Head of Marketing - LIONS Riyadh
Informa Group Plc. · Riyadh, Saudi Arabia · hybrid
Tahaluf is the largest B2B live and on-demand events organiser in Saudi Arabia by space, attendance, colleagues, and revenue. It is a joint venture between Informa PLC, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and the Events Investment Fund (EIF).
Tahaluf is bold, visionary, and determined to make an impact. Our team fosters a culture of collaboration, creativity, and a little fun, here teamwork rules and work feels as exciting as the events we create. Scaling at this pace also requires exceptional local partners, and Tahaluf is proud to work with a range of government and non-government organisations at the forefront of Saudi Arabia’s B2B and B2C large-scale events scene.
Be part of something BIG with Tahaluf’s series of record-breaking events: LEAP and Cityscape - the largest events in the world in their respective fields of tech and real estate; Black Hat MEA - a Guinness World Record holder for the largest CTF competition during the event; and CPHI Middle East - the largest pharma debut event in history, to name just a few. Tahaluf is making a huge impact on the global events sector.
Join our ambitious and highly committed team, unafraid to push boundaries and disrupt the status quo. From day one, you’ll dive into large-scale projects under the guidance of a supportive leadership team that will encourage your personal development and open doors to new opportunities.
About LIONS Riyadh
LIONS Riyadh marks a bold new chapter for the world’s most prestigious platform for creative marketing. Launched by Tahaluf in partnership with LIONS and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Media, it is a distinct Festival within the global LIONS community, home to the renowned Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Designed to amplify Middle Eastern creativity on the global stage, LIONS Riyadh will showcase the region’s talent, ideas and storytelling while connecting its creative industries with the world’s leading networks, brands and decision-makers. The inaugural three-day Festival takes place at KAFD, Riyadh, from 6–8 December 2027. It will bring together regional and global CMOs, creative leaders, agencies, brands and emerging talent around creative excellence, effectiveness, culture and the future of the industry.
The Head of Marketing, will report into the Marketing Director and will manage a diverse team based in Riyadh.
The Head of Marketing will lead the brand, audience and go-to-market strategy for LIONS Riyadh, establishing the Festival as one of the most important new creative industry platforms in the region and a recognised part of the global LIONS community.
The individual will be a highly motivated, dynamic marketing leader with a track record of commercial collaboration to develop products and positioning reflective of customer demand.
This role requires a distinctive combination of brand thinking, creative judgement, audience insight and commercial marketing expertise. The successful candidate will understand how to build desire around a premium global brand while making it culturally relevant to Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East.
Managing a diverse team of managers, marketing executives and specialist functions the Head of Marketing will be a skilled marketing strategist and be able to drive creativity and enthusiasm in others.
The individual needs to be analytical and data orientated with a history of testing and optimisation, but with creative flair and exceptional attention to detail.
They will be responsible for creating a marketing platform that feels unmistakably LIONS – bold, intelligent, culturally connected and creatively distinctive – while delivering measurable audience, revenue and brand-growth objectives.
The candidate should have extensive experience of digital marketing, content marketing and marketing technology and be accustomed to delivering in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
The role will work closely with LIONS, Content, Creative, PR, Commercial and Partnerships to ensure every campaign strengthens the Festival's positioning, builds community and attracts the highest-value regional and international audiences.
The individual must be extremely adaptable, accustomed to working with differing market dynamics and be able to guide marketers and steer campaign strategy accordingly.
Key Performance Indicators
- Working alongside commercial leads to develop value propositions and go-to-market strategy
- Ongoing customer insight and engagement strategies
- Overseeing delivery of marketing campaigns in line with business objectives
- Adherence to timelines and budgets
- Marketing KPI report
- To manage a cross functional marketing team which includes marketers from all backgrounds with a diverse range of skills and training
- To design and deliver campaigns for specific projects as and where required
- Building strong awareness, consideration and demand for LIONS Riyadh across Saudi Arabia, the GCC and priority international markets
- Growing the Festival’s reputation as a leading regional platform for creativity, marketing, media and culture
- Driving qualified registrations, ticket sales and attendance from priority audience segments
- Increasing engagement with senior CMOs, creative leaders, agencies, brands, creators and emerging talent
- Ensuring all campaigns reflect the LIONS brand, tone and creative standards
- Maximising the impact of speaker, content and partner announcements across paid, owned and earned channels
- Delivering strong digital engagement, conversion and return on marketing investment
- Building an active year-round community around the LIONS Riyadh brand via content marketing
- Driving effective collaboration across Marketing, Content, PR, Commercial, Creative and LIONS teams
- To act as a change management ambassador, demonstrating a positive and constructive attitude towards challenges and change
Key Responsibilities
LEADERSHIP
- Recommend team structures and delivery solutions based on requirements
- Line manage senior marketers and specialists working across a range of events
- Work with Group Director to ensure right structure, specialisms and level of resources to meet agreed KPI’s
- Provide guidance, feedback and inspiration to line reports
- Build a high-performing, creatively ambitious marketing team capable of delivering to LIONS brand standards.
- Champion bold thinking, strong creative judgement and audience-first marketing across the team.
- Champion the adoption and optimisation of marketing technology solutions and digital marketing more broadly
- Work with line reports to ensure successful delivery of marketing campaigns in line with agreed KPI’s, event and divisional strategy
- Work with line reports to develop skills and competencies and ensure they have a clear development roadmap
- Ensure line reports are competent managers and have the skills and training required to manage junior team members or specialists
- Ensure adoption and optimisation of marketing technology solutions, identify training needs and ensure line reports are technically proficient
- Create strong collaboration across Marketing, Content, Creative, PR, Commercial and the LIONS team.
- Reflect the high-performance culture of the marketing team.
ANALYSIS & INSIGHT
- Monitor campaign performance by supervising the production of relevant and timely reports. Recommend changes to campaign execution based on data insights
- Share relevant insights with sales, event team and senior management to drive revenues or pursue new opportunities
- Analyse and report trends over time and use these insights to build more effective campaigns
- Ensure relevant and timely data is captured (onsite & post show surveys, registration forms, industry research etc)
- Work with internal teams to ensure data governance and data management policies are adhered to
- Ensure delivery and accuracy of pre-