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Position Title:Reports to:Work Schedule:Status:Director of MarketingPresident & CEOFull-timeExemptOrganizational Summary:The North Carolina Theatre (NCT) has been serving its Triangle-region community through professionaltheatre programs for nearly four decades.NCT enriches lives by providing outstanding theatre productions, bold artistic training, and inclusivecommunity engagement programs. As North Carolina’s largest professional producing theatre company,NCT advances the art form, educates students, and inspires audiences and artists. Its pillars areexcellence, equity, and humanity for all.Programs employed to meet its mission include: mainstage musicals and plays of the highest qualityfeaturing a diverse blend of the best of Broadway and local talent; and creative engagement and educationprograms, through Conservatory training, in-school programs, audience enrichment programs, andcommunity partnerships.Position Summary:Reporting to the President & CEO (with oversight by the Producing Artistic Director on elements such asbrand and look/feel/messaging on programming), the Director of Marketing leads the marketing efforts ofNCT. The Director grows new audiences while strengthening relationships with current patrons; supportsall earned revenue streams including tickets, tuition and sponsorship; and elevates the NCT brand.The successful director is an adept ADVANCE PLANNER, PROJECT MANAGER, andCOMMUNICATOR. The Director takes time to collaboratively build plans that include typical elementssuch as deadlines, desired outcomes/intentions, and tasks assignments.Position Responsibilities:The Director will be adept at “rolling up their sleeves” to get the work done. At NCT managers “lead byexample” and learn the tasks of the team such that all feel supported, understood, and challenged at NCT.This does not include extraordinary delegation – this is a hands-on position that works hard alongsidestaff to accomplish goals (this behavior is modelled in the senior leaders of NCT, where visible hands-onwork is done in the service of goals).Direct responsibilities include:1
Devising, administering and reporting on an annual marketing budget of approximately 500,000to support projected earned revenues of approximately 2,500,000.Drafting and maintaining a full advertising calendar for NCT.Maintaining institutional brand strategies and solutions (working directly with the CEO andProducing Artistic Director on these evolving efforts).Ensuring quality written and numeric information is formulated into management reports.Directly planning and administering all paid media.Creating and managing partnerships for in-kind trades in media.Directly creating or collaborating on eblast and direct mail tactics.Overseeing graphic design (and managing relationship with ad agency who provide graphicdesign and brand work) and directly administering activation of all digital and print materials.Overseeing earned media, social media, and PR calendar and activation.Overseeing website and digital media efforts – including continued improvements foraccessibility.Overseeing execution on all design and activation of all digital and print materials.Overseeing ticketing and patron services.Overseeing pricing strategies and sales tactics to drive revenues.Championing pipeline activation that evolves one-time buyers into donor/subscribers.Steadfastly deepening audience diversity through grassroots or niche marketing includingensuring an NCT presence at local festivals and community gatherings.Attending NCT shows and being on hand at performances, helping to ensure positive on-sitebranding, customer flow, and experience.Driving a customer service culture for a loyal and energized NCT theatre community.Serving as a member of the City of Raleigh’s Learning Community for accessibility.This position is the key liaison to the venue’s front-of-house and marketing staff and leads across-functional NCT team on advance planning of logistics of front-of-house.As noted, this position liaises with the Producing Artistic Director frequently on creative andcommunications strategies for all productions. As in most arts organizations, artistic leadership isultimately responsible for upholding NCT’s artistic reputation, and as such has much at stake in how itsartistry is expressed.Immediate duties include: Championing audience diversity through investigating, partnering, learning, and piloting ideas togrow an audience for NCT that reflects the demography of North Carolina.Developing creative partnerships and opportunities to increase brand visibility and awareness forNCT in the Raleigh market.Leading marketing strategy for NCT across all departments, creating brand guidelines and acohesive story that connects the dots of a multi-faceted organization.Working with staff in developing strong earned media relationships.Energizing the community through continuous storytelling about NCT.Integrating some new marketing practices into NCT’s portfolio including texting, geofencing, andmore.Keeping all stakeholders informed of NCT activity. Creating regular reports for CEO and boardreview, and devising and delivering on regular communications strategies with other staffmembers.Developing excellent supportive relationships with other NCT team members, as well as keyexternal stakeholders.2
Characteristics of the Director of Marketing: Has passion for the mission of NCT with clearly demonstrated commitment to DE&I.Possesses high professional standards.Possesses leadership qualities such as emotional intelligence, self-awareness, self-regulation,motivation, empathy and social skills.Has demonstrable excellence in marketing and communications planning, forecasting, data-basedanalysis and execution across all media platforms, with experience and wisdom surroundingsmart course corrections in response to the market.Experience in marketing live arts/entertainment preferred.Strong written and oral communication skills. This skill is often needed in ensuring qualitymessaging in advertising, communications and also fundraising items such as in elements ofgrants.Excellent and contemporary taste in graphic design informed by the theatre industry.Strong ability to make decisions with confidence while also leading a team successfully.Ability to understand NCT’s business model, and have a macro view of the finances, drivers andbottlenecks relating to marketing, vendors, artistry, etc.A hands-on manager of both employees and contractors.Have a results-oriented nature, with the ability to set and meet goals.Willingness to take direction from a senior leader, and also provide direction to a team.The capacity to resolve different points of view constructively and bring cohesion to a wide arrayof stakeholders while interacting with them in a positive manner, treating them fairly, andlistening carefully to what others have to say.Effective team builder and team player with the ability to lead by example and motivate a highperforming staff through collaboration and positive interaction.The Director is adept at balancing authoritative management (identifying a problem and informing staff ofa solution) with adaptive leadership (providing staff with information on a problem and working withthem to discern how to solve). At NCT during this dynamic time we have learned BOTH of these stylesare necessary in different scenarios and must be carefully balanced such that the team remains motivatedand satisfied while the work is planned well in advance and is completed in a timely manner.Position Physical Requirements:This position requires use of computers which will require frequent stretching and movement to ease anydiscomfort. This position also does administrative work like filing, which may require bending, leaning,and kneeling. This position handles paper documentation, which may require lifting up to 30 pounds.Medical and disability accommodations will be made wherever possible.Qualifications:The preferred candidate will have at least ten years of increasingly responsible and successful experiencein marketing with a proven track record in audience retention and development. Preference will be givento candidates with strong advertising and sales management, patron loyalty, ticketing, and audiencedevelopment experience in live entertainment/arts. Working knowledge of Ticket Master a plus;experience with live performance ticketing software is preferred.3
The Marketing and Sales DepartmentThe Director of Marketing leads the Marketing and Sales Department. The department, its staff andcontractors manages and upholds: a clear and consistent NCT institutional brand; andincreases in sales measured in revenue, number of patrons/students, and patron diversity.This department represents a successful partnership between marketing, public relations, andticketing/patron services. Staff/contractors include:Communications:Communications and PRManagerPhotographers/VideoPlaybill ContractorMarketing:Director of MarketingAdvertising AgencyTicketing and PatronServices:Ticketing and SalesOperations ManagerPatron Relations ManagerTicketing Contractors/StaffThe Marketing and Sales Department connects with and provides marketing, communications, patroncaretaking, and ticketing solutions for other elements at NCT beyond mainstage including Conservatory,fundraising, production, and mission/identity.Collaborative Responsibilities:NCT hopes to foster consensus-building on many, but not all, decisions, and utilizes job descriptions,check-ins, task calendars, cross-functional teams, and meetings to enhance communication andunderstanding. Specific collaborations for marketing, communications, and ticketing staff include: New Patron Acquisition. This includes earned and paid media and communications.Pipeline and Patron Management. This includes e-blast offers, mailings, discounts, group salesoffers, and more to current and prior customers, and utilizing data to devise market-driven salesprojections, pricing, and seat inventory tactics to grow ticket sales through eblasts, patronstrategies, subscription planning and execution, and other patron service-related elements.4
Tuition Sales: In collaboration with the Conservatory team and CLEAN, this department willhelp attract and retain students for Conservatory programs, assisting in attaining both studenttuition but also acquiring school residency contracts.Artistic/Education Identity: In collaboration with the Production/Artistic Department and theConservatory the Marketing, this department will tell the compelling story of NCT’s artisticidentity, its education programs, artists, students and overall NCT vision.Community Engagement: In collaboration with the Conservatory and other departments thisdepartment will contribute to NCT’s growing Community Engagement programming focused onmutual benefit - benefiting marginalized communities through access and inclusion andbenefitting NCT through increased investment by these communities in NCT.Specific Responsibilities of the Marketing unit of the Marketing and Sales Department:1) Leading all marketing efforts to generate revenue and increase patronage. This includes:a. communicating a clear and consistent NCT institutional brand.b. devising, reporting on, activating and monitoring distinct strategies to increase salesmeasured in earned revenue, number of patrons, and patron diversity. These include:i. Paid media and advertising.ii. Sales eblasts and direct mail to NCT’s various constituents.iii. Niche marketing which incorporates all of the above but also includes grassrootsstrategies such as managing tables at local events/festivals, sponsoringcommunity-specific events, advertising/gaining PR stories in niche media outlets,developing strong media partners within BIPOC and other historicallymarginalized communities, etc.2) Working with others to generate revenue and increase number and diversity of stakeholders.This includes:a. assisting Ticketing and Patron Services staff in devising ticket pricing strategies andoffers, consistent reporting processes to communicate successes to the President & CEOand other stakeholders, subscriptions strategies, direct mail and other marketing collateralstrategies, subscriptions management, and other ticket pipeline tactics and programs. Thesubscriptions management side of NCT is especially critical, as is ensuring quality dataand lists for all communications with current patrons.b. assisting Communications and Public Relations staff in developing mediarelationships, attaining effective earned media stories, and growing social media contentand presence.c. partnering with NCT Conservatory staff in developing and executing on strategies togrow the number and diversity of students attending training and other educationalprograms.d. partnering with the All In Community Engagement team in developing grassrootsstrategies for engagement, and navigating the sometimes grey area between communityengagement, audience enrichment, and grassroots marketing. All three of these elementsare critical to the success of NCT.e. Partnering with the Development department to provide consistent branding for allstakeholders of NCT including donors and other funders.f. Often serving on cross-functional teams that include all of the above as well as ourartistic, production, and financial teams in support of institutional success.5
A note on department structure: NCT is in recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, which necessitatedsome new approaches and re-builds. The current Marketing and Sales Department is defined by adaptiveleadership: where work styles that lean into communication and partnership tend to be utilized more thanauthoritative, delegative, and hierarchical work styles, even in a strong deadline-based environment. Ithas also been hybrid in terms of in-office and at-home workplace, so it is staffed by people who aresuccessful with digital project management tools. It will require an emotionally intelligent Director whorecognizes the dynamic nature of this time, and can discern when adaptation may be needed. TheDirector of Marketing will need to be comfortable and happy in this model of management.6
The North Carolina Theatre (NCT) has been serving its Triangle-region community through professional theatre programs for nearly four decades. NCT enriches lives by providing outstanding theatre productions, bold artistic training, and inclusive community engagement programs. As North Carolina's largest professional producing theatre company,
