Type: Full-time, Permanent
Location: Hybrid, 2-3 days on-site in Cardiff or Swansea
Reporting to: Commercial Director (Jamie Howells)
About Curveball Leisure & The Game Collection
With over 30 years’ experience in the video game industry, Curveball Leisure is a leading game publisher, distributor, and retailer, operating three main lines of business:
- Video games publishing.
- Worldwide B2B distribution of video games & consumer electronics.
- A leading UK online retailer of video games, collectables, and consumer electronics.
Our online retail arm, with The Game Collection (TGC) and its sister brand TGC Collectables (TGCC), serves a passionate community of gaming enthusiasts across the UK, offering a broad catalogue of video games, hardware, accessories, and collectable products. We are an ambitious and agile business, growing fast, and looking for a senior marketer who can help take us to the next level.
Role Overview
The Senior Marketing Manager sits within the Online Retail business line and leads all marketing and communications initiatives for The Game Collection (TGC) and TGC Collectables (TGCC), as well as supporting other initiatives across Curveball’s wider business when required.
Reporting to the Commercial Director, the Senior Marketing Manager is responsible for developing and implementing effective marketing strategies to grow The Game Collection’s businesses. They will be directly accountable for the growth of traffic and revenue, managing marketing budgets to ensure efficient ROI, and overseeing the communications strategies across all consumer-facing channels.
This is a commercially driven, hands-on leadership role. The ideal candidate is a data-literate, creatively ambitious marketer who thrives at the intersection of strategy and execution — someone who can define the vision, own the planning, direct agencies and internal resource, and roll up their sleeves to get things done.
Team & Working Structure
The Senior Marketing Manager will operate within the following structure:
- Social Media Executive (direct report): manages the day-to-day operation of TGC’s social media platforms. The SMM will provide strategic direction on content strategy and actively support the Exec in platform management, particularly during key campaign periods.
- Creative Executive (in-house): a dedicated creative resource providing design and simple video content production, supporting both the Online Retail and Publishing teams. The SMM will brief and collaborate closely with the Executive to produce assets across all channels.
- Paid Media Agency (external, newly appointed): responsible for managing paid digital channels. The SMM will act as the primary client-side lead, setting strategy, managing the relationship, and holding the agency accountable to performance.
Key Responsibilities
1. Commercial Performance & Growth
This role is fundamentally about delivering numbers. The SMM owns the marketing contribution to traffic, revenue, customer acquisition, and retention — and is expected to think and operate like a commercial leader.
- Own and be accountable for marketing’s contribution to key commercial KPIs: website traffic, conversion rate, revenue, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
- Develop and manage the marketing budget, allocating spend efficiently across channels to maximise ROI and hit revenue targets.
- Build robust reporting frameworks to monitor, analyse, and communicate performance across all marketing channels and campaigns — with full transparency to senior leadership.
- Identify growth opportunities and under-performing areas; recommend and implement data-driven changes to strategy, channel mix, and messaging.
- Translate commercial goals and trading periods (game launches, sales events, seasonal peaks such as Black Friday and Christmas) into effective, revenue-generating marketing activity.
- Collaborate closely with the Commercial Director and wider trading team to ensure marketing activity is aligned with trading priorities, pricing strategy, and stock position.
- Regularly review competitor activity, market trends, and customer data to inform strategy and identify new revenue opportunities.
2. Marketing Planning & Coordination
The SMM is the central organiser of all marketing activity, owning the planning process from strategy to execution and ensuring effective coordination across internal teams and external partners.
- Own and maintain the master Marketing & Content Calendar, ensuring all channels, campaigns, and content outputs are planned, aligned, and delivered on time.
- Develop seasonal and campaign-level marketing plans anchored to commercial objectives, the gaming release calendar, and trading priorities.
- Coordinate across functions — including the Social Media Exec, Creative Studio, Paid Media Agency, and wider Curveball teams — to ensure campaigns are briefed, produced, and activated cohesively.
- Lead regular planning, review, and performance meetings with all stakeholders, ensuring alignment, accountability, and forward momentum.
3. Content Strategy & Content Marketing
The SMM is responsible for defining and elevating TGC’s content strategy — making content a genuine growth driver rather than a reactive support function. This requires real creative ambition, editorial instincts, and hands-on involvement in the content creation process.
- Define an overarching Content Strategy for TGC and TGCC, encompassing tone of voice, content pillars, editorial direction, and channel-specific content approach.
- Develop the content marketing plan across formats and channels: social media (organic), CRM, Website editorial, SEO blog content, YouTube, short-form video (TikTok/Reels), and community platforms.
- Actively participate in the content creation process - from ideation and scripting to reviewing and optimising final assets - working closely with the Social Media Exec and Creative Exec, and continuously raising the bar for the content produced by TGC / TGCC.
- Monitor content performance data (engagement, reach, traffic referral, email engagement, conversions) and use insights to iterate and improve the strategy over time.
- Stay ahead of content trends across the gaming, pop culture, and retail space — identifying formats, platforms, and creators to learn from or potentially collaborate with.
4. CRM & Customer Retention
The SMM will directly own TGC’s CRM programme, both strategically and operationally. Genuine, hands-on platform experience is essential. CRM is a significant lever for customer retention and LTV, and the SMM is expected to lead it with real expertise and commercial focus.
- Develop and own the CRM strategy for TGC and TGCC, with a focus on driving repeat purchase, increasing customer LTV, and reducing churn.
- Directly manage and build the email marketing programme: campaign planning, audience segmentation, copywriting, template design briefing, send scheduling, A/B testing, and post-campaign performance analysis.
- Design, build, and optimise automated CRM flows including welcome series, post-purchase sequences, browse and basket abandonment, win-back campaigns, VIP and loyalty communications, and product-category-specific nurture journeys.
- Lead CRM reporting across all key metrics: open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, revenue attribution, list health, deliverability, and unsubscribe rates — with a continuous improvement mindset.
- Ensure full GDPR compliance and best practice data governance across all CRM activity, list management, and customer data handling.
5. Paid Media — Agency Management & Strategy
- Act as the primary client-side lead for TGC & TGCC’s Paid Media agency, covering all paid channels: PPC / Google Search, Google Shopping, Paid Social, etc.
- Define paid media strategy, objectives, and performance KPIs in line with commercial goals and agreed channel budgets.
- Hold regular performance reviews with the agency, monitoring spend and performance closely, challenging results, redirecting budget where needed, and ensuring TGC is getting maximum value from the relationship.
6. Social Media
The Social Media Executive manages day-to-day platform activity, while the SMM’s role is to set strategic direction, ensure alignment with the broader content and marketing strategy, and actively support the Exec across platform management and content creation.
- Define and own the social media strategy for TGC and TGCC across all relevant platforms (Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, etc.).
- Provide the Social Media Exec with clear content direction, content calendar guidance, and creative feedback.
- Actively support the Exec with content creation, scheduling, copywriting, and community management.
- Identify, evaluate, and manage influencer and creator collaboration opportunities relevant to TGC’s audience and product range.
7. Other Areas of Activity or Influence
- Brand Guardianship: Act as the custodian of TGC’s brand identity, tone of voice, and market positioning, ensuring consistency across all consumer-facing touchpoints.
- Affiliate Programmes: Own and develop TGC’s affiliate programmes, working with affiliate networks and individual partners to drive incremental traffic and revenue.
- PR: Manage TGC’s PR activity, to generate media coverage, product placement, and brand awareness within the gaming press and wider consumer media.
- Partnerships: Identify and develop collaboration opportunities with game publishers, hardware brands, gaming platforms, and consumer brands relevant to TGC’s audience.
- SEO & GEO: Work closely with the Ecommerce team to ensure organic visibility on Search Engines and Generative Engines through web content quality, editorial content, etc.
- Website & CRO: Work closely with the Ecommerce team to ensure the on-site experience supports marketing objectives and conversion goals; coordinate web content with the Master Marketing Calendar and Marketing Activities.
- Support to broader Curveball Leisure marketing initiatives where required, including B2B Distribution and Publishing business lines.
Skills, Experience & Qualifications
Essential
- Proven track record in a senior marketing role within ecommerce, online retail, or DTC brand, with direct accountability for traffic and revenue performance.
- Deeply commercial mindset: fluent in marketing ROI, CAC, LTV, and ROAS; comfortable operating within a P&L context and reporting to commercial leadership.
- Demonstrated ability to develop and execute a multi-channel content strategy with real creative ambition and measurable commercial results.
- Excellent marketing planning and project management skills: experience owning a complex, multi-channel marketing calendar across multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
- Outstanding written communication: able to write compelling copy, craft creative briefs, and present strategy clearly to senior stakeholders.
- Genuine, hands-on CRM expertise: proven experience owning and operating an ESP platform (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or equivalent).
- Experience managing external agencies (paid media, creative, or PR) — including briefing, performance management, budget oversight, and holding partners accountable.
- Confident with analytics and reporting: Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Search Console, Meta Ads Manager, and equivalent platforms.
- A genuine passion for gaming, collectables, or consumer electronics — a real affinity for TGC’s audience, culture, and product range.
Desirable
- Familiarity with affiliate marketing platforms and affiliate programme management.
- Experience identifying, briefing, and managing influencer or creator partnerships.
- A background in, or strong knowledge of, gaming retail, gaming publishing, or consumer electronics retail.
- Experience in video content planning, scripting, direction, or production.
- Degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience).
What We Offer
- A senior, high-impact marketing leadership role with genuine commercial ownership and regular visibility at the highest level of the business.
- The opportunity to shape and build the marketing function for one of the UK’s leading specialist online gaming retailers.
- A fast-paced, collaborative environment where good ideas are welcomed, initiative is valued, and strong performance is recognised.
- The opportunity to grow towards a Head of Marketing role as the Online Retail business grows across categories and requires the team to expand.
- A passionate, expert team with over 30 years of deep roots in the gaming industry.
Pay: £40,000.00-£60,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Canteen
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Employee discount
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Swansea SA6 8QN
