Brand Creative Manager

Virgin Management is the home of Virgin, it supports the Branson family and the growth of the Virgin brand by developing and nurturing valuable Virgin businesses around the world. The team of circa 180 employees across two offices in London and New York includes teams as diverse as legal, investment, finance, tax, brand, people, communications and corporate relations. It also works alongside Virgin Unite, the entrepreneurial foundation of the Virgin Group and is home to Virgin Start Up, a not-for-profit organisation that delivers government backed loans, mentoring and other support to entrepreneurs in the UK.

Virgin Management works alongside all the different Virgin companies and their specialist sector teams around the world. We have interests spanning travel & leisure, health & wellness, music & entertainment, telecoms & media, financial services and space. Each of those individual Virgin businesses have their own ways of working and recruit directly, but we are all united by a shared culture and purpose.

The role:

The Virgin Group Brand Creative Capabilities team is responsible for the creative expression of the brand. We are intent on “raising the creative bar” across the Virgin Company portfolio and supporting the continued growth and protection of the Virgin master-brand.

We ensure the identity and creative expression of the brand is distinctive, future proofed, well codified and applied consistently.

Working in close collaboration with the broader brand team and Virgin companies to:

• Drive instant recognition through the iconic brand identity
• Spark intrigue and interest in Virgin through stand out campaigns and activations
• Drive engagement in the brand and a long-term relationship through extraordinary experience design, creating spaces (physical and digital) that people love

This role works closely with and in support of the Senior Brand Manager and the Brand Director in the Brand Creative & Capabilities team.

The core areas of focus are:

• the development of brand guidelines
• the creation of immersive Masterbrand assets (e.g., Virgin Brand Reel)
• the coordination and production support of Masterbrand campaigns, activations and creative projects
• management of creative and design requests from the broader brand team and VCos
• Management of the brand asset catalogue

Key responsibilities:

• Support Virgin brand codification – support Senior Brand Manager and Brand Director in codification of the brand across topics such as identity, physical experience, digital experience, tone of voice, etc. Assisting the process to create Masterbrand guidelines and case studies.
• Support Virgin Company Advisory - support Senior Brand Manager and Brand Director in supplying guidance to Virgin companies, facilitating the process.
• Support Masterbrand and Virgin Company design briefs: Support the Senior Brand Manager in creating and delivering design briefs.
• Manage asset creation – work closely with the Senior Brand Manager to manage the creation of Masterbrand assets (e.g., Virgin Group brand reel) sourcing content and project managing the process.
• Asset collation – be responsible for supplying Brand & Creative Capability team assets (created by the team or requested from Virgin companies) to a shared asset library. Facilitate requests internally and externally (e.g. from Virgin companies.) Working closely with the Brand & Comms Asset Manager/Archivist [Role TBC]
• Be the day-to-day contact for Brand Knowledge within the Virgin Family platform - Work closely with the Virgin Family team to ensure the content and engagement within the Brand Knowledge proposition of the Virgin Family platform is up to date and accurately reflects the brand.
• Support campaign development and delivery – support Senior Brand Manager in creating external and internal Masterbrand campaigns.
• Help facilitate wider brand team and Virgin Company requests – work with the Brand Development, Brand Strategy & Insight, People Experience, and Comms & Content teams, helping manage their creative requests and projects.
• Support supplier set up and management of designers, freelancers, agencies, and consultants.
• Support Senior Brand Manager and Brand Director on special projects and events where needed.
• Develop strong relationships with Virgin company counterparts to engage them on brand topics and events.

Stakeholders:

• External designers, consultants, agencies, and freelancers
• Virgin Company brand teams
• Virgin Group brand development team
• Virgin Group brand strategy & insight team
• Virgin Group people experience team
• Virgin Group comms & content team
• Virgin Group brand IP team
• Virgin Management operational team
• Virgin Red team

For this role we need you to be/have:

• Experience in a large-scale Global brand team environment – either in-house or working closely with brands as part of an agency.
• Understanding of brand management.
• Experience in working closely with designers and creatives to develop brand assets and campaigns.
• Experience in writing and managing creative briefs for designers.
• Experience in developing strong relationships with multiple suppliers and stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience preferred in setting up and managing asset libraries and facilitating requests.
• Experience preferred in brand codification – e.g., assisting development of brand identities and guidelines, etc.
• Passion for creativity and design in all its forms.
• Understanding of brand management.
• Understanding of the creative process.
• Strategic and analytical approach – able to see the bigger picture, but also focused on the detail.
• Ability to build and cultivate collaborative relationships internally and with stakeholders across the Virgin Group.
• Highly organised and strong project management skills, capable of working across multiple projects at once.
• Ability to identify opportunities to innovate based on emerging trends.
• Proactively challenge the status quo – ensuring that the brand and creative capabilities team continues to protect, evolve, and differentiate the Virgin brand.

Are you ready to join a brand that is passionate about dreaming big and changing business for good?

Some of the attributes that define a Virgin person just can’t be quantified in words. We pride ourselves on welcoming people from all walks of life, with all sorts of skill sets. Most recently, Virgin successfully campaigned to add ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ as a skill on LinkedIn. Any uniqueness is a strength and will be considered an asset to our workforce.

If you're excited about making every day more rewarding and think you have what we're looking for, even if you don’t tick every box on the job description, we'd love to hear from you.

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So, sound like the role for you? If so hit the apply button because we want to hear from you!