Head of Awards Engagement

at  Ascential

We’re looking for a Head of Awards Engagement to join our team in London as part of our Awards function.
Your Team: You will be working closely with Product Development, Marketing, and Content teams, you’ll leverage insights and knowledge to deliver a brand communication strategy that drives sustainable growth. You’ll also deputise for the Global Director of Awards, making key decisions to uphold our standards and represent the Awards globally, acting as a brand ambassador to strengthen visibility and industry influence.
Your Role: You will work closely with the Global Director of Awards to inspire and support our customers entering the Awards, by ensuring exceptional customer support, world-class relationship management and continuous innovation of the overall customer experience.
You will play a key role in executing the strategic vision for Awards by transforming high-level objectives into actionable engagement plans. You’ll define essential engagement elements that align with our long-term goals, drive initiatives that inspire participation and build meaningful relationships with entrants. You’ll also lead best practices for customer engagement and experience across all Awards programs, ensuring a consistent and impactful experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Developing and owning the end-to-end strategy for Awards engagement, ensuring alignment of marketing and content strategies with engagement activities to foster a compelling entrant experience
• Setting annual and event-specific objectives for Awards engagement, collaborating with the Awards Engagement Manager to implement actionable plans that drive participation and strengthen relationships with entrants
• Establishing clear KPIs based on the overarching Awards strategy, providing timely reporting to monitor progress and identify areas for improvement in engagement initiatives
• Managing and developing a high-performing team, setting clear expectations, supporting individual growth plans and fostering skill-building opportunities that align with team and organisational goals
• Creating tailored engagement approaches for specific customer groups, ensuring that strategies are inclusive and resonate with diverse audiences while enhancing overall participation
• Partnering with relevant teams to deliver comprehensive marketing and content plans for the Awards, facilitating cross-functional collaboration to align with broader business goals
• Acting as an ambassador for Awards, speaking and representing our neutral stance at events and in communications to uphold brand integrity and enhance visibility within the industry

Your Experience

• Strategic planner: skilled in developing and evaluating strategic plans, with the ability to implement and assess efficiency and alignment with long-term objectives
• Flexible leader: adaptable and results-focused, able to assess effectiveness, refine approaches, and report on progress
• Data-led decision maker: adept at analysing data and finding insights that inform strategy
• Insights driven: committed to understanding customer needs, building feedback into constant improvement
• Talent developer: proven experience in recognizing growth potential, coaching, and supporting skill development to build a high-performing team
• Detailed oriented: capable of managing details meticulously while keeping broader goals in view
• Engaging ambassador: exceptional presentation and facilitation skills, confidently representing the brand with enthusiasm
• Relationship builder: skilled at establishing and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders at all organisational levels
• Industry-aware: understanding of the branded communications landscape, with a proactive drive to deepen knowledge of relevant sectors and trends

If you don’t meet every single requirement, we’d still encourage you to apply. At LIONS, we are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role we would still like you to apply.
Who are we?
The LIONS brand is probably most synonymous with Cannes Lions, The International Festival of Creativity, the definitive meeting place for the global creative communications and advertising community. It’s five days of inspiration, aspiration, unlimited magic and potential. The Festival has been championing creative excellence since 1954 with the goal of providing a global destination and the definitive benchmark for creativity that drives progress.
LIONS is going through an exciting time as it’s recently repositioned as The Home of Creativity, supporting those in the business of creativity at every step of their journeys with an extended portfolio of new advisory, learning and intelligence services. Our purpose is to drive progress through creativity for an incredibly diverse and talented global creative community.
You will join a team of change makers. The team’s purpose is to champion change to create the most powerful global creative community and drive growth for the brand.
LIONS is part of Ascential. Ascential takes the world’s leading brands to the heart of what’s next for their industries. We do this through our events, intelligence products and advisory services. Our 700+ people serve a global customer base from more than 100 countries in the large and growing Marketing and Financial Technology sectors. Ascential is part of the Informa Group.
Why Choose Us?
Two divisions. Three continents. One great culture - we want working for Ascential to be the best career move you’ve ever made.
Ascential is a people-powered company, and we’re committed to supporting
diversity, equity and inclusion
. We publish an annual DEI Report, setting out our goals and progress. We invest in Employee Groups including Able to Thrive, Ascential Pride, Black in Business and Empower Women’s Network. And our inclusive recruitment practices and early talent programmes help us to bring curious, passionate people from every walk of life into our team.
We’re committed to ensuring that the impact of our business on our environment - and the communities we operate in - is a positive one. That means making sure that each event we run is the most sustainable it’s ever been. We also default all of our pension plans to sustainable options, so that our people’s savings are invested in ways that help rather than hinder our planet.
Helping people to connect and drive progress isn’t a business-only goal. We know that the world is a better place when we lead with heart, so we support charitable causes that make a difference. We provide opportunities to give back through Volunteer Days and our charity partnership with Media Trust.
We value output, not hours. Most of our roles ask for 1-2 days a week in your nearest office. But if that’s not possible for you, let’s talk. Flexible work conversations are actively encouraged here.

Only you know what’s most important to you. That’s why we offer a benefits and wellbeing package that you can tailor to your needs. Some of these include:

• 25 days of holiday per year - with an option to buy/ sell upto 5 days
• Pension, Life Assurance and Income Protection
• Access to either our commission, bonus or profit share schemes, dependent on the role
• Flexible benefits platform with options including Private Medical, Dental Insurance, Critical Illness and the Ascential Shares Scheme
• Employee assistance programme, season ticket loans and cycle to work scheme
• Volunteering opportunities and charitable giving options
• Learning and development opportunities, to encourage and empower everyone to grow

We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable during the process, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you.
If we inspire you, why not join and inspire us? Find out
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• Developing and owning the end-to-end strategy for Awards engagement, ensuring alignment of marketing and content strategies with engagement activities to foster a compelling entrant experience
• Setting annual and event-specific objectives for Awards engagement, collaborating with the Awards Engagement Manager to implement actionable plans that drive participation and strengthen relationships with entrants
• Establishing clear KPIs based on the overarching Awards strategy, providing timely reporting to monitor progress and identify areas for improvement in engagement initiatives
• Managing and developing a high-performing team, setting clear expectations, supporting individual growth plans and fostering skill-building opportunities that align with team and organisational goals
• Creating tailored engagement approaches for specific customer groups, ensuring that strategies are inclusive and resonate with diverse audiences while enhancing overall participation
• Partnering with relevant teams to deliver comprehensive marketing and content plans for the Awards, facilitating cross-functional collaboration to align with broader business goals
• Acting as an ambassador for Awards, speaking and representing our neutral stance at events and in communications to uphold brand integrity and enhance visibility within the industr