PR and Media Officer

A bit about us

We may have started small, but we’ve always had very big ambitions. We launched in 2001 and haven’t stopped since; a year’s worth of achievements always seems more like three at AO.

Our customers are our biggest advocates, and we’ve made millions of them happy. And not just in the UK, we’re now operating throughout Europe. We’re determined to be the best electrical retailer in Europe, and for that we need to be driven. We need to be bold enough to try new things, and smart enough to see them through. We need to care about people, and we always like to have fun while we’re do it.

More about the role

You will join the Brand and People team which sits at the heart of the business and is responsible for bringing the AO Brand to life and maintaining our unique culture.

Reporting to the Senior PR and Communications Manager, we are looking for an enthusiastic, tenacious, digitally savvy press & media officer to join AO. com’s internal PR team. You will be in charge of implementing the PR strategy with a view to delivering column inches, driving brand awareness and creating engaging content that can be used across AO. com’s own brand channels.

Here's what you can expect to be doing

- Handling the daily proactive and reactive media relations with national & consumer press as well as online media and bloggers , developing and maintaining key relationships

- Implement consumer, trade & community PR programme

- Creating and distributing compelling PR materials across all target channels

- Promoting / selling-in news stories and features to the media

- Undertaking press visits to media in London

- Researching, writing and distributing press releases to targeted media

- Monitoring the media on a daily basis identifying opportunities to promote the business

- Collating, analysing and evaluating media coverage

- Commissioning market research to drive both content and news stories

- Developing strong internal relationships to drive story trawling and create support for your campaigns

- Looking for new ways to engage consumers with the ao. com story

- Staying abreast of trends and techniques in the creation of engaging communications

- Development and management of an online media centre and supporting corporate website with content

- Management of awards calendar management and submission of entries

- Identification of speaker opportunities and preparing relevant briefs / materials

- PR budget management

- Evaluation / analytics and reporting of campaigns

- Day-to-day support of a PR executive

A few things about you

- PR experience in a fast paced PR environment gained either in-house or in agency

- Currently in-house or at account manager in an agency

- Great writing skills and an eye for a good story

- Good national media contacts across news and consumer affairs

- Strong selling-in skills

- A strong creative streak

- Brimming with exciting, creative and fresh ideas

- Strong attention to detail

- Previous involvement in the management of major press events

- An understanding of content marketing

Why choose AO?

It’s not about the job you need now, it’s about who you want to be and where you want go. The thing about AO is that you don’t have to leave to move on. We have the kind of environment where people learn and thrive and be the best they can be. That’s our values talking.

We empower each and every person to push the boundaries of what’s possible. We’re growing rapidly and so should you. Our environment and our culture are vibrant and engaging, you almost have to feel it to believe it. We’ve got everything you could need in one place, so it’s really no wonder we were named Retail Week Employer of the Year 2015.

 “Our people are our biggest asset, they’re our culture: that unique, indescribable thing that makes us really different.”

Great people deserve great things

As an AO employee you can take full advantage of our benefits package. As well as fundamental benefits, like pensions and holidays, we have designed our “AO Perks” to help you out financially, make your work life a little easier or make your home life a lot more fun.