Publicity Director, Children's

The Publicity Director is responsible for leading campaign strategy as well as contributing to the overall strategy of the division as part of the Bloomsbury Children's Leadership Team. This is an exciting opportunity for an imaginative and experienced publicist to lead the children's publicity team, bringing market knowledge and hands-on experience, along with outstanding leadership, and creating campaigns that break out debut talent, build bestselling names to new heights, and connect readers everywhere with their next great read. You'll develop and deliver integrated, strategic, impactful, and commercial media and events campaigns for our books, authors, illustrators and brands, achieving maximum exposure for our books. You will be a senior voice in the division, leading and motivating the publicity team, and championing the team and the Bloomsbury Children's lists both internally and to the wider industry. You will have the ability to work across a range of budgets. You will be confident at contributing to publishing strategy, including acquisition and positioning, as you will be about delivering campaigns. Experience managing people, budgets and unforgettable campaigns with a positive and collaborative outlook is essential. You will join a dynamic, collaborative and friendly publicity team reporting into the Group Director, consumer marketing and publicity. Together, and working in close partnership with our Marketing Director and our children's leadership team, you will work to grow the children's business. Bloomsbury Children's Books' celebrated list is home to perfect picture books, page-turning middle-grade adventures, blockbuster YA fantasy and award-winning non-fiction. Its award-winning, diverse list includes authors and illustrators such as Atinuke, Beth Suzanna, Catherine Doyle, Chibundu Onuzo, Jessie Burton, Jonnie Peacock, Jordan Stephens, Kalynn Bayron, Katherine Rundell, Katya Balen, Kingsley Nebechi, Lex Crouchery, Meg Rosoff, Sam Sedgman, Sarah Crossan and Tom Percival. We are also home to the bestselling Bunny Adventures preschool brand, and to the most famous children's book brand in the world: Harry Potter. The role

• Responsible for developing and leading publicity strategy for the children's business including Harry Potter.
• Lead and empower your team to put relationships, innovation and creativity at the heart of their campaigns
• Lead and contribute to the publishing and campaigns of our lead titles and authors
• Work with the Group Director to audit and facilitate best practice in the team across key areas of publicity
• Set clear goals for reports and throughout the team, communicate team and divisional information and updates in a timely and open way
• Contribute to new title acquisitions and author/agent pitch meetings
• Contribute to agent/author communications
• Collaborate across functions to determine strategic prioritisation and resource focus
• Deploy and encourage a commercial, creative and pragmatic growth mind-set to help foster innovation, diversity and individual empowerment
• Manage the publicity team from hiring, performance and development to wellbeing
• Work with the Marketing and Digital directors to ensure holistic campaign strategies
• Support a culture of collaboration, working closely with the marketing, sales and editorial teams, feeding ideas into the wider company and being a great spokesperson for the children's publicity team.
  
  Experience of developing and implementing smart and creative consumer campaigns and brand strategies
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills
• Experience working with a range of stakeholders - effective influencer with excellent powers of persuasion
• Enjoys team leadership, able to mentor, challenge and support as an inclusive leader
• Growth-focused and not afraid to ask challenging questions
• Ability to multi-task, prioritise, problem solve, and self-motivate
• Demonstrated significant experience in publicity with line management experience
• Work with the Group Director to pinpoint areas of focus for the team across front and backlist titles, ensuring this focus appropriately represents our ambition for key titles.
• Drive key brands, including Harry Potter, forwards, helping to spot opportunities for these authors and titles.
• Allocate, manage and review budget allocations for frontlist, brands and backlist
• Allocate and oversee the successful delivery of publicity campaigns
Knowledge, skills and experience
• Knowledge of working on major Children's authors, illustrators and brands, with a proven track record in leading creative and effective Children's publicity campaigns
• An in-depth understanding of the Children's retail marketplace
• Experience of working with internal and external stakeholders including authors, editors, freelancer publicists and agencies, children's trade and book community contacts
• Strong interpersonal and organisational skills
  
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Bloomsbury reserve the right to close the role early if we exceed the required number of applications Bloomsbury Benefits As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package: Working Pattern
• Hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)
Holidays
• 25 days holiday
• 3.5 days Christmas company holiday
Other Benefits
• Two paid Personal Wellness Days
• Flexible Fridays - take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 30 minutes earlier in the week
• Work Anywhere Fortnight - For two weeks of any calendar year. The minimum period for Working Anywhere is one week, the maximum period is two weeks.
• Season Ticket Loan
• Share Save Scheme
• AXA Healthcare Plan (Private Medical Insurance)
• Peppy Health App
• In-house Doctor
• Eye Care Voucher Scheme
Company culture - Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Accessibility, Mental Health, Pride, and Parents, Guardians and Carers, Multi-Faith) and 21 Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources