Head of Marketing Communications, Global

Collinson is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers.

Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500+ lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special. We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide.

We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.

Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work.

Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.

Purpose of the role

This senior, global position will work closely with the VP of Corporate Communications and wider team to build and deliver a refreshed, impactful communications strategy that (critically) supports core business objectives. Empowered to make a difference, breaking free from legacy working practices will be fundamental.

With the business at an exciting stage of our transformation journey, this role will be crucial to us re-imagining marketing communications to provide essential support – from the enhancement of foundational communication practices, through to inspirational brand activations; the right candidate will help cultivate a best-in-class approach that successfully engages, informs and builds credibility amongst core audiences.

Helping lead the strategy for PR and competitive positioning, executive profiling and global events, the role will drive reputation, differentiation, and visibility across key B2B and B2C audiences – in turn, further elevating our market-leading position.

A critical focus will be on building and protecting our core brands – particularly Priority Pass – through creative yet commercially-centred media engagement; by positioning the C-Suite as informed, trusted thought leaders; by devising and delivering a global event strategy (and regional framework); by ideating and securing strategic brand partnerships that help reach new audiences, in partnership with Brand and Marketing teams; and by delivering a differentiated narrative that protects and defends market position.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to a holistic, proactive content strategy (the messaging powerhouse of the company) designed to reveal the roll-out of core, brand and commercially-minded deliverables in a consistent, clear and timely fashion via key channels. Aligned to a “red-thread” brand narrative and key messaging house, the evolving plan documents quarterly hero content and strategic project deliverables – and in turn, how the content will be leveraged across key audiences.
• Help lead the global PR strategy and delivery alongside the Senior Global PR and Communications Manager, working together to direct our global PR agency and aligning the regions to build a strategic media engagement plan that leverages the broader content strategy – bringing it to life in new and creative ways. Help ensure alignment with sister operating companies at Collinson, where appropriate. Brings new ideas that ensure we go beyond the press release by considering paid and organic media and blogger engagements, live broadcast opportunities, media roundtables, and editor fireside chats. Creativity and commercial-alignment is key.
• Devise a global event and hospitality strategy and delivery plan, alongside the Marketing Communications Manager, which enables the brand to engage with key clients and prospects in a meaningful way. Be it sponsorship of an industry event, a media roundtable, or a client event with our top global accounts – the plan will help align key stakeholders behind a focused approach, aligned to the wider content strategy.
• Help position select C-Suite employees as informed, inspired and engaging thought leaders through executive profiling – from LinkedIn content, media engagements and event speaking opportunities, to filmed client case studies – the approach will ensure target audiences recognise key Collinson executives, ensuring the brand is relatable and personable.
• Work closely with the Brand and Marketing team to help conceive a global brand partnership strategy designed to help bring our core communication pillar around sports and wellness to life, while elevating Priority Pass’ position as an aspirational lifestyle benefit. Considerations should include brand advocate engagement and sporting event sponsorship or hosting.
• Oversee the team that manages crisis/incident communications, aligning key stakeholders behind a well-crafted communications plan – including reactive and proactive statements, as the situation requires – with the aim of controlling evolving narratives.
• Contribute to (and enhance, where possible) measurement and monitoring of, and reporting on, the effectiveness of marketing communications activities, helping to ensure we’re successfully communicating impact to key stakeholders across the business.

Key skills and experience required

• Extensive experience in marketing communications working in a global or multi-market business with multi-functional teams and a large portfolio of products and services. Strong experience in PR, communications and events required.
• Extremely creative, collaborative, with excellent stakeholder influencing, management and communication skills.
• Ability to work strategically, challenge constructively and translate ideas and complicated topics into easily-digested content that resonates with the intended audience.
• University degree in relevant topic, eg Marketing, English, Journalism, or equivalent professional qualification.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills with the ability to work to strict deadlines and manage multiple projects simultaneously within a dynamic and growing business.
• Ability to demonstrate ROI and learnings from the ownership of marketing plans, activities and budget.
• Self-motivated with high level of initiative and strong sense of ownership.
• A team player and people manager who works effectively with, and is able to positively influence, colleagues at all levels. Experience of working with C-Suite is important.

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on-going success.

We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc).

If you need any extra support throughout the interview process, then please email us at [email protected]