Marketing Category & Advertising Lead (12-Month Fixed Term Contract)
12-Month Maternity Cover - Gateshead
Are you a commercially driven marketing leader with a passion for delivering high-performing campaigns, driving sales growth, and leading successful teams?
We're looking for a Marketing Category & Advertising Lead to join our team on a 12-month fixed-term contract here at Vertu Motors.
In this role, you'll take ownership of our New Vehicle marketing strategy across cars, vans and motorcycles, while leading a multi-million-pound advertising budget to deliver exceptional results.
Working closely with senior stakeholders, you'll translate business objectives into effective marketing and media strategies that generate qualified leads, increase customer acquisition, and support ambitious sales targets.
The Role
As Marketing Category & Advertising Lead, you will:
- Lead the marketing strategy for our New Vehicle category, ensuring marketing activity supports business growth and sales objectives.
- Manage and optimise a £2m+ advertising budget to maximise enquiries, opportunities and return on investment.
- Develop and deliver integrated marketing plans across advertising, digital, CRM, retail marketing and OEM activity.
- Lead the planning and performance of paid media channels including TV, BVOD, radio, YouTube, out-of-home, paid social and digital display.
- Analyse campaign performance, market trends and competitor activity, using insights to drive continuous improvement.
- Present performance updates, recommendations and strategic insights to senior stakeholders.
- Support franchise launches, new market entries and product launches across the portfolio.
- Manage agency relationships, ensuring partners deliver innovation, optimisation and strong commercial results.
- Lead, coach and develop a small team, creating a high-performing and collaborative culture.
- Identify opportunities to leverage AI, automation and new ways of working to improve efficiency and campaign effectiveness.
About You
We're looking for someone with:
- Significant experience in advertising, media or marketing leadership roles.
- Experience managing advertising budgets in excess of £2 million.
- A proven track record of delivering successful, multi-channel marketing campaigns.
- Strong commercial acumen and data-driven decision-making skills.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
- Experience leading, developing and motivating teams.
- Experience within automotive, retail or multi-site environments would be advantageous, although not essential.
Why Join Us?
This is an exciting opportunity to shape strategy across multiple brands and categories, influence business performance, and lead a talented team within a fast-paced and ambitious organisation.
If you're passionate about media strategy, commercial marketing and delivering measurable results, we'd love to hear from you.
Apply today and help drive the next stage of our growth.
We are proud to be the Motor Retailer who invests more in our colleague's personal development than any other, so if you are successful, you can look forward to on-going training opportunities that provide you with the right career path, career progression and a range of benefits you would expect from an employer of choice which includes:
- 25 days holiday rising with length of service - plus bank holidays
- Access to our online rewards platform giving you cash back and discounts for multiple retailers
- Preferential Service Rates
- Colleague Purchase Scheme
- Share Incentive Scheme
- Pension
- Enhanced Maternity and Paternity
If your application is successful, we will need to complete employment checks prior to you starting with us. Your role will include us verifying your recent employment, credit history and a criminal record check.
