When your industry is hospitality, the people are key.

The Drake has humble beginnings, with a small team of entrepreneurial spirits whose energy has transformed into a growing group of dreamers + doers. As a leading hospitality + retail brand in Canada, [and winner of Canada’s Top Small + Medium Employers, might we add...] The Drake is an ever-expanding cultural hub that brings communities together around one-of-a-kind experiences that blend food + drink, art + music, and unforgettable hotel stays all delivered by some of the best people you’ll ever meet.

We are currently on the hunt for an ambitious and talented Brand Specialist to join our highly engaged marketing team, supporting the delivery of world-class creative marketing for all of our hotels, restaurants + bars. The Brand Specialist will have stellar copywriting skills, experience in creating and delivering campaigns both online and offline, and have excellent relationship building skills as this position interacts very regularly with other departments and guests.

The Brand Specialist should possess a solid understanding of all areas of digital marketing from email marketing to database & website management, have experience running a multi-channel social media program, understand how to create and rollout a marketing brief to operations, and have a background in generating reporting to showcase their marketing activity results. This position reports to the Director of Marketing and Brand Manager.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Supporting the Director of Marketing and Brand Manager in the creation, execution and review of all online and offline marketing campaigns
• Managing our main Drake website’s content to ensure it’s always up to date alongside seasonal campaigns; including all new page development, ongoing image/banner/copy/menu updates, blog updates etc
• Managing all Drake hospitality social media accounts, including all content creation, community management, and stats monitoring in line with our monthly growth goals. Also providing support in the creation and monitoring of our paid social ads.
• Supporting the brand manager in ensuring all printed and digital assets go live for every local and group-wide campaign on time and to our Drake creative + quality standards
• Working closely with our design + production department, as well as external agency partners and 3rd parties, on both local and group-wide campaign development
• Coordinating weekly ongoing, and larger seasonal photoshoots including scheduling of all key parties and location booking, shot list creation, prop sourcing, and providing on-site shoot support
• Creating weekly and monthly marketing updates on our online and offline campaign results
• Conducting competitor analysis of other hotels/restaurants/bar brands and reporting on findings
• Liaising with other Drake departments including operations, HR, finance and more during the development, rollout, and review stages of all campaigns
• Managing all inbound charity request replies and logistics of gift card/prize donations
• Providing extra support for Drake General Store marketing and Drake PR as needed
• Processing marketing project PO’s and invoices
• Supporting the Director of Marketing and Brand Manager with admin & reporting support as needed

SKILLS + QUALIFICATIONS:
• 2-5+ years of progressive work-related experience in marketing, hospitality marketing experience a strong asset
• Degree in marketing or business preferred
• Excellent copywriting skills required. Candidates should have experience writing + editing creative emails, print marketing materials, blogs/articles, social media content, website content, ad copy etc.
• Solid understanding of all things digital marketing, especially regarding social media management, email marketing and website content management.
• Experience in WordPress, Adobe InDesign/Photoshop, and Campaign Monitor are nice-to-haves.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced and challenging environment, and handling management of multiple projects at one time
• A people-person who enjoys working with and communicating lots with others, and building new strong relationships, as this role will include lots of liaising with operations and other departments as well as constant daily interaction with our online guests (including press)
• Strong knowledge of the Toronto (and beyond) dining + hospitality scene preferred; ideally a foodie who knows exactly where to find the best tacos/cocktails/cool new hotel in town. Interest and experience in the arts/fashion/music scene a big plus, too.
• Eagerness for development and growth! This opportunity presents a fabulous development path towards a more senior marketing role for the right candidate.

SET FOR SUCCESS:
• You’re a strategic thinker, who loves to provide input, develop innovative ideas for bettering our business and creating solutions, and who enjoys reviewing the results of their activities to help us get better and better
• You’re a doer! Reflective of the dynamic + fast-paced environment, you aren’t afraid of getting your hands dirty while still maintaining the drive of the team
• You live, eat + breathe culture: you’re a foodie, art + music lover, design-obsessed… a curious culture seeker. You have a pulse on what’s happening in and outside of Toronto.
• You’re a people person, who loves interacting with different departments and guests, and meeting new people
• You’re detail orientated, who pays close attention to ensuring the finer details of your marketing campaigns across every channel are just right
• You LOVE DIGITAL, and can tell us all about snaps vs stories, email segmentation vs a/b testing, and what you think of our Google Analytics reports…

WHAT WE OFFER:
• We pride ourselves in providing strong leadership and development opportunities for passionate hospitality professionals who are looking to build rewarding, long-term careers. Drake offers a competitive compensation and benefits package, employee discounts, training + development support and many other unique perks as a part of joining the Drake team.