Bel, makers of iconic brands including Babybel, The Laughing Cow, Boursin, Kaukauna, Merkts, Price's and GoGo SqueeZ is a growing global company that values your contributions, strives to create a sense of belonging for everyone and offers career growth and development opportunities, as well as competitive total compensation and meaningful well-being benefits from day one. For All, For Good, our company signature, reflects Bel’s commitment to sustainability and healthier and responsible food for all. Bel Brands USA has been named Chicago's "101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" for 10 years in a row. The company has headquarters in Chicago for our Bel Cheese business and in New York City for GoGo Squeez. Bel operates five manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI, Leitchfield, KY, and Brookings, SD, Nampa, ID, and Traverse City, MI.

Job Description Summary

We are seeking a dynamic and visionary Sr. Director of Integrated Marketing Communications to join our team with responsibilities over Bel’s Cheese and Fruit Business Units. In this pivotal hybrid role, based in Chicago, you will report dually directly to the US Marketing VP of Cheese and the US CMO of GoGoSqueeZ and collaborate with the Brand teams to craft and execute innovative marketing strategies, tactics, and innovations essential for achieving our business growth and organizational goals. The ideal candidate will have very strong and demonstrated brand building and brand activation skills and experience, will have a strong knowledge of the US activation and media ecosystem, and will demonstrate a high level of both strategic and tactical thinking while excelling in an adaptable and unstructured environment. This is a challenging and multi-faceted role, requiring leadership of cross-functional teams, agency partners, and global IMC partners advocating for US needs We seek an individual with exceptional communication and analytical skills, as well as a creative, growth mindset for all aspects of digital, media, and e-commerce.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership:
  • Build and lead the implementation and tracking of Integrated of the Marketing Communication function and strategies across touchpoints to optimize the efficiency and return on investment of Bel US Cheese and Fruit (GoGoSqueeZ) BUs campaigns.
  • Work closely with Bel US Cheese and Fruit (GoGoSqueeZ) local Marketing Teams, Bel Group Global Marketing & IMC teams, and their ecosystem of agencies to drive marketing transformation and deliver breakthrough activation plans in line with the brands’ objectives and brand equity.
• Local Integrated Marketing Support:
  • Partner with brand and commerce teams to deliver efficient activation plans with the optimal touch-point mix.  Ensure plans and execution coordination, and relevance and consistency of messages across touchpoints.
  • Lead Bel Cheese commerce team and for both Cheese and Fruit (GoGoSqueeZ), focus on optimizing in-store and digital tools and drive the latest innovation in commerce / commerce media landscape.
  • Monitor and challenge IMC investments to identify opportunities to unleash A&P potential and foster audience understanding and effective targeting.
• Local Media Investment & Performance Management:
  • Oversee the media investment model for the Cheese and Fruit (GoGoSqueeZ) brands.  Set KPIs and implement tools to monitor and measure the performance and return on investment of these investments.
  • Develop standards and operational plans to implement marketing data, publisher partnerships, and measurements into Bel’s Cheese and Fruit (GoGoSqueeZ) targeting, activation, and advertising.
• Operating Model Management & Capabilities:
  • Lead the function to build synergies between Bel’s Cheese & Fruit businesses under this model.
  • Manage and orchestrate the media & creative agencies ecosystem to ensure effective collaboration and consistent efficient performance.  
  • Coordinate key Bel’s Cheese and Fruit strategic partners including global creative and media agency, shopper and PR (SOW, WOW, workload etc…) to drive integrated communications and expand capabilities as per market needs.
  • In-house agency partner: direct management of the in-housed capabilities (current team of 5) and keep on driving its expansion according to market needs
  • Leverage locally the media global partnerships with key players (META, Tiktok, …).
• Marketing Team Catalyst:

• Lead integrated marketing communication transformation within Bel US Cheese and Fruit (GoGoSqueeZ) across functions.
• Strongly liaise with Bel Global marketing teams to execute global projects in the US and advocate for the US needs
• Elevate  US challenges to Global teams as needed.
• Drive total company marketing and expertise and develop with agency partners training and education on select media/marketing topics that directly impact them (Media Trends, Media Landscape etc.)

Position Requirements:

Minimum education and experience required:

• Bachelor’s degree and/or equivalent experience; MBA preferred.

• 8+ years of experience in Integrated Marketing Communication and delivery of large-scale brand activations across touchpoints.
• Strong background in brand and media strategy & planning, with expertise in the US market.
• Strong, proven FMCG brand-building experience preferred.

Required Capabilities:

• Leadership

• Demonstrated strong leadership skills: Drive and accelerate transformation, Dare to innovate, Unconditional collaboration
• Demonstrate strong agility and resilience to support closely the marketing community.
• Excellent management and communication skills, ability to drive and coach a team in a complex multi-cultural environment.
• Experience with global/international org dynamic a plus

• Business & marketing
  • Excellent knowledge of U.S. brand activation ecosystem (Paid, earned, owned), digital tools and methodologies
  • Paid media management (purchasing and performance optimization), included retail media experience
  • Excellent brand-building skills and strong knowledge of marketing strategy and planning
  • Excellent project management skills
• Data & customer centricity
  • Strong Targeting and Audience planning skills, ability to train, upskill people on precision marketing, meaning able to explain how to use signals, insights to design a consumer targeting strategy and then activate it and follow the impact on brand image/sales with a robust measurement protocol.
  • Data & analytical skills enabling usage and adoption of a holistic dashboard and work on transversal projects such as Customer Data Platform with the ability to work with key stakeholders such as IT/Data scientist/Data engineer

Working Conditions:  Work is performed largely in a hybrid office environment in Chicago.  Hours of work will generally be during regular business hours with at least 40 hours a week.  At times there will be some variation in work hours due to special projects, deadlines and other concerns. Occasional travel may be required.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Total Rewards:

Base Salary Range: $195,000 - $210,000 (depending on experience)

Annual Bonus Target Potential: 28%

PTO days, 410k match, Medical, Dental and Vision coverage available from Day 1, and more

Hybrid work schedule

Bel Brands is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, disability status or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Bel Brands also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on any of these protected categories. It is also Bel Brand's policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws respecting consideration of unemployment status in making hiring decisions.

Bel Brands is committed to recruiting, hiring and promoting people with disabilities and veterans. If you need an accommodation or assistance in using the website, please call 312-462-1500.

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