Associate Director, Global Media Relations

DJE Holdings; London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A global communications firm in London is seeking a Global Media Relations Associate Director. This role involves leading media relations strategies for clients in the healthcare sector, managing media outreach, and providing guidance to junior staff. Candidates should have at least 10 years of experience and a proven track record in media relations for the pharmaceutical industry. A hybrid work model is offered, alongside generous benefits including competitive annual leave and health services.

Benefits

Competitive Annual Holiday

Hybrid working policy

Income protection and life insurance

Private medical insurance

Continuous professional development

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years in earned media work, preferably in healthcare communications.
• Experience with global media contacts and executive client counseling.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead client relationships in media relations.
• Manage multiple media outreach projects across various platforms.

Skills

Excellent storytelling skills

Strong media relationships

Leadership capabilities

Strategic media planning

Knowledge of healthcare communications

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related field

10+ years in media relations

Job description

Hybrid - 3 days per week in office

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Edelman is a voice synonymous with trust, reimagining a future where the currency of communication is action. Our culture thrives on three promises: boldness is possibility, empathy is progress, and curiosity is momentum.

At Edelman, we understand diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) transform our colleagues, our company, our clients, and our communities. We are in relentless pursuit of an equitable and inspiring workplace that is respectful of all, reflects and represents the world in which we live, and fosters trust, collaboration and belonging.

Job Purpose

A Global Media Relations Associate Director develops and leads client relationships, exhibiting best practice in client management. They counsel clients on communications marketing strategy and drive every aspect of creating and implementing innovative communications marketing programmes. They contribute to the development of plans and oversee global media campaigns. This person will start to work as a strong leader, working as part of the Health Brands senior leadership team to support the aims of the department/team.

Key Accountabilities - Client Management

• Demonstrate deep understanding of media relations at a local and global level, including creating and driving both traditional, social, and digital multi-channel media outreach plans and goals; manage multiple projects for multiple clients from concept to completion.
• Develop and execute strategic earned media programmes as an industry practitioner with a global or ex-US market lens.
• Identify potential story ideas for clients and turn these into successful pitches to capture the interest of journalists, ultimately resulting in media coverage.
• Assess and understand complex situations and quickly distill the information for both the client and media.
• Manage media programmes for product launches, corporate purpose initiatives, regulatory milestone events, executive visibility programs, issues-related media events, desk-side briefings, contributed content (op-eds, bylines, etc.), involving junior team members as appropriate.
• Showcase sophisticated understanding of how analytics can/should apply in developing earned media strategies and tactical execution.
• Understand Edelman IP and evaluate opportunities to be used to support clients. Be able to determine when to work with the Planning Team or/and Edelman Intelligence to identify research-based insights for specific projects.
• Serve as client’s lead earned media contact as needed, address client issues thoughtfully and effectively.
• Track brand milestones / announcements while taking into account the client’s broader and longer-term global enterprise goals.
• Represent the earned media/earned-centric storytelling point of view within an integrated agency team (e.g., ad/creative agencies, digital agencies) to ensure success across campaigns.
• Contribute to business growth through introducing clients to new capabilities, building network of industry contacts and participating in relevant professional organizations.

Team Management

• Provide strategic counsel, guidance and leadership to staff, coaching entry and mid-level talent on media pitching skills and ensuring the team's success by managing work quality and productivity levels.
• Contribute to business growth through introducing clients to new capabilities, building network of industry contacts and participating in relevant professional organizations.
• Contribute to a positive team environment and lead by example, overseeing the work of more junior staff to ensure quality. Remain positive and optimistic with your clients and teams, encouraging a happy and motivated work atmosphere.
• Coach staff in a consistent, fair, and sustained manner. Empower staff to succeed without micromanagement, while positioning yourself as the go-to person for junior team members to come to with questions.

Brand and Business Building

• Keep abreast of industry and competitor news related to clients.
• High awareness of current events, emerging issues and, if needed, regulatory processes.
• Broad understanding of all facets of media relations and marketing communications, and a strong background in pitching and winning and growing new business.

Experience

• At least 10 years in earned media work. preferably in the healthcare communications sector working with pharmaceutical industry.
• Working with high level media contacts among a variety of reporters, editors, producers, bloggers, etc. across the global media landscape.
• Counseling executive clients across multiple workstreams on media interactions.
• Managing product launches, milestone announcements, media events, participating in desk-side briefings, etc.

Skills

• Expert in knowledge of and relationships with legacy and emerging national and global TV, radio, print, wires, and online media, as well as the interplay of social media/earned media outcomes.
• Excellent storytelling skills and provide sound media counsel with all levels of client contacts and stakeholders.
• Excellent track record of developing and executing profitable communications campaigns that meet and exceed client benchmarks and KPIs. Understanding of and relationships with new media: newsletters, podcasts
• Proven management and leadership skills as well as a proven track record of executing large-scale campaigns at the strategic and tactical level.
• Ability to write strategic media plans and a variety of media materials.

Benefits

Our benefits and policies are designed to ensure our employees feel comfortable, inspired, and equipped to thrive and do their best work. We offer a wide range of benefits across health, family, community, finance, and time away including:

Competitive Annual Holiday plus an additional day's holiday for your birthday and 3 days over the festive season.

Flexible working - Hybrid working policy and 30 days' work from anywhere worldwide!

Financial Wellbeing - Pension plan, income protection, and life insurance at 4x annual salary.

Building a Family - Whether it is maternity leave, adoptive leave or shared parental leave, take up to five months on full company pay. We also celebrate the arrival of your child or wedding day by offering a company child & wedding gift. In addition, Edelman partners with Peppy, a specialist healthcare and wellbeing service that provides all employees with access to expert pregnancy and parenthood, menopause, and fertility support.

Health and Wellbeing – Access to Private Medical Insurance, Digital GP and wellbeing program, Cycle to Work Scheme, subsidised corporate gym membership, a Quit Smoking Scheme, Annual flu vaccinations and 24/7 access to trained professionals in relation to a range of issues, in absolute confidence.

Personal and Professional Development - Clear progression routes and continuous training/professional development via Edelman Learning Institute

Community – Get to know your colleagues and unwind at our weekly staff get together. We also encourage everyone to take part in our Citizenship Activities where you can spend a day each year helping a charitable cause, paid for by us.

Our Values

Core to our culture are our values, which guide our behavior, support a client-centric approach, influence the way we work with each other, our clients, and the community, and inspire great work.

The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence: Bringing the best of ourselves and partners to our clients.

The Freedom to be Constantly Curious: Tenacious, flexible, and thorough approach that drives creativity and growth for clients and ourselves.

The Courage to do the Right Thing: Trusted and resilient partner, committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce, that prioritizes the wellbeing of ourselves and our colleagues.

The Commitment to Positively Impact Society: Performing our work with an environmental conscience, and a sense of tolerance, fairness, and equality.

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We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t perfectly align with every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.