The AIR MILES Reward Program is one of Canada's most recognized loyalty programs, with over 10 million active collector accounts, representing more than half of all Canadian households. AIR MILES collectors earn Reward Miles at more than 300 leading Canadian, global and online brands and at thousands of retail and service locations across the country. AIR MILES is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank of Montreal (BMO). BMO is Canada's oldest bank and the 8th largest in North America with more than 12 million customers globally.

Position Overview:

As a member of the AIR MILES Executive Leadership team, the Head, Marketing for AIR MILES leads the Marketing function across partner, program and brand. Teams across marketing include Brand + Campaign Execution, Partner Marketing, Collector Engagement + Lifecycle plus centres of excellence to support marketing including Voice of the Collector, and Creative Agency. Head, Marketing for AIR MILES drives the overall marketing strategy across all Lines of Business, Ways to Earn and Partners – including travel and Rewards. With a mix across the marketing funnel from mass brand awareness through event based marketing + performance marketing.

Leads the teams to build a plan to cohesively position AIR MILES from strategy, creative design and execution, acquisition to the Program through Onboarding, instore, promotions, and using Collector research in the design and delivery of a seamless digital experience across the AIR MILES Reward Program (AMRP) and Sponsor channels. Develops and implements the marketing strategy, monitoring key metrics to track marketing's contribution to the achievement of business goals and strategies and monitoring the marketing budget required to execute marketing strategies.

Responsibilities:

• Sets the overall vision and approach to marketing across all touchpoints of AIR MILES for Collectors
• Leads the team in development of marketing strategies and the implementation of these plans to support achieving the one-to-three-year respective business objectives.
• Lead the team to develop a brand strategy designed to create awareness and consideration with non-Collectors and reinforce engagement with positive social proof to existing Collectors.
• Lead strategy and marketing relationships for Partners across the program inclusive of all Tiers of partners
• Lead strategy and marketing relationships for Travel across the program including acquisition and booking
• Ownership of Collector Metrics across organizational scorecard including reporting back to President with action plans based on performance against KPIs
• Voice of the Collector at the Executive table to aid in supporting growth and driving the strategy of the Air Miles program longer term
• Acts as the organizational spokesperson for marketing within the Loyalty space and PR communications
• Oversite and leadership of a high performing SLT team with the ability to grow and develop talent
• Leads and supports integration of marketing in an evolving way of working with critical integration points with Data, Strategic Partnerships and Marketing Operations
• Leads the team in Improving the health and growth of the Collector base through targeted acquisition and onboarding to maximize program value. Includes acquisition, onboarding, amplification of Sponsors and Rewards offerings, tiered recognition and benefits, and mass promotions.
• Integrates AMRP within the Sponsor's physical and digital environment (in-store merchandising, digital assets, front-line engagement.
• Creates the vision for and executes the delivery of a seamless digital experience within AMRP and across partner (Sponsors, Rewards) channels. Includes online, mobile, partner integration, the gamification platform and promotional platform.
• Uses research, user experience and customer journey mapping insights and tools to influence and inform the design of the program experience, including offers, rewards, and digital experience.
• Recommends, oversees, and monitors budget and resources to ensure alignment to business objectives, strategies and plans as required.
• Works with other members of the senior leadership team to ensure that consumer intelligence is incorporated and leveraged in strategy and plans, and in the marketing strategies and plans developed to support these business goals.
• Provides strategic leadership and requirements for marketing analytics and insights to drive evaluation and execution of campaigns.
• Acts as a point of escalation and Strategic owner for creative PR and other marketing agencies as required

Qualifications:

• Undergraduate degree (Marketing or Communications preferred)
• Minimum 15 years of related work experience
• Digital experience, either in agency or client-side roles
• Experience leading and developing senior-level employees
• Ability to leverage a deep understanding of branding, positioning, marketing communications, segmentation, consumer insights and research methodologies
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomacy skills with ability to communicate effectively with senior management and peers
• Strong leadership and coaching skills in leading
• Exceptional strategic thinker and project leadership skills with demonstrated success in developing and implementing sound marketing strategies with clearly defined goals and objectives.
• Exceptional leadership and management skills; ability to drive a "service excellence" culture through an organization and motivate an effective marketing team within a respected and entrepreneurial environment.
• Possess the ability to assimilate into the culture of the organization and work effectively as a business partner with the senior management team
• Demonstrated experience in evolving strategic positioning to support business needs
• Excellent oral and written communications skills
• Very strong analytical and problem-solving skills and an ability to assimilate a large amount of information for purposes of identifying value-added observations.
• Ability to manage in unstructured situations with innovative and creative thinking and able to multi­ task and thrive in a rapidly changing environment
• Ability to influence and gain credibility with very senior stakeholders