Brand Comms Manager

Salary up to: Competitive

This is a hybrid role based from our Putney office 3 days a week.

About the role: 

Nando’s is on a journey to Create Lasting Happiness, making a difference to the lives of our People, our Customers and the Communities we work in. The Brand team play a pivotal role in creating meaningful experiences, products and communications that drive customer growth and brand love.  

The Brand Comms Manager is a critical role that is responsible for creating customer focused activity for our world-famous PERi-PERi, keeping us in top spot as the number one restaurant on the high street, most loved by Gen Z, with creative and innovative campaigns. The role will draw inspiration and insight from across the media spectrum looking at our competitors in the hospitality world and beyond.  

This role will be responsible for supporting in development of and executing all earned media plans within the Brand team. The Brand Comms Manager will be someone with deep connections across the media, social and industry partners to help keep us on the forefront of culture. 

Candidate profile:  

You’re an established account manager or equivalent with experience in creating authentic, culturally driven campaigns and activations that deliver results. You understand how to turn data into actionable insight and have a taste for new and emerging trends whilst keeping your feet firmly rooted in our target audience's world. With strong creative sensibilities, you understand the visual aesthetic that pleases our audience and are able to combine it with Nando’s brand cues. 

You have superb instincts for what an audience wants, not just what makes a good campaign, and you are always thinking about new and innovative ways to entertain and connect and convert views into visits. 

You are a natural collaborator and are passionate about working on the businesses vision to stay on the side of youth culture and championing great food and values through all our marketing. 

Overall ambition & key responsibilities:  

The Brand Comms Manager will be passionate about food and culture in equal measure and will be a skilled publicist, UK media expert as well as a creative thinker. They will be at the forefront of communication and media strategy for Nando’s. 

Key responsibilities  

• Support the Brand Comms Lead in the development of a market-leading and industry disrupting Brand Comms Strategy, consulting on earned media and industry best-practice. 

• Act as Earned Media specialist across the restaurant & grocery brand supporting always on comms and running tactical campaigns that drive talkability & trial of product. 

• Working alongside the wider Brand team to help develop and deliver the UK marketing objectives and ultimately the overall Nando’s business objectives. 

• Work with our Insights Team and use internal tools to leverage insight and data to ensure our comms are always relevant and our campaigns are deployed effectively. 

• Monitor social media and press coverage and prepare regular evaluation reports. 

• Be an active member of the in-house social media team including ideation, shoot planning and content creation 

• Support the delivery of the earned media strategy ensuring a joined-up approach across social media, talent, media & community management.  

• Keep a critical view on all consumer comms to maintain a positive brand image and reputation. 

• Acting as Brand Guardian and upholding our editorial framework, developing youth relevant comms that give Nando’s a voice 

• Management of agency partners and creative collaborators pushing for creative excellence 

• Work to deliver our brand campaigns as part of a fully integrated Comms team, connecting with Paid and Owned channel strategies. 

• Running the press office inclusive of; responding to journalists, writing press releases, attend press conferences or brand events, meet journalists and foster good relations with the media and occasionally be on call to deal with urgent media enquiries during evenings or weekends. 

This summarises the main responsibilities of the role but there may be other reasonable requests made, and other responsibilities included from time to time specifically as the role matures and develops.  

Key stakeholders:  

• Brand Comms Lead 

• Campaigns Lead 

• Head of Brand  

• Brand Team including Culture Marketing, Campaigns, Grocery, Food Brand  

• Regional Marketing Team 

• Multiple External Creative & Media Agencies 

The candidate should possess/be:  

•
4+ years’ experience within a Brand Communications or Public Relations role

•
In-house or agency experience working on relevant Food, Youth Culture or Music clients  

•
Passion for social, media and publicity – helping the team deliver on their objectives and drive stand out media coverage for all campaigns  

•
Be able to work independently and with teams, using internal resources to initiate insights and execute solely across channels

•
Actively stay at the forefront of trends and changing landscape, putting these into practice as well as upskilling the team

•
Naturally calm under pressure, able to distinguish the critical from the chaos and lead a team of internal peers and external partners with sleeves rolled up

Our candidate should be looking for: 

• A self-motivating, starter finisher.  

• An opportunity to help grow a meaningful and much-loved brand in a fast-paced, fast-growth business. 

• A culture with strong purpose & values, intent on contributing to and driving positive cultural and societal change.  

• An environment which is relaxed and informal, whilst highly driven and ambitious. 

• An opportunity to shape the Marketing and Comms strategy of one of the UKs most iconic brands  

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