MARKETING CO-ORDINATOR
The Grafton Shopping Centre, Cambridge
July 2011

JOB DESCRIPTION

Working in consumer marketing this job is perfect for an enthusiastic, hardworking and articulate marketeer with a love of shopping!

Employed by Messages Public Relations but working as part of the Centre Management team.

Further information on the company and our client look at
www.graftoncentre.co.uk

Messages PR are a specialist shopping centre promotions company based in Devon. We have worked on the Grafton marketing account for 12 years organising promotions with the supporting media liaison. In 2009 our role was broadened to encompass the Public Relations role and Tenant Liaison aspects of the marketing function. There is also considerable scope to generate and monitor on-site activities and retailer driven promotions and for this reason a new full time role of Marketing Co-ordinator was created.

This role has been carried out for the last year by Jasmine Barnes who is leaving in July 2011 to take up a graduate placement at a London agency.

The Role
This is split between marketing duties undertaken at the instruction of Messages PR and Centre Management jobs carried out for the Centre Director, Michael Wiseman and his team.

Working Days / Hours
The working week will vary depending on the level of promotions taking part at any particular time but the average working week will be the equivalent of 4 days. Any additional hours would need to be cleared by Messages PR.
A typical week would be as follows
Three weekdays and one day at the weekend (Saturday or Sunday) depending on what events are being run.
Days covered will however be varied to match the requirements and reflect specific events. The Modelsearch and Fashion Show for instance involves 10 consecutive days work during the Autumn Half Term period.
The working week will include some Bank Holidays, if events are scheduled, with the exception of Easter Sunday and Christmas as well as at least 24 Saturdays or Sundays each year.

Holidays
There are 4 weeks paid holiday per year.

Location - The job is based at
The Grafton Shopping Centre
46 Grafton Centre
Cambridge CB1 1PS
Tel: 01223 316201

There is dedicated office space for this job but we expect 70% of the work to be done in the malls, in the stores or in the local community. This is not a desk job.

Messages PR
You will be expected to spend at least one week, every six months at Messages PR Head Office in Devon. Travel will be booked for you and you will stay with the family of Michael Knowles, Managing Director.

The Salary
Paid monthly. Subject to experience and qualifications.

The Job
The job encompasses a variety of regular and simple jobs but also offers a great opportunity for imagination and initiative.
It is important to stress however that this is a hands-on role and the bulk of the workload is in the execution and implementation of promotions.
Deadlines must be met, targets matched and results measured.

Public Relations / Advertising / Digital Marketing
Liaising with retailers to source offers and discounts.
Content managing The Grafton centre’s website and Facebook page.
Writing press releases and sending them out to relevant media.
Putting up posters and distribute leaflets
Maintaining regular contact with media
Writing copy for advertising and newsletters
Keeping and evaluating press cuttings
Checking advertising copy and maintaining schedules
Booking photographers/models/groups for events

Promotion / Income generation
Working, organising and running events including a Dance event, Christmas Launch, Modelsearch and Fashion Shows.
Running the Children’s club on the last Sunday of each month.
Collecting research and generating data-base contacts for e-mail-outs.
Promoting events in the malls
Assisting in setting up income generating events and promotions and commercial lettings.
Promoting the Grafton Gift Card

External Affairs
Co-ordinating community and charity events
Ensuring that the Grafton pages are linked from other sites.
Liaising with City Centre Marketing and Park and Ride

Administration / Retail Liaison
Maintain retail trading index
Assist Centre Management team
Update tenants packs
Working with Customer Information Desk team and staffing when required
Ensuring Marketing costs are kept within the budget.
Booking charity events
Writing the monthly newsletter to retailers

APPLICATION

Mike Tierney
Messages PR
The Church House
Lustleigh
Devon TQ13 9TJ

Tel: 01647 277588
miket@messagespr.co.uk

Case Studies
The following case studies have been prepared by Jasmine Barnes to give a flavour of the job.

Retailer involvement

The Fashion and Beauty Weekend in association with Cambridge News- March 2011

This year was the first time the fashion and beauty weekend took place and the idea was to put on fashion shows/ events and give shoppers special retailer discounts for one weekend only. The initial planning of the event was to source these offers. This involved writing to the retailers and going round to see them to explain the concept of the event and to see if they could offer a discount to make The Grafton’s offers for this weekend as strong as possible. The offers then had to be sent to Cambridge News, detailing the shops and the offers put on very specifically for their advertising of the event. I worked closely with Cambridge News on the advertising that went into the papers, writing copy for The Grafton’s involvement and checking that the offers were correct. The second stage of this event was the planning of the activities to take place in Great Court. We decided to set up a stage in Great court and planned for activities to take place on the stage throughout the weekend. With a community feel, we looked for local talent to do some fun fashion activities. The Friday was Comic Relief and we decided to do a fashion show involving local schools. I asked schools around Cambridgeshire to choreograph fun routines to perform in a fashion show, borrowing clothes from our retailers. I had to ring up/ email various schools, talk to teachers about the concept of the event, assign shops to the teams and book times for fittings for each school to come in prior to the event. On the day, I had to co-ordinate 5 teams of students, supervising them in their chosen store and as they performed the 3 shows on the Friday morning. I then had to make sure all of the clothes were in good condition and returned to the stores.

For the afternoon, I organised a red fashion show for Comic Relief using clothes from our retailers and many of the retail staff to model. I organised for Velvet magazine to come down on this day and they did a double page spread on this fashion show in their April edition.

On Saturday, we had a style challenge for people interested in fashion, “Look £1,000,000 on the budget of £100”. We found potential stylists to come in using the Star Now website and past Modelsearch contestants. We also advertised this competition on the website and in the Cambridge News advertising. The concept was that we would get our models to show the 5 best looks of Spring 2011, our wannabe stylists would be assigned a store and a look and they then had an hour to create that look on a budget of £100. This involved looking at the fashions in the stores to find the 5 looks and to work out which store was strongest for each look. I had to liaise with the retailers to discuss borrowing clothes and co-ordinate fittings for the models. I took the clothes on the day on a dress rail, writing every item borrowed from stores down, and prepped the models who would be showcasing the looks. We then assigned the wannabe stylists a look and I helped them with ideas for their outfit. Once the competition was over, I sorted out prizes and took the clothes back to the stores, checking with the store managers that everything was returned and in good condition.

On Saturday we had a La Senza fashion show. This was almost entirely run by the La Senza staff themselves. I helped them with music and providing models. I also helped out with the show on the day.

On Saturday afternoon, Anglia Ruskin fashion shows took place. I co-ordinated these with the senior fashion lecturer, Wendy Moody and again helped with the music but these ran very smoothly. I booked our professional photographer for Saturday so we had good pictures for the press and other promotional materials.

On Sunday, Debenhams and Jemporium Vintage had their own fashion shows and Yours had a fashion workshop. I encouraged the retailers as much as possible to participate further than just offering a discount and the ones that co-ordinated fashion shows or came out into Great Court with a pop-up stall really benefited either by increase in sales or increased exposure. I co-ordinated the Debenhams show with the personal shopper from Debenhams, sourcing models from past Modelsearch contestants, choosing clothes, devising a running order and co-ordinating fittings for models. I also sourced models and co-ordinated fittings for the Jemporium vintage show and asked a student photographer that works closely with the store to display her vintage shots on the stage to give more of a Vintage feel.

We then had the winners of the school style challenge perform again and the Yours fashion fix. Yours asked their own customers and staff to model and I helped them plan their Catwalk routine. They held the fashion fix on both Saturday and Sunday and the event was a great success for the store.

Finally we held a photography competition for local photographers. We asked them to come to the event and submit their best pictures of the activities and models during the weekend. We asked the editor of Style magazine to judge the competition and the winning photograph went into Style. The winner also received £100.

This event did take on a new format in terms of retailer involvement. It was important to me to promote the discounts but also promote the products of stores by bringing them out into the centre and allowing them to run their own activities. It worked really well and I think more retailers would be on board next year after watching how the event helped the stores, which put a lot of effort in.

Post the event, I sent out press releases and photos to the press. I sent photos to the magazines and newspapers, co-ordinated a photoshoot for our winning photographer to receive their prize with Style magazine and updated our website with news of the event. I then spoke to the stores to see if the weekend helped their sales or not and I had a review meeting with Cambridge News for how to tackle the event better next year.

Editorial: We had a double page spread in Velvet magazine, were featured on a double-page spread in Style magazine, another smaller entry in May’s Style magazine, full page in Cambridge News post the event and many entries prior to the event in the paper and online, had a piece on Cambridge First’s website, were featured on BBC Radio Cambridge and Peterborough and Cambridge 105fm.

Media liaison

I work closely with the media on promoting Grafton events and retailers. I look at features lists for magazines and see where Grafton events/ retailers could be promoted. I recently linked up with Explorer on a May ball feature and arranged for Debenhams to give a member of the Explorer team a personal shopping experience and makeover. The team came in and we had 2 double page spreads in the June edition of Explorer covering the experience. I work with the media closely on getting editorial for events and getting the media to send journalists/ photographers down to events. This involves being very organised and planning ahead of time to book in photographers at weekends etc. I send out press releases and photos to relevant media prior to and post an event.

Children’s Club

On the last Sunday of every month, I run The Grafton’s children’s club. I liaise with Charmain at Messages who books an entertainer and sends me the materials for the craft. I organise staffing with Mike T prior to the event, send out press releases to relevant media, check stock and source retailer discounts for children’s club members.

Duties on the day:
Recruit new members and ask parents to fill out membership forms, take publicity shots and fill out parental consent forms, organise the staff to help children with crafts, one member of staff to dress up as Gordon the gorilla and one member of help the person in the costume (as vision is limited). I encourage the staff to promote retailer offers, source prizes for competitions (in the past I have set up contra-deals with the Corn Exchange and worked closely with certain retailers such as Millie’s Cookies and Vue cinema). We then help put away tables, chairs etc. (stored in the gymboree) and clean up after 4pm when the children have left.

Post the club:
I send photos to the press if a photographer is not at the event, post the membership forms to Charmain and send photos to Charmain with parental consent forms. I update the website and the easiest way of letting parents see the pictures is to do a gallery online (Messages can help with this). I also check stock and let Charmain know if we need any extra stationery/ giveaways for the next club.