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Corporate Communications Manager

AT Diageo
Diageo

Corporate Communications Manager

New York, NY

Which company will you join?

From Arthur Guinness to Johnnie Walker, our business was founded on people of outstanding character, and in 250 years, nothing has changed. We're the world's leading premium alcohol company! Our brands are industry icons including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness. Our success is thanks to the strength of our people, in every role. It's why we trust them with our legacy and why we reward them with the career-defining opportunities that they deserve. Our ambition is to build the best performing, most trusted and respected Consumer Products Company in the world. To achieve these, we need the very best people!

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At Diageo, our purpose is to celebrate life everywhere, every day. To do that, you will join an organization that is passionate about customers and consumers, and proud of what they do. Diageo teams constantly set high goals and then try hard to exceed them. We are also an incredibly diverse organization, and we value each and every one's talent and personality.

Context/scope:

The role of the Corporate Relations (CR) team is to promote and protect Diageo's reputation and license to operate, in service of Diageo becoming the most trusted and respected consumer goods company. CR works as business owners and strategic partners to transform the competitive environment within which we operate, unlocking value by:
  • Driving a consistent, dynamic, global narrative and helping to prioritize what we want to be known for over a 10-year timeframe;
  • Serving as a trusted advisor to the business;
  • Engaging and inspiring our people;
  • Anticipating and mitigating risks;
  • Leading our government relations and public policy agenda to sell and help sell; and
  • Being a trusted partner across customer audiences to highlight the importance of moderation and responsible drinking


The Corporate Communications team sits within the broader CR team (in concert with our Government Relations and Society teams). The Corporate Communications team is responsible for the development and delivery of an integrated reputation, communications, and engagement strategy and is accountable for: external PR, media relations and press office communications, internal communications and employee engagement; the management of issues and crisis communications, executive communications, and supporting Diageo North America supply communications. The team focuses on connecting and communicating to partners about Diageo, through impactful and engaging campaigns and stories, so that those audiences are effective ambassadors who are aware and energized about who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

The Corporate Communications Manager is a key member of the communications team, helping to complete the broader PR and communications strategy. This role primarily acts as a public relations and media relations lead. This role supports the management of the Diageo North America press office, demonstrating best-in-class media relations and supporting the delivery of dedicated corporate events to build trust and respect in Diageo. The sourcing and promoting of our corporate stories will be pivotal, as well as creation and distribution of campaign content through our corporate platforms. In addition to responsibilities outlined below, this individual will play a central role in mining for stories (standard methodology, proactive pitching and reactive data and information sourcing), aligned with our Brand Diageo and North America strategy, creating fresh and relevant content for internal and external audiences.

Team member will help mitigate issues and enhance Diageo's corporate reputation via rapid response and crisis communications activity. This person will also handle external and internal communications for the Diageo North America Supply organization, supporting communications needs for Diageo's manufacturing sites across the U.S., Canada, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Team member will proactively partner with all members of the CR team (US and Global), and nearly all functions across the business, including the ‘Brands in Culture' team, marketing and commercial teams, and senior internal collaborators.

Financial:

Required to work within and handle budgets for projects, campaigns and infrastructure as part of the wider corporate communications, media relations and social media communications programs.

Market/role complexity:
  • The Corporate Relations strategy requires the corporate communications team to effectively enhance our brand and protect our reputation in this connected, digital world.
  • The external environment and operating context have changed significantly - faster trends, greater social awareness and scrutiny, increased expectations of transparency and the role of business in society, are now core to the execution of our corporate brand and reputation strategy.
  • As the customer environment becomes more demanding and connected, our ability to earn trust and respect starts with our key partners (employees, media, NGOs and the local community) and is wholly reliant on our ability to deliver an integrated strategy for authentic engagement and communications, both inside and outside the company.
  • The Diageo North America business itself has experienced substantial growth and considerable change in recent years - from responding to an evolving post-Covid consumer environment, to structure and leadership evolution, to ways of working and performance shifts.
  • With a clear strategy for sustained growth, extraordinary effective communications and impactful storytelling play a critical role in enabling Diageo North America to evolve at pace and foster an agile, high-performance culture.
  • The role collaborates effectively cross-functionally and across geographies, with a need to establish high performing relationships throughout the business.


Leadership accountabilities:
  • The Corporate Communications Manager is a key member of the Corporate Communications team, driving the day-to-day corporate communications, proactive PR, social media and press office activities, and supporting communications for Diageo North America's supply function.
  • Will represent the Corporate Communications function with external and internal customers - professionalism and confidence when dealing with the partners is a crucial requirement of the role.
  • Will be required to provide communications and engagement counsel to non-Corporate Relations professionals within the business on specific pieces of work, as appropriate.
  • Will be required to use media relations skills and demonstrate strong judgment as it relates to media engagement. This includes leading timely media inquiries and communications tactics at the national and local level.
  • Will be required to handle rapid and reactive response tactics, as well as support crisis management activities related to specific media or broader market issues.
  • Will be required to lead on creation and execution of specific corporate stories and PR building activities.
  • Will be required to support management of external agencies on specific projects and initiatives, as appropriate.
  • Will be required to lead on content creation for Diageo North America's Corporate Communications agenda, and Supply organization, for internal and external partners, including employees, agencies, members of the media, and government officials.
  • Required to efficiently and effectively activate content through a paid, earned and owned channel mix.


Top accountabilities:
  • The Corporate Communications Manager will be responsible for delivering key components of the Corporate Communications strategy and world class media relations. Top accountabilities include:
  • Manage the Diageo North America press office. Act as the first port of call for incoming press queries, conduct due diligence necessary to determine action, and keep networked into the business to ensure timely response; build and maintain relationships with key journalists and media outlets; manage distribution of content to beverage and marketing trade media.
  • Coordination with Marketing on brand communications to ensure compliance with the Diageo Marketing Code, reputational risk mitigation, and preservation of corporate and brand equity. Develop and amplify strategic marketing stories with trade media as appropriate.
  • Run social media accounts and content development on Diageo-owned channels. To include M&E support - versed in use of analytics across key digital platforms, using measurement and analytics to monitor activity and impact.
  • Maintain, with the team, infrastructure documents - with a specific focus on a 12 month, proactive, story telling and campaign calendar, clear M&E input and output materials and bring external best practice case studies to the fore.
  • Works in partnership with team to support the successful delivery of specific media and partner events, and key employee engagement activities.
  • Media monitoring and reporting aimed at bringing together key coverage and assessing media cycles, in partnership with agency resources.
  • Lead on content and materials creation for Diageo North America's supply organization.
  • Develop and implement best in class communications - in support of the team's role in building and preserving Diageo's reputation and telling our Diageo North America society, brand, and business stories externally and internally.


Qualifications and experience required:

The successful candidate will have public relations and integrated communications experience.

Key qualities will be:
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience: communications, journalism or public relations degree preferred.
  • Minimum of 3-5 years' experience in communications with a strong background in corporate storytelling, media relations, digital platforms, and creative, visually engaging, content creation.
  • Experience with a communications agency or in-house within a consumer brand or CPG industry preferred.
  • Strong, current understanding of the media and communications environment and a network of relationships, with the validated ability and desire to build and nurture more.
  • Strong organizational skills, excellent writing and interpersonal skills.
  • Exceptional attention to detail.
  • Possesses social media capabilities, experience and knowledge.
  • The individual will have significant experience with digital collaboration and a track record of effective delivery and completing proactive stories that drive business.
  • Has the ability to work with leaders and colleagues at all levels and across functions.
  • Outstanding relationship skills, to create and sustain a network of relationships across the business, including with global colleagues outside of North America.
  • Ability to interact with media, agency teams and senior leadership with credibility and quality.
  • Must be a self-starter, able to take on a task with little direction and complete it successfully.
  • Strong drive, delivery and determination and ability to be resourceful and agile in a fast-paced high performing environment.
  • Has good commercial awareness and preferred experience of working in a highly commercial environment.
  • Innovative thinker, good idea generation and problem-solving skills.
  • Ability to flex and handle multiple projects across a given week and readily reprioritize is required for effective delivery.
  • The ability to flex across internal and external communications and engagement is critical.


Barriers to success in the role:
  • Inability to think/act strategically, creatively and proactively.
  • Inability to work collaboratively and cross-functionally.
  • Requirement for extensive direction, lack of resourcefulness, or cannot work independently on elements of projects.
  • Lack of initiative, sense of urgency or inability to keep to deadlines.
  • Inability to think a project through to completion, anticipating barriers and pitfalls, and formulating solutions to overcome these for success.
  • Lack of interest and understanding of current affairs, news and media.
  • Lack of understanding (and/or engagement with) of media, social media and digital landscape.
  • Lack of experience in directly handling media and/or operating with content in a digital channel environment.
  • Inability to see the bigger picture and understand business goals, or desire to achieve a deep understanding of the business and industry.
  • Poor judgment and/inability to take decisions.
  • Lack of resilience or self-awareness.
  • Inflexible to out of hours working as required.
  • Discomfort working in ambiguity.


Diversity statement:

Celebrating our inclusive and diverse culture is core to Diageo's purpose of "celebrating life every day everywhere". This purpose is, in itself, inclusive in nature, as it values everybody irrespective of background, disability, religion, gender identity, sexuality or ethnicity.

We know that for Diageo to succeed and realize its ambition, we depend on having diverse talent with a range of backgrounds, skills and capabilities in each of the 180 countries in which we operate and to reflect our broad consumer base. We view diversity as one of the key enablers that helps our business to grow and our values, purpose and standards set the conditions for us to respect the outstanding contribution each person brings.

Client-provided location(s): 175 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10007, USA
Job ID: Diageo-JR1103639
Employment Type: Full Time

Perks and Benefits

  • Health and Wellness

    • Health Insurance
    • Health Reimbursement Account
    • Dental Insurance
    • Vision Insurance
    • Life Insurance
    • Short-Term Disability
    • Long-Term Disability
    • FSA
    • FSA With Employer Contribution
    • HSA
    • HSA With Employer Contribution
    • Fitness Subsidies
    • Pet Insurance
    • Mental Health Benefits
  • Parental Benefits

    • Birth Parent or Maternity Leave
    • Non-Birth Parent or Paternity Leave
    • Fertility Benefits
    • Adoption Assistance Program
    • Family Support Resources
    • Adoption Leave
  • Work Flexibility

    • Hybrid Work Opportunities
  • Office Life and Perks

    • Commuter Benefits Program
    • Casual Dress
    • Happy Hours
    • On-Site Cafeteria
    • Holiday Events
  • Vacation and Time Off

    • Paid Vacation
    • Paid Holidays
    • Personal/Sick Days
    • Leave of Absence
    • Volunteer Time Off
  • Financial and Retirement

    • 401(K)
    • Pension
    • Stock Purchase Program
    • Performance Bonus
    • Relocation Assistance
  • Professional Development

    • Tuition Reimbursement
    • Promote From Within
    • Mentor Program
    • Access to Online Courses
    • Lunch and Learns
    • Internship Program
    • Leadership Training Program
    • Associate or Rotational Training Program
  • Diversity and Inclusion

    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program
    • Employee Resource Groups (ERG)
    • Woman founded/led

Company Videos

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