and lead our community engagement strategy and tactics;
• Build a space for ‘Lapland fans’ to engage with one another to drive fandom and regular positive engagement with peers and Lapalnd, and provide high value to community within this space;
• Deploy tactics to recognise and reward loyalty within the community;
• Champion and continuously play our mission & vision within the community.

CRM

• Build and manage a CRM team to drive engagement and conversion via direct message (SMS etc) & email;
• Build and maintain prospect / customer segments and messaging flows to support the different Lapland journeys;
• Support email comms and email capture around all relevant consumers touchpoints;
• Drive growth of highly engagement / high quality mailing list organically and with incentives / competitions.

Team

• Support Brand Director to build a brand team to deliver all the above;

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including marketing, product development, and customer service, to align campaign objectives with overall business goals;

• Chair / Lead meetings / ideation sessions with Product, Brand, Marketing & Trading to populate the campaign calendar;

• Work closely with the Director of Brand & Product and Founders;

• Work closely with our external PR team;

• Positively champion the 'Lapland way' culture within yourself and your team.

About you

To succeed in this role, you must have an entrepreneurial mindset and a growth-oriented attitude. The ideal candidate must be comfortable with ambiguity and able to navigate the fast-paced and constantly evolving nature of our multi-channel (live, commerce, content) business. You must be willing to take calculated risks and have a bias for action, with a willingness to roll up your sleeves and get involved in all aspects of the business. You must be a strategic thinker, with the ability to balance short-term tactics and objectives with long-term vision and goals.

Additionally, you must be customer-focused and have a deep understanding of our target audience. You must be passionate about our products and have your finger on the pulse of the latest hospitality trends in brand, marketing and eCommerce. You must be creative, innovative and analytical, with the ability to anticipate and respond to changing customer needs and preferences, before they happen.

Finally, You will need to be a collaborative and inclusive manager, with a willingness to listen to and learn from diverse perspectives. You must be able to build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders and be a champion for the brand and its values.

Experience needed...

• Proven success in leadership within Brand disciplines, with a track record of coaching & developing of a multi-disciplinary team of brand and marketing professionals;

• 3+ years of brand & marketing management experience in an aspirational brand / company;

• Experience of managing a 7-figure brand / marketing budget across multiple / 360 marketing channels including organic social, Influencers/Creators and offline (events and above the line)

• Experience working with Models & Talent, Photographers & Content Production teams;

• A proven track record and clear vision on building Influencer Marketing and PR;

• Happy to work some unsocial hours / travel as required by the business around peak production / live event;

• Experience within aspirational products / services or brand/creative agency;

• Ability to build strong relationships with key stakeholders and influence at all levels;

• Strong Commercial sense to ensure actionability of results and influencing successfully across locations;

• Experience in managing budgets and working with suppliers to ensure actionable results, on time, best cost;

• Ability to leverage/integrate existing data sets when information is available;

• Strong planning and organisational skills with a sense of priority and attention to detail;

• Demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking in approaching new and innovative ways of executing;

• Excellent time management skills and the ability to adapt well to change and multi-task;

• Maintain a strong understanding of competitor activity and activity within Christmas & Hospitality.

We would love to respond to every application however due to the volume of applications we receive this isn't always possible. If you have not heard within 2 weeks of applying, please assume on this occasion that your application has not been shortlisted. We may retain your CV to contact you about future employment opportunities that are being managed by The Growth Foundation Talent.

The Growth Foundation Talent is deeply committed to building a diverse & inclusive workplace and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.