Head of Marketing | Al-Futtaim Automotive | Electric Mobility

Job Description

We are seeking a dynamic professional to spearhead the development of brand equity for emerging electric vehicle automotive brands managed by Al-Futtaim in the UAE and KSA. This role involves overseeing brand building efforts for Polestar in the UAE and BYD in both the UAE and KSA, with a particular focus on steering and supporting BYD's presence in the KSA market. The role aims to elevate brand awareness and consumer consideration for these new EV brands from their current low or non-existent levels. The primary focus is on driving rapid growth through digital-first strategies, PR & Media relations, Social Media engagement, customer-centric marketing campaigns, and both online and offline activations and events. The overarching performance target is to strengthen the top-of-funnel engagement, ensuring an exemplary customer experience across all brand touchpoints leading up to the point of sale, encompassing new, used, fleet, and aftersales vehicles.

What you will do:

• Establish and grow all new EV brands in UAE / KSA and driving brand awareness, consideration, and relevance amongst the target audiences.
• Drive market share growth through development of brand equity and improved customer loyalty.
• Develop the marketing strategy and execute the marketing plans in UAE / KSA in consistent with the overall global marketing strategy and implementation roadmap. This includes product launches and driving awareness for existing product lines & brand communication.
• The main liaison with the EV principals, collaborating with their global marketing teams to understand the global and regional strategic initiatives.
• Managing OEM relationships that result in long-term success for both the OEMs and Al Futtaim, through close collaboration and communication.
• Drive digital-first, consumer centric approach across all aspects of the business together with global team.

Activation, Campaigns & Social Media

• Create data driven campaign planning processes for all brands in UAE / KSA.
• Manage and coordinate external agency partners.
• Lead, activate & execute consumer communications across all channels.
• Oversee social media, and community management channels.
• Develop and execute comprehensive social media strategies to enhance brand visibility and engagement across platforms.
• Sustain a performance measurement framework across key platforms to drive sustainable growth and continuous improvement.
• Responsible for financial planning and reporting (paired with KPI framework to deliver campaign attribution/ROI measurement).
• Explore and implement best in class practices from our partner OEM in other markets, as well as across the industry.

Customer Experience

• Deliver exemplary Customer Experience (CX) across all brand touchpoints by leveraging key brand propositions and assets.
• Improving Customer Experience in sales spaces and workshops by supporting Sales and After Sales Front line teams with Merchandizing, Training, & POS materials.

PR & Media Relations

• Develop and implement comprehensive PR strategies that align with the Al Futtaim overall marketing objectives.
• Oversee all PR and media relations activities, including media outreach, press releases and media interviews.
• Lead the creation of compelling PR campaigns and initiatives to promote product launches, corporate announcements, and key messages.

Team Management

• Drive a talent development system that creates marketing talents who are recruited correctly, developed, coached, and engaged through performance management, learning, development & succession planning.
• Lead a lean and effective Marketing structure & team.
• Drive performance of Marketing team through measurable KPIs.
• Ensure 100% compliance with Standard Operating Procedures.
• Drive Al-Futtaim Values in workplace.

Desired Candidate Profile

Required Skills to be successful:

• Minimum of 15 years' experience in the automotive industry, with a preference for experience in electric vehicles (EVs).
• Extensive experience in branding, CRM, digital marketing, public relations (PR), social media, and events management.
• Strong experience and established relationships with marketing agencies.
• Previous experience in high-growth businesses and start-ups is highly preferable.

What equips you for the role:

• A university degree is preferred in Business, Marketing. MBA from a globally recognized business school is highly preferable.
• 15 years+ experience in brand, marketing, and product - ideally within the Automotive/ Mobility industry.
• Brand expert with experience in building brand equity particularly in new markets with new high value products.
• Previous experience in high-growth businesses and start-ups is highly preferable.
• Experience delivering strategies with high Customer Centric approach that are customer relationship driven and has developed effective customer relationship and community management program.
• Extensive experience of digital-first marketing strategies.
• Strategic and structured business, sales & marketing understanding - long term and short term.
• Clear strategic thinking, and ability to create buy-in and influence at a senior level through formalized proposals and business cases.
• Strong generalist marketing and CRM capability.
• Product Planning, Pricing, B2C and B2B sales, Advertising offline and online.
• Strong communication skills with customers, internal stakeholders, and members of the retail team.
• Ability to lead and motivate others through strong leadership skills, whether through direct line management or via a matrix setup.
• Excellent analytical and agile project management skills.
• Oriented, totally customer centric, ability to manage multiple stakeholders.