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PR & Communications Director
Manhattan, NY, US (Hybrid)
Description
PR & Communications Director
Who We Are:
We are a fiercely entrepreneurial ad agency that blends creativity and performance to build great brands. We call this approach Soul + Science. With offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Seattle, we serve as collaborative business partners to some of the world’s best brands including Jose Cuervo, Alaska Airlines, Charles Schwab and Harmless Harvest, among others.
Being a Mekanista requires a rare combination of being a weird, fearless and wonderful person who enjoys birthday cakes, well-behaved dogs, and shared sensibility of respect and not taking ourselves too seriously.
Mekanism has been named to Ad Age’s A-List and twice to their Best Places to Work list. Most recently, Mekanism was named Independent Agency of the Year by The Drum and a Top 10 Most Effective Independent Agency in the US by the Effie Index. We have been profiled by The New York Times, Fast Company and ABC’s Nightline. Our campaign methodologies are studied by Harvard Business School.
The Role:
Mekanism is looking for an experienced, highly-strategic, creative communications professional that will play an integral role in developing, driving and managing external communications, including public relations and journalist relationships, speaking opportunities, and external events. Additionally, the Marketing & Communications Director will manage internal communications such as special events, internal writing assignments and presentations.
Responsibilities:
Include but are not limited to:
- Agency Promotion: Lead the development and execution of a communications plan that aligns with the agency’s strategic vision and business development goals to increase Mekanism’s presence and visibility across the industry.
- Vision: Stay on top of and provide strong points of view on media opportunities, industry events, the competitive landscape, and reputational developments.
- Marketing Communications Calendar: Oversee the development and maintenance of a marketing communications calendar, providing a comprehensive view into content, events, campaign launches, and internal communications initiatives.
- Online Presence Management: Work with our integrated team to update and maintain the agency's digital presence, including website, social, and email.
- PR Relationships: Build and nurture relationships with journalists from diverse news outlets across trade press and key business/consumer publications.
- PR Lead: Find and lead the strategic planning, development, and active pitching of all local and national press opportunities for agency campaign launches, agency news and initiatives (new account wins, new hires, campaign successes, leadership profiles, opinion pieces, etc.).
- Work across departments and brand teams to stay abreast of upcoming work, organize assets and develop content.
- Prep senior management for press opportunities and speaking events, including ensuring they have up-to-date bios and headshots
- PR Opportunity Finder:
- Partner with Account Service to make our work and our clients famous by securing trade press, joint speaking engagements, awards, etc.
- Proactively identify real-time press opportunities in relevant outlets—and moments to join in social conversations.
- Awards Strategy: Lead the development of a thoughtful agency awards strategy, establishing a strong internal process and criteria for determining work to be submitted, award show entries and categories, utilizing key expertise on what makes a winning submission and training internal teams on how to deliver on that.
- Awards Management: Successfully manage internal and external-facing workflows for the development of submissions for the industry’s most notable accolades across creative awards, people awards, and agency awards, including management of awards budget.
- Case Study Owner: Spearhead the development of compelling Mekanism case study materials for awards and new business purposes.
- Thought leadership: Help concept, plan, and execute ownable thought leadership output/content initiatives for the agency.
- Key events director – Lead the planning of Mekanism’s presence at key industry conferences and events, as well as internal annual agency Summit.
Qualifications:
- 7+ years of relevant corporate communications and/or marketing experience, agency experience preferred.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills required.
- Highly organized with the ability to meet deadlines, prioritize, multitask, and work autonomously.
- Strategic thinker with strong problem-solving abilities.
- Proficiency with PR management software, CRM systems, and social media management tools.
- Commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace and external communications.
- Production experience is a plus.
- Passion for the advertising industry, marketing, and communications is a must.
Salary: 100,000 - 120,000
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