US Marketing Director

Role: US Marketing Director 

Who We Are:

Secret Cinema is the global pioneer of immersive film experiences with a record of over 50 immersive productions and over 600,000 attendees in the last five years alone. Creating large-scale cultural experiences in abandoned spaces, we fuse film, music, theater and installations.

In our shows, audiences are assigned a character and step into the story. They explore richly-detailed, immersive worlds where fiction and reality blur. We achieve this by creating the world of a film, where the space is populated by a professional cast of actors and dancers. The experience culminates with a screening of the film. 

Indoor productions can run for several months with audiences up to 1,500 a night with total audiences over 100,000, while our outdoor summer festivals run for several weeks with up to 5,000 audience a night. We work the largest film studios and most popular current titles, including Star Wars, James Bond, and Stranger Things as well as old classics such as Back to the Future and Dirty Dancing.

 Purpose of the Role

Are you a marketing expert with a passion for live events and selling tickets? We are looking for a bright, enthusiastic marketeer who can take initiative and work at a fast pace in a creative environment. If you are a natural problem solver, able to work autonomously and have a real flair for creating and managing campaigns – we want to hear from you.

 This is an exciting opportunity to lead the marketing and brand launch for Secret Cinema’s tour across the USA. Secret Cinema has opened two shows previously in Los Angeles: (Stranger Things Drive In-To, a covid friendly adaptation of our UK show in 2020 and Secret Cinema Presents Arcane in 2021). We aim to be known as the premier immersive experience in all major US cities – you will start work on brand development and preparing for our upcoming tour announcement in Q4 2022 and this will be followed by other exciting future titles to be released across the USA.

The U.S. Marketing Director will be responsible for the ticket revenue targets in the USA market, including the overall strategy, all USA marketing partnerships, local media buying, national/local PR delivering growth in the US markets and all of the hands-on marketing activity that goes around it. We have ambitious ticket targets of over 100k per market and a healthy marketing budget of over $1 million, plus meaningful support from our studio partners. 

 You will develop and manage our event marketing campaigns, including strategy, roll-out, budget management, briefing asset creation and agency management – using a creative, innovative approach. You will be responsible for helping to position the Secret Cinema brand as the creative pioneers of the space, reaching ticket targets for each production, developing our audience database, and producing  best in class out-of-home, on-air, radio, digital and social media campaigns. Our UK team will provide a starting point of customer insight, assets and run the digital campaign with your input.

 The role will be based in L.A. (where we will be recruiting the wider Secret US team)** Unless there is a specific reason to have the person be based in LA, the search may produce more candidates if it is considered remote** and you will be responsible for managing any U.S. agencies (including PR) or sales and marketing consultants. You will be reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer based in London and also accountable to our US Producing Partner. You’ll work closely with both the UK marketing and creative teams, which include performance marketing, asset creation, customer insights and customer service, will support you.

Given our exciting growth plans, there is plenty of scope to grow and take on increased responsibility.

 Key responsibilities

You will need to be extremely self -motivated and confident working autonomously. You must deliver on ambitious revenue targets by managing all sales and marketing activity above, below and through the line. You are a confident multi-tasker with great organizational and stakeholder management skills. You’ll naturally work at a fast pace and be a comms expert, with the ability to understand, depict and present statistical trends/data. You’ll also enjoy developing creative concepts for campaigns and understand how to deliver maximum ROI against a budget.  Experience of managing agencies and the ability to make informed decisions is crucial. 

 You will: 

• Be a seasoned campaigner: with a demonstrable track record of marketing and selling tickets to customers for substantial live entertainment events (theater, festivals, music gigs etc.) – delivering within budget and to target

• Be a strong, marketing leader who can connect, coordinate, and manage the marketing process with all key stakeholders (US and UK)
• Be responsible for the strategic and complete marketing oversight and planning for a multi-year, touring immersive format new to the market
• Have experience in customer acquisition and maintenance in a new market

• Operate with a mixture of transactional urgency to hit sales targets and have an ability to help with the development of the brand and to optimize our database and owned media channels 
• Direct PR campaigns/agencies on both a national and a local level

• Have a hands-on approach to execution. The right candidate will be comfortable managing budgets, managing agencies and creative, checking copy, writing reports, processing invoices and working the phones as needed
• Deliver audiences on time and to budget 
• Develop new marketing ideas and campaigns in collaboration with the UK Marketing and Creative Teams and use these to produce best in class campaigns that deliver maximum ticket sales
• Be responsible for selling all tickets in all our USA markets, while building the brand in the USA, including inputting into the digital campaigns run via the UK marketing team, and running the OOH, radio/cinema, print and street marketing campaigns and local partnerships in each market

• Make recommendations on content, target audiences, spend and timings

• Input into digital marketing KPIs on a weekly basis, covering; AB testing results, trends, gaps and insights and recommend clearactions to improve or resolve
• Be a direct link to our audience, continually sharing insights and learnings with the business from social media monitoring and customer service feedback
• Have a solid understanding of street level marketing promotion and guerrilla tactics

 General Duties 

• Attend internal and external meetings as required 
• Adhere to all Secret Group policies and plans including the Secret Group Equality Policy
• Undertake any additional duties, as required 
• Always behave in the best interests of Secret Group 

 This job description is a guide to the nature of the work required. It is not wholly comprehensive or restrictive and may be reviewed with the post holder and the Marketing Director, as required. 

 Person Specification 

Essential 

• At least 5 years professional experience in marketing position, with experience of live events and selling ticket, working across the full marketing mix 

• In depth knowledge of selling tickets in US markets
• Strong analytical skills, using data insight to generate actions leading to impact

• Creativity and ability to build buzz and momentum 
• Ability to generate high ROI on pre-agreed budgets 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• The ability to work effectively and as part of a team – ready to get involved in all marketing aspects of the business
• Stamina, persistence, enthusiasm, motivation and a proactive manner 
• Adaptability and problem-solving skills 
• Excellent administrative and organizational skills 
• Strong attention to detail 
• Ability to prioritize workload and cope with last minute changes 

• Flexibility to work according to show schedules, event demands and with differences in time zones 

Desirable 

• Established relationships with relevant media nationally and locally in large USA markets would be a bonus  

• Degree level in Business/ Marketing a bonus
• Passionate about culture, films, theater and immersive events 
• Experience in media planning and buying

Terms and Conditions 

• Location: LA  – flexibility on location within USA (can be remote)
• Term: Full time, 8:30am – 5:30pm, Monday to Friday with evenings/weekends, as required
• Travel: Travel to oversee key marketing initiatives will be mandatory within USA 
• Salary: $120,000 – $160,000 DOE

 Secret Group values and promotes diversity and is committed to equality and opportunity for all. All employees are required to comply with and actively promote our Equality policy, and no job applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity, race, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation, class or socio-economic background, trade union activity or political activity or opinion. 

We may use positive action, in cases where candidates are equally qualified, to increase the employment of under-represented groups at Secret Group.