Manager – Brand Integrated Communications Planning

If you are passionate about brands, love the craft of marketing and are motivated about a purpose that truly sets us apart in our category – banking that is fairer, more rewarding and good for society – then this is a unique opportunity.

There isn’t a more exciting time to be joining Group Customer Communications. We have a critical role to play delivering the group customer and marketing strategy to support the successful integration of Virgin Money. 

You will be a key member of the integrated comms planning team to support the development of our group integrated comms plan, key comms transition briefs and actions.  A group comms plan that enables us to work seamlessly across NBS and Virgin Money through the migration transitions ensuring we are deploying communications optimally to drive the outcomes for customer (and broader stakeholders), brand and the business.

You’ll be collaborating actively with colleagues from communications, NBS and VM to shape the aggregate comms plan working with our comms subject matter experts across the group  - considering all audiences and all channels.

You’ll be helping set the jobs to be done and clear comms briefs ensure tight coordination and coherence in message and channel strategies with our execution leads – to ensure we are delivering against our agreed group customer and marketing strategy. 

Including :

• How we wrap ourselves around customers to ensure driving the optimal comms experience through integration.
• Ensuring we are brand led in how our purpose is at the heart of our comms approach and decisions
• Mitigating reputational risks through the integration as we look at shape and messaging of our holistic comms plan
• Driving a single version of the truth of our group comms plan and deliverables for senior steering.

You will be leading the charge with senior comms leads to steer and drive agreement against our group comms plan.  You will create the artefacts that ease understanding and create visibility of the integration plans and actions holistically to aid exec level engagement, understanding and decision making.

You’ll have brand, communications and planning experience, with strong commercial awareness - who is driven by insight. 

You will have thrived working within matrix teams with proven capabilities to inspire, collaborate and influence across organisations. You bring together the right expertise in both developing the integrated comms plans, and driving commitment and actions against the plans.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, based at either our Swindon or London office. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

You will be part of the team that plan’s and orchestrates all communications, paid, owned and earned, to achieve maximum brand and commercial effect, to do this you will;

• Help define the integration comms jobs to be done working closely with comms leads across Nationwide and Virgin Money.

• Create an integration integrated communications plan that encompasses all audiences and channels – paid advertising, consumer and corporate PR, owned channel activity including website and branch; social and CRM activity – setting the plan to optimally align to our agreed priorities and investment.
• Collaborate with all the planning teams to create a single planning community to ensure all comms activity aligns and reinforces outcomes.
• Create the key integration communication briefs working with Virgin Money - to inspire our communications execution leads – providing clarity on the target outcome, audience and insight – a platform for our comms teams to do their very best work.
• Drive understanding of the end to end customer journey of the integration communications activity - to ensure no dead ends or poor customer experience as part of our planning process – building relationships with teams across the organisation to aid understanding and influence action.
• Lead on the evaluation, working with marketing effectiveness and insights teams, to understand the overall performance of our integrated comms activity and channel performance - to drive continuous improvement.

• Stay close to market and competitor comms activity/performance- to keep an outside in view of the market we are operating in and considerations for our comms planning.

About you

• Experience of supporting the development of  brand comms strategy and comms planning – through analysing and interpreting brand and customer data and insight to inform decision making.  

• Is brand literate and puts brand experience at the centre of their approach when shaping comms plans
• A confident communicator and storyteller who can influence well with proven stakeholder management skills – confidence to manage up and down an organisation. 
• Proactive, collaborative and solution-oriented in approach - with the ability to inspire and engage colleagues. Able to set a path through ambiguity and adapt to change.
• Strong planning & organisational skills and so can manage workloads optimally - in a fast paced environment.
• A high level of attention to detail, accuracy and to be explain in simple, compelling business terms. 

• Curious and focused on continuous improvement– both to drive thinking in role and personal and team development.

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role: 

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind
• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand
• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development
• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%

• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Wellhub – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career

• 25 days holiday, pro rata

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application. 

Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society

We forge our own path at Nationwide.

As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us.

At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society.

We are Purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly Customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

Please note that should you be successful in securing this role the job title on our internal systems will be Marketing & Corporate Affairs Manager.