Communications Executive

Job Purpose

Develop direct communications, either designed to drive new customer sign-ups and lead generation or targeted at existing customers to increase loyalty and cross-sell. Media utilised comprises press, direct mail, out-of-home, venue display stands, sales literature, outbound call scripts, bill communications, plus linking with Digital for website, email and social media.

Nature and Scope

The jobholder takes a "strategic brief" from the relevant planning team and uses his/her knowledge of communications channels and media to write a creative brief for the relevant agency. S/he then acts as the main contact for the agency as they develop their creative ideas and produce the final output.

The jobholder plays a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the project, positioned as they are between the planners and the creative agencies or Marketing Operations. Managing them to ensure timely delivery, to brief, is key, but it is also a "partnership" arrangement, where creative ideas are exchanged and critiqued. The jobholder then needs to ensure effective implementation of the campaign, which may entail working with customer services and/or outsourced agencies (such as venue sales or telesales) to ensure proper deployment. In short, the jobholder is ultimately responsible for the quality of what is produced and that it meets the original brief. There are strong brand guidelines in place, but these leave ample room for creativity, initiative and innovation.

The type of work undertaken can range from a simple letter through to more complex campaign comprising a number of different media, from a standardised, recurring piece of work (such as the "Thank yous" monthly comms) through to a highly-customised piece of work (such as a product launch). The complexity, value and novelty of the projects undertaken will determine whether the role is classified as "Senior Communications Executive" or simply "Communications Executive". The Comms Exec may also just be responsible for certain elements of a campaign, rather than its entirety. In addition, s/he would not normally be expected to present ideas, solo, at a senior level.

Of particular note is the jobholder's need to take responsibility for ensuring their work is fully compliant with legal, regulatory and industry obligations. Penalties for infringement are potentially severe and in line with the strategic objective of building customer trust, there is a strong focus on the job holder being able to demonstrate compliance.

The key relationships are with the Marketing Planning teams, who are in effect the customers for the work, Marketing Operations and the agencies. In addition, the jobholder needs to build constructive working relationships with Legal, Regulation and Brand.

The remit of the team comprises the traditional "core" energy supply business, plus the new area of LCES (low carbon energy solutions) which is set to grow substantially. The jobholder may therefore be required to specialise on one area in particular, or operate across both.

Principal Accountabilities

- Translate the requirements of the strategic planning teams into clear, concise campaign briefs, so that the creative agencies can propose and develop winning ideas.
- Work with the agencies to help formulate and shape their ideas, constructively challenging their ideas and proposed executions so that high-quality, effective work is produced.
- Ensure all material is appropriately signed-off, so that all legal, regulatory and Company requirements are met.
- Define and source the data required for a particular campaign, so that the right audience is targeted and the effectiveness of the campaign optimised.
- Review the effectiveness of each campaign, ensuring that the learning is used in the planning of future strategy and execution.

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience

- Experience of implementing campaigns across the full range of non-ATL.
- Experience of briefing agencies and managing them to meet budgets, deadlines and quality standards
- They must be excellent communicators, both in writing (when initiating a project) and verbally (when needing to input ideas and opinions, or sell ideas back into the business).
- Creativity, being able to input into projects and influence the quality of what is produced
- Level of numeracy to manage budgets and interpret marketing data.
- Strong project management skills to ensure (often tight) deadlines are met and the various elements of a campaign are brought together in a timely way.

Customer focus

- Championing change and improvement: Generating new ideas and solutions.
- Emotional resilience: Consistently demonstrating a positive outlook, showing enthusiasm and confidence within changing circumstances.
- Communicating with influence: Communicating clearly, confidently and diplomatically at all levels. Showing active listening and effective questioning
- Commercial acumen: Identifying and driving ways to improve the team's performance. Strong appreciation of costs and benefits.