Festival Marketing and Communications Manager
Freelance, 3 days a week on festival headline partnership, borough partner delivery and wider charity comms.
Salary: £200 a day
Contract type: Freelance
Days: 3 days a week two of which must be Tuesday and Wednesday. We envision this position as being at least three months of work with the possibility for extension.
About Open City
Open City is a charity dedicated to making architecture and neighbourhoods more open, accessible and equitable. Our mission is to empower communities to learn about, experience and have a role in shaping places where they live. We collaborate with people from diverse communities to widen access to spaces, neighbourhoods, knowledge and careers they are often excluded from. We do this by creating educational and cultural programmes discussing, celebrating and opening up historic and contemporary buildings and landscapes.
The Open House London Festival is about empowering communities, residents’ groups, civic organisations and local businesses to exhibit and learn about buildings and neighbourhoods which matter to them. Our Open House Festivals are accessible volunteer-led public celebrations encouraging audiences to explore new places, learn about different communities and experience diverse architecture first-hand. In London our Open House Festival engages tens of thousands of visitors a year across over 800 sites in all 33 boroughs.
The marketing and communications role will be pivotal in engaging communities and promoting the 2023 Open House Festival.
Key roles and responsibilities
Overall marketing strategy
Develop in collaboration with the Open House Festival Chief Curator and Festival Director and hold responsibility for delivering an ambitious marketing and communications strategy for the 2023 festival informed by this year’s partnerships and priorities.
Social Media
Planning, creation and scheduling of social media campaign for the festival across four channels. Campaign work will include:
Video content celebrating domestic architecture (x8)
Headline Partner credit in social media posts (x40)
Recruitment of festival contributors and visitors (volunteer support available)
Posts of Neighbourhoods for Boroughs that successfully open-up five places at the same time and meet the Neighbourhood criteria
Paid social media management
Out of Home Marketing
Lead and manage the 2023 Open House Festival’s out of home marketing campaign
Email Newsletters
Creation of festival specific content for Open City’s popular email newsletters (assets and copy)
Sponsor positioning in festival database emails (x5)
Sponsor positioning in Open City newsletter (x16)
Sponsor positioning in Open House special newsletter (x8)
Coordinating and spotlighting subscribing Boroughs in the Open City newsletter
Website
Creation and uploading of website assets connected to Open House Festival’s Headline Partner (x5)
Creation and management of Headline Partner landing page
Uploading and managing partner logos across Open City website including borough logos on the festival programme website (live from July) and the main Open City website
Festival merchandise
Lead, in development with the wider Open City team, the development of small products supporting Open House Festival’s organic marketing such as branded t-shirts and mugs.
Manage production of print materials for the festival including:
Recruitment/visitor fliers
Library resources
Contributor packs
Community and contributor posters
Incorporation of headline sponsor on festival poster
Relationship Management
Support on Co-creation days with Headline Partner
Main point of contact for comms and marketing
Distribution
Distributing Open House Festival materials to libraries to help engage the digitally excluded (probably via LB comms depts)
General responsibilities
Actively engage with and demonstrate an interest in the work and mission of Open City.
Support and collaborate with the Open City team across various programmes and events where necessary.
Contribute to the overall direction of Open City's programmes, proposing ideas in relation to funding opportunities, speaking on behalf of the charity to potential funders and actively contributing to the development of the charity’s operations.
Take an active role in improving Open City on behalf of the staff who work there and the audience it serves.
Personal Specification
Experience creating and implementing digital marketing campaigns
Excellent copy-editing, proofing, verbal and written communications skills in English
Experience of Adobe Creative suite (particularly Indesign and Illustrator, ideally Premier Pro too) or equivalent software package
Experience of content management systems (CMS)
Experience of external stakeholder management
Experience of working with external creative agencies and freelancers to meet deadlines and ensure good value for money
Familiarity with implementation of other orgs brand guidelines and ToVs
Awareness and understanding of GDPR regulations and mailing list management
Strong verbal communication skills
Good IT skills
Ability to use initiative and work independently
Knowledge of and interest in London’s architecture, arts and culture sector
Interest in the work and projects run by Open City.
Desirable
Established relationships with media buyers
Design of strategic communications and marketing plans
Applications
Please send a CV of no more than two side of A4 and a covering letter of no more than two sides of A4, explaining your background and interest in the position. Your covering letter should describe the skills you would bring to Open City; how your experience meets the job description; and why you are interested in the work of the charity.
Please send your application to Lucy Pickford, chief operating officer of Open City at lucy@open-city.org.uk with the subject line “Festival Marcomms Manager”.
Questions about the role should be directed to Lucy Pickford on the address above.
The deadline is Thursday the 4th of May.