Marketing & Design Coordinator in Santa Barbara, California at Acme Ventures LLC

As Marketing Coordinator, your key responsibilities are to support the execution of marketing, brand, and community initiatives across the Acme Hospitality restaurant portfolio. This is an entry-level role and an excellent opportunity for someone early in their career to gain broad, hands-on experience across brand marketing, content production, agency coordination, events, and community programming in one of Santa Barbara’s most dynamic hospitality groups. This role serves as the primary liaison with our Social & Email Agency of Record (AOR), managing day-to-day coordination, approvals, and communication across all restaurant brands. The Coordinator is detail-oriented and execution-focused, ensuring campaigns, brand touchpoints, and vendor workflows are consistently and efficiently managed.

Social & Email AOR Liaison (~30% of role):

- Serve as the day-to-day point of contact with Acme’s AOR for social media and email marketing

- Coordinate monthly content calendar approvals, ensuring Chef/GM input is collected and submitted on time each month

- Consolidate and communicate revision requests to the AOR in a single, organized submission by the monthly deadline

- Track content delivery, revision rounds, and publishing timelines across all restaurant brands to ensure on-time execution

- Facilitate communication between the AOR, the Marketing Manager, and restaurant-level stakeholders

- Flag any agency issues, deadline risks, or brand alignment concerns to the Marketing Manager

- Maintain organized records of agency deliverables, approvals, and communications for each brand

- Perform occasional light data entry from sources such as Toast into designated reporting or tracking systems to support marketing needs

- Capture photo and video content at offsite events, ticketed dinners, and activations for delivery to the AOR for use across social, email, and digital channels

- Capture impromptu content opportunities across all restaurant outlets, including seasonal specials, new menu items, and in-restaurant moments, and route to the AOR or marketing team for timely use

Marketing Submissions & Listings Management:

- Submit and manage event listings across key local platforms, including Visit Santa Barbara, The Santa Barbara Independent, Noozhawk, Edhat, and other relevant outlets

- Maintain and regularly update Google and Yelp listings to ensure accuracy across all concepts

- Manage and update Visit Santa Barbara microsites for each restaurant

Public Relations & Communications Support:

- Track and maintain records of press mentions, features, and media coverage

- Coordinate and schedule PR dinners in collaboration with restaurant teams and media partners

- Support PR outreach efforts by gathering information and assets as needed

Community Events & Programming Support:

- Assist in coordinating school fundraising nights and community-driven events

- Support the execution of pop-ups, collaborations, and seasonal programming

- Gather and organize key information for major initiatives, including Santa Barbara Culinary Experience (SBCE), holiday menus and specials, and offsite events and activations

- Coordinate with vendors and partners for offsite events and activations

Offsite Events, Ticketed Dinners & Activations:

- Lead coordination of offsite events and ticketed dinners on behalf of Acme Hospitality restaurants, serving as the primary marketing point of contact from planning through execution

- Coordinate with participating restaurants and organizations on event logistics, timelines, and marketing needs

- Manage food and beverage coordination for activations, including menu planning with culinary teams, portioning, pick-up, transport, and on-site setup

- Work events on-site, representing Acme Hospitality brands with professionalism through the full duration including breakdown and clean-up

- Coordinate ticketed dinner logistics including guest communications, restaurant team alignment, and day-of execution support

- This role requires availability for evening and weekend events as needed

Merchandise & Inventory Coordination:

- Manage reordering of merchandise and staff uniforms across concepts

- Monitor inventory levels for Acme Hospitality and coordinate restocks as needed

- Support merchandise organization and fulfillment

Creative & Collateral Support:

- Design flyers, event graphics, and marketing materials using Canva or InDesign, ensuring brand alignment; experience with InDesign a plus

- Coordinate printing and restocking of branded collateral, including check presenters, celebration cards, matches and coasters, gift cards and sleeves, and hotel partnership materials

Administrative & Financial Support:

- Track, organize, and submit marketing invoices for processing

- Assist with budget tracking and expense organization

- Support general marketing administrative tasks to ensure smooth team operations

- Helps maintain marketing reporting across all concepts

Asset Management:

- Organize and maintain marketing asset libraries in Adobe Lightroom (our Digital Asset Management system, or DAM), including photos, logos, menus, and brand files

- File and organize captured content from events, activations, and restaurant outlets into the DAM for team and AOR access

- Ensure all teams have access to up-to-date and approved assets

Key Skills:

-Organizational Skills: Highly detail-oriented with the ability to manage multiple projects, deadlines, and vendor relationships simultaneously

-Communication Skills: Strong written and verbal communication for coordinating with agency partners, internal stakeholders, and restaurant teams

-Creative Skills: Comfortable using Canva to produce brand-aligned marketing materials; experience with Adobe Suite and InDesign a plus

-Digital Skills: Familiarity with Microsoft and Google environments (Outlook, Teams, Google Drive, etc.), Yelp, OpenTable, and hospitality marketing tools; comfortable with iPhone photo and video capture; experience with WordPress, Adobe Lightroom, InDesign, and Klaviyo a plus

-Interpersonal Skills: Ability to build working relationships across internal teams and external partners; comfortable and confident in face-to-face settings including team meetings, vendor check-ins, restaurant walkthroughs, and community events; a collaborative team player who adapts well to shifting priorities and the fast-paced, sometimes unpredictable nature of hospitality

Required Education and Work Experience:

- Bachelor’s degree preferred; relevant experience in marketing, communications, hospitality, or a related field may be considered in lieu of a degree

- Recent graduates and candidates with internship or part-time marketing experience are encouraged to apply

- Experience managing or coordinating with external vendors or agency partners a plus

- Familiarity with content calendars, social media workflows, and email marketing processes preferred

Level of Authority:

- The Marketing Coordinator works closely with and supports the daily needs of the Marketing Manager, Marketing Director, and the Social & Email AOR

Reporting Structure:

- The Marketing Coordinator reports to the Marketing Director

Supervisory Responsibilities:

- The Marketing Coordinator has no direct reports but works closely with agency partners and will frequently represent the Acme marketing team in vendor communications

Benefits:

- Medical

- 401 (k)

- Phone stipend

- Dining and hotel discounts