Vice President, Group Manager, Travel, Leisure and Hospitality

Overview

We are looking for a Vice President, Group Manager to join our Travel, Hospitality & Leisure (TH&L) sector and growing roster of domestic and international destinations, hospitality, airlines, attractions, recreational activities, restaurants, and entertainment/events clients.

We’re looking for an exceptional senior professional who can run a portfolio of brands, is strategic, can sell in a program and inspire a team. Someone who likes to take strategic ownership of the work they do, the type of person who can rattle off countless big ideas in the morning and then roll up their sleeves and write messaging and pull together a deck in the afternoon. Someone who is never too busy to carve out time to teach and mentor staff. And someone who is business savvy and knows the business, inside and out – and have a proven track record for bringing new business and fostering relationships with senior clients.

Our team is diverse with a global mindset and appreciation for different cultures and customs – Spanish fluency for this opportunity is preferred but not a must. Other bilingual capabilities are a plus! We are the most creatively awarded consultancy in our industry, and the TH&L sector is responsible for Ketchum’s most awarded public relations-led campaign, ever. This is an exciting opportunity to work on high profile travel, hospitality & leisure accounts, where your work is making a direct and meaningful impact on our client’s success and the entire tourism and hospitality industry. Looking for a passionate, proactive, and dynamic individual to lead by example, deliver highly creative, media-savvy and results-oriented work and join our award-winning team.

About The Job

• Serve as senior agency contact across the TH&L sector and across multiple brand programs and projects; lead and direct all program efforts to client satisfaction; bring a value-added approach to all issues and projects.
• Have knowledge of and experience in the leisure and MICE side of travel and hospitality.
• Grow strong relationships with senior clients and become a trusted advisor by solving problems, offering meaningful counsel, and delivering valued results.
• Oversee programs that drive earned media, digital, social and influencer engagement.
• Deliver strategic, engaging, and persuasive presentations to effectively articulate ideas to clients, colleagues, and others.
• Design and implement strategic programs and solutions, anticipating and alerting teams and clients to trends.
• Use metrics and analytics to build business case, provide insight and counsel to clients.
• Lead projects from concept/planning through to evaluation. Encourages effective delegation of project deliverables. Ensure projects are completed on time and on budget.
• Manage account financials including accurate budget creation, allocation, and control. Know-how on staff management and projections/forecasting. Ensure budgets are accurate when presented to clients; manage scope of work to those budgets and the budget tracker to ensure we stay on track.
• Build and present concepts and programs for clients and new business opportunities and effectively counsel and sell social and digital media concepts to clients.
• Bring strategic counsel and POVs to the table during interagency meetings with client’s other agencies across other disciplines.
• Demonstrate strong quantitative and analytical abilities to define measurable objectives, assess campaign metrics, and reports.
• Foster respect and collaboration within the team and/or agency partners. Identify issues within the team and drive to resolution.
  

Qualifications

Any combination of education and experience providing the required skills and knowledge for successful performance would qualify. Typical qualifications would be equivalent to:

• Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, English, Marketing, or a related field preferred. Master’s degree in a communications field desirable
• Spanish language fluency is preferred but not a must. Any other bilingual fluency is a plus!
• At least 12+ years of agency experience and/or corporate public relations experience
• Precision focus with an acute attention to detail, responsiveness, and ability to flex and provide counsel on your feet
• Proven experience counseling C-Suite-level clients
• Demonstrated track record in building strong client relationships and delivering programs that exceeded anticipated results
• Proven track record of winning new business and networking within the industry to attract new business
• Demonstrated record in building and managing high performing team
• Actively participates in professional and community networks within the PR industry
• Strong communication and presentation skills to effectively articulate ideas to clients, colleagues, and others
  

About Ketchum

As a global communications consultancy with 90 plus years of experience, Ketchum is a trusted partner who is equal parts creative and analytical. Ketchum is a place where all perspectives and points of view are welcome and encouraged. We are a collection of communications specialists, content creators, creatives, researchers, data analysts, media pros, digital strategists, issues and crisis counselors, and tech nerds. And we love when those worlds collide to create the very best teams and solutions for our clients. We work with the world’s leading brands, emerging start-ups, and everything in between. We are beyond proud to have created some of the most celebrated and award-winning campaigns in our industry. We’re just crazy enough to think we can impact the world – and how it responds to ideas – through communication.

We encourage our employees to be curious, brave, inspiring, and a force for good. Let’s talk. Come belong at Ketchum!

What We Offer

• Robust benefits program
• Generous time off policies
• Retirement program with company match
• Workplace flexibility
• Business casual dress code
• Workplace and off-site social gatherings
• Professional learning and development opportunities
• Tuition reimbursement
• Paid maternity/paternity leave
• Transit benefits
  

Interested? We’ve got an opportunity for you.