Campaign Marketing Manager

At Clarion, our people are at the absolute heart of what we do.  We’re proud that our core values of PASSION, CARE, IMAGINATION, and TRUST define the way we carry out our work across all of our teams.

If you share our values and want to be a part of a successful, dynamic, and creative global business then we want to hear from you.  

The Opportunity:  

DSEI is one of the world’s leading defence and security exhibitions, bringing together governments, armed forces and industry from around the globe. As Campaign Marketing Manager for our Defence portfolio, you’ll own the audience campaigns that fill DSEI UK, DSEI Japan and DSEI Germany, and help grow DSEI Gateway, our defence news brand.

This is a senior, hands-on role for an events marketer who has done this at scale. You’ll own campaign strategy and delivery across multi-million-pound event products, be accountable for audience quality, registrations and conversion, and lead a team of two: a Senior Marketing Executive and a newly appointed Marketing Executive.

You’ll report to the Head of Marketing, who will set the direction and then trust you to run with it. Not every step will be mapped out for you, and that’s the point. We want someone who sees what needs doing, gets on with it, and tells us when there’s a better way.

Who we’re looking for:

We’re looking for an experienced events or exhibitions marketer who has run campaigns for large-scale events and can show the results. You will have either:

• Held marketing responsibility for event products generating up to £7 million in revenue, or

• Run high-volume audience campaigns delivering 20,000+ registrations for large-scale events or exhibitions.

You’re a natural optimiser who never considers a campaign finished: you test, read the data and improve. You pair that with real creativity and outstanding copywriting, so your campaigns both perform and stand out. You’re highly adaptable, comfortable working without a detailed brief, and confident challenging the way things have always been done when you can see a better approach.

This role is likely to suit someone with at least six years’ marketing experience, a significant part of it in events, exhibitions or conferences, and some experience of managing people. Defence sector experience isn’t essential; we’ll help you learn the market. Large-scale events experience is.

Key Responsibilities:  

Campaign Strategy & Ownership

• Own the end-to-end audience marketing strategy for DSEI UK, Japan and Germany, from campaign launch to show day, driving registrations, attendance and revenue from the right audiences.

• Set campaign targets, forecasts and budgets with the Head of Marketing, and be accountable for delivering them.

• Build and deliver the plan to grow DSEI Gateway’s audience and engagement.

• Present plans, progress and recommendations clearly to senior stakeholders across the event, sales and content teams.

Optimisation & Performance

• Continuously test, measure and refine across channels (audiences, offers, subject lines, landing pages, paid media) to improve conversion and audience quality.

• Own marketing reporting: weekly KPI and registration tracking, forecasting against target, and post-event reports with clear insight and actions.

• Manage the product marketing budgets and make sure every pound is working hard.

• Spot early when something isn’t working and change course quickly, without waiting to be told.

Creative & Copy

• Write and edit compelling, conversion-focused copy across email, web, paid social, print and on-site materials, and set the standard for copy across the team.

• Bring fresh creative ideas and campaign concepts that cut through with a senior, specialist defence audience.

• Make sure all output is on brand and tailored to our key audience personas.

Leadership & Ways of Working

• Line manage and develop a Senior Marketing Executive and a Marketing Executive, including onboarding and coaching a new starter.

• Brief and manage agencies, freelancers and colleagues across the wider marketing and content teams.

• Challenge existing processes and bring ideas from outside the business on how we can do things better.

Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours:

Essential

• Substantial experience marketing large-scale events, exhibitions or conferences, ideally B2B.

• A track record of either revenue responsibility for event products of up to £7m, or driving 20,000+ registrations for large-scale events. Be ready to talk us through the numbers.

• A proven optimiser, with clear examples of testing, analysing data and using it to improve results.

• An excellent direct-response copywriter and editor, with a portfolio that shows it.

• A creative thinker who brings new ideas rather than repeating last year’s campaign.

• Strong multichannel knowledge across email and marketing automation, paid media, social, landing pages and CRM, with real depth in two or three channels.

• Experience managing people, as well as agencies and freelancers.

• A self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity and can prioritise across several events running in overlapping cycles.

• A confident communicator who can challenge constructively and influence senior stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience in defence, security, government or another specialist B2B sector.

• Experience marketing international events, particularly in Europe or Asia-Pacific.
  

About Clarion Events   

Clarion Events is one of the world’s leading event organisers, producing and delivering innovative and market-leading events since 1947. (https://clarionevents.com/welcome)   

Clarion Events embrace diversity and equal opportunities in all that we do. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  

Clarion is private equity backed and owned by Blackstone. Blackstone is one of the world’s leading global investment funds, investing capital for the long term in order to build successful, resilient businesses. (https://www.blackstone.com/)    

Our purpose is to deliver exceptional customer outcomes and experiences, by making every connection count.   

Our vision is we want every one of our products to be a market leader in customer satisfaction and delight. 

Benefits

• 25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays

• End of year wellbeing shutdown (closed for the last week of the year)

• Employees on a permanent or fixed-term contract are gifted an extra day of leave that can be used for a celebration of your choosing, e.g. birthday, Eid, Diwali, etc.

• Summer Hours in August (3pm finish on Fridays)

• Helping Our World (HOW) Days – one paid day per quarter to carry out charity work

• Pension Scheme

• Private Medical Insurance

• Health Cash Plan

• Wellbeing Library (MYNDUP)

• Mentoring Programme

• Season Ticket Loan

• Cycle to Work Schemes

• Free on-site gym and shower facilities

• Free eyesight tests

• Free flu vaccination – offered on site once a year for all employees

Our Values

PASSION

We deliver all our events with passion for people, the environment and businesses. We form connections with those who are just as passionate about what they do as we are. We always strive to exceed expectations and celebrate success. We love what we do, and it shows.

CARE

We care about our people and our products and work tirelessly to achieve lasting connections and satisfaction for ourselves, our customers and the businesses they support. We really get people - everyone is welcome.

IMAGINATION

Everything is possible. We constantly challenge the status quo and create amazing experiences and opportunities. We take huge satisfaction in solving problems. As open-minded and fun-loving people, the sky is our limit.

TRUST

We trust our skills, people and partners to deliver extraordinary events our customers have come to rely on. We support everyone around us and always learn through our experiences. We are honest and straight forward. You can always rely on us.

Equal Opportunities

We encourage employees to be open and confident and recognise that every member of the team makes a vital contribution.

Clarion embraces equality, diversity and inclusion and seeks to promote these principles in all of our business activities.

When recruiting new employees or providing opportunities for promotion, we will:

• Recruit, develop and retain the most talented people, regardless of background, and make the best use of their talents;

• Ensure that no person is unlawfully discriminated against;

• Select the best person for the role based on their skills, qualifications and abilities.

This statement sets out our commitment to equal opportunities and to preventing discrimination in the workplace.