Welcome to London's biggest independent pub company.
Urban Pubs & Bars was founded in 2014 by Nick Pring and Malcolm Heap and has since expanded to an estate of over 65 pubs, bars and restaurants across London.
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Our ethos focuses on acquiring the best sites in the right locations and recruiting exceptional talent who are as passionate about food and drink as we are. Establishing the right offer and investing in the right areas is key, whilst devoting time and attention to the team that operates those sites is a major part of that investment.
In 2018, Urban Pubs & Bars was ranked number 28 in the Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 list, recognising Britain's private companies with the fastest-growing sales. We were then nominated for 2 Publican Awards in 2020, winning the award for Best Managed Pub Company - 2-50 sites on the night. In 2021, Urban was awarded 'Best Food-led Pub Company 2021' at the R200 awards. Most recently, Urban once again won Best Managed Pub Company - 2-50 sites at the Publican Awards in 2023 and Best Food Offer and Best Managed Pub Company 51+ sites at the Publican Awards in 2026.
In 2025 we were recognised by Sunday Times in the Top 100 Companies to work for.
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Our teams play a pivotal role in creating an eclectic mix of unique establishments all with a friendly atmosphere, delicious food and great service all at the heart of what we value. Ensuring each sites valued position within its local community.
SUMMARY
This role represents a unique opportunity to help shape the social strategy at the UKs fastest growing hospitality company.
We are looking for a social and paid media expert with a passion for the London hospitality scene, obsessed with delivering impactful social media campaigns.
This is a strategy and execution role NOT a content creator role. You will be taking and evolving a social strategy and then using an agile pod of creators as well as in house operations teams to deliver consistent and impactful social media across centrally managed and site managed social media channels.
You will have an ROI mindset, focusing on effective reporting to demonstrate step changes across social and paid media.
COMPANY VALUES
Embrace our vision
To create the best and most admired pub, bar, and restaurant company in London
You should embody our values
We show pride in everything we do, showing passion and commitment to our work, our colleagues, and our customers.
Our values are defined by three key mindsets:
BE A WINNER
Always strive to be the very best. We set high standards and keep raising the bar in everything we do. We back each other to succeed, take pride in our performance, and recognise achievement when we see it.
BE BETTER
We never settle. We are relentless in our pursuit of better. We take ownership, keep moving forward and challenge ourselves to improve, always seeking smarter ways, new opportunities and stronger outcomes for our people and the business.
HAVE FUN
We revel in delivering brilliant experiences for our guests and for each other. We bring energy, positivity and personality to everything we do. We enjoy the journey and, most importantly, we have fun.
THE ROLE
The Social Strategist will lead the strategic direction, execution, and optimisation of organic and paid social activity across the pubs and bars portfolio, while supporting sites in delivering high-quality, consistent, on-brand organic social content.
This role blends hands-on paid media expertise with strategic oversight - ensuring that brand-wide campaigns, site-level channels, and influencer activity all align to our social strategy and deliver measurable results.
Responsibility for all social media channels, including but not exclusive to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok (where relevant) and LinkedIn to ensure consistent quality and effective comms with regular reporting on performance and ensuring we always remain safe and legal online (GDPR, Cookies policy etc)
ROLE SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES
Social Media Strategy
o Own the strategy, scheduling and execution of social media for up to 20 centrally managed channels focused on our new openings and refurbs and pubs and bars in Zone 1
o Using Sprout, you will schedule and post for all centrally owned sites
o Translate the strategy into content briefs for an agile pod of creators to generate high quality dynamic and static content
Paid Media Strategy
o Lead paid social strategy across the portfolio, identifying where paid support can drive the greatest impact and deliver strong ROI.
o Plan, build and optimise paid campaigns (primarily Meta; also TikTok and emerging platforms).
o Use data and insight to drive continuous optimisation.
o Manage the paid media budget, ensuring spend is effective, efficient and aligned to priorities.
o Create/source on-brand, impactful paid social assets for campaigns.
Organic social media support for sites
o Support and guide site teams running their own social channels.
o Provide toolkits, templates and content guidance to ensure brand consistency.
o Monitor site performance and coach teams on improving content, engagement, and growth.
o Identify content gaps across the portfolio and coordinate with freelance creators to deliver high-quality, consistent content across our pillars.
TikTok rollout
o Lead the introduction of TikTok across the business, starting with a trial group of priority sites to refine approach and learnings.
o Develop best-practice guidance and support teams in adopting the platform.
o Test and optimise both organic and paid activity.
Influencer activity
o Develop and manage influencer activity aligned to brand needs and campaign objectives.
o Lead community and influencer outreach for new site launches.
o Track performance and ensure influencer output delivers against objectives.
Stakeholder collaboration & reporting
o Work closely with marketing, sales, creative, and site teams to ensure a holistic approach and cohesive delivery of the marketing strategy.
o Support brand-wide campaigns with paid frameworks, social packs and guidance.
o Deliver monthly reporting across all activity - paid media, site performance and influencer campaigns - highlighting insights and recommended actions.
o Champion best practice and ensure all social and paid activity supports the overall marketing strategy.
KPIs
o Demonstrable improvements in key social metrics such as: followers, engagement, click through, conversion
Communication:
o Clear weekly progress updates to the Head of Digital
o You will have excellent critical thinking skills. attention to detail, strong planning and organisation ability.
o You will also be self-driven and have a can-do attitude.
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