Restaurant Marketing jobs in Dubai

Job Purpose

The Marketing Manager owns the marketing of BrewDog (Bluewaters and City Walk) and Swingers Dubai. These are licensed, franchised, activation-led venues. The role exists to fill ticketed activations profitably, protect and grow the brands within franchisor guidelines and UAE regulations for licensed venues, and deliver measurable revenue against agreed targets.

This is a commercial role, not a communications role. Every campaign must connect to covers, reservations, ticket sales, or average spend, and performance is judged on tracked numbers, not platform-reported figures.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Ticketed Activations and Events (core of the role)

• Own the annual and monthly activation calendar across both brands: brunches, roasts, ladies’ nights, festivals, seasonal events, sports screenings, and venue-specific concepts.
• Build each activation with a revenue target, a marketing plan, and a cost budget agreed with the Commercial Manager before launch.
• Distinguish revenue activations from acquisition (hook) activations; hook offers must capture guest identity at booking so repeat visits and cross-bookings can be measured.
• Plan and deliver openings, relaunches, menu launches, and limited-time offers, including the BrewDog City Walk launch programme.
• Review activation performance weekly against target and kill, fix, or scale based on the numbers.

2. Licensed Venue and Regulatory Marketing (mandatory competence)

• Produce and approve all creative and media in line with UAE regulations for the promotion of licensed venues, including age-appropriate targeting and compliant language and imagery.
• Navigate platform advertising policies for licensed hospitality (Meta, Google, TikTok), structure accounts and creative to minimise policy strikes, and manage remediation if restrictions occur.
• Maintain relationships with DET and relevant authorities’ requirements for event permits and promotions, coordinating with Operations on approvals.

3. Franchisor and Brand Management

• Act as day-to-day marketing counterpart to the BrewDog and Swingers franchisor teams: secure brand approvals, follow brand guidelines, and manage the approval workflow so campaigns are not delayed.
• Manage the contractual brand marketing budget (2% of net revenue) covering branding, content production, photography, and brand campaigns, and report spend against it monthly.
• Ensure in-venue branding, menus, POS, and signage meet franchisor standards across all sites.
• Monitor reviews, guest feedback, and brand perception, and coordinate responses with Operations.

4. Performance Marketing and Attribution

• Brief and work with the group performance marketing function, which executes paid spend for ticketed activations outside the brand budget, subject to the group ROAS floor (currently 10x on tracked revenue).
• Ensure every campaign uses tracked booking links or codes so the paid versus organic split comes from actual bookings, not platform attribution or averages.
• Reconcile platform-reported results against unique reservations in SevenRooms weekly; platform figures are for optimisation only.
• Report new versus repeat guest mix and cost per acquired booking by activation.
• Manage email/CRM and loyalty communications to existing guest lists, excluding existing lists from paid acquisition audiences.

5. Social Media, Content, and Influencers

• Own content calendars for both brands around activations, launches, and seasonal moments, consistent with franchisor guidelines.
• Run influencer and KOL programmes measured on tracked bookings or code redemptions, not reach alone.
• Oversee organic social and community management standards across venues.

6. Partnerships

• Build partnerships with hotels, ticketing and experience platforms, corporates, communities, and complementary brands that generate bookings.
• Negotiate barter and cross-promotion deals that reduce paid acquisition cost.

7. Commercial Reporting and Team

• Produce a weekly trading-linked marketing report per venue: activation revenue versus target, tracked ROAS, paid versus organic bookings, new versus repeat mix, and brand budget spend.
• Manage the Marketing Coordinator and external agencies, photographers, and suppliers within budget.
• Work daily with venue General Managers and the Commercial Manager so marketing follows trading reality, addressing weak days, dayparts, and venues.

Key Performance Indicators

• Activation revenue versus monthly target per venue.
• Tracked ROAS on paid activation spend at or above the group floor (currently 10x).
• Covers and reservations growth, split new versus repeat guests.
• Brand marketing spend held within 2% of net revenue.
• Zero unresolved platform policy restrictions; zero franchisor compliance breaches.
• Hook activation conversion: repeat visits and cross-bookings from acquisition offers.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or related field.
• Minimum 5 to 7 years of marketing experience, of which at least 3 years marketing licensed F&B, bars, or entertainment venues in the UAE. Candidates without licensed venue experience will not be considered.
• Proven track record filling ticketed events, brunches, or activations with measurable revenue results.
• Demonstrated experience running compliant paid campaigns for alcohol-licensed venues, including handling platform policy restrictions.
• Working knowledge of reservation platforms (SevenRooms or equivalent), booking-link attribution, and ROAS measurement from tracked purchase values.
• Experience working within franchised or licensed brand guidelines and approval processes.
• Strong budget management: candidates must be able to walk through a past campaign from spend to tracked revenue.

Key Skills and Competencies

• Commercially minded and numbers-first; comfortable being measured on revenue.
• Strong project management across multiple venues and simultaneous activations.
• Creative judgement appropriate to premium, irreverent brands.
• Clear communicator able to align Operations, Finance, franchisors, and agencies.

Work Location: In person