The CMO leads brand strategy, marketing, social media, and public relations, ensuring that storytelling, creative, and brand positioning translate into measurable awareness, engagement, and demand.  

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Brand Strategy & Positioning 

• Market the brand strategy for BHC, positioning the portfolio as a cornerstone of Charleston’s hospitality landscape and a recognized luxury brand.  

• Serve as the steward of brand identity, ensuring all properties reflect their distinct personality with a cohesive narrative rooted in Charleston’s culture.  

• Partner closely with the Brand Director to steward BHC’s brand identity across all properties, ensuring alignment between marketing strategy and creative direction. Serve as the commercial and market-facing counterpart to the Brand Director—translating brand vision into demand-generating campaigns, media narratives, and audience engagement strategies that reinforce each property’s distinct identity within the broader portfolio. 

Social Media & Cultural Relevance 

• Lead a best-in-class social media strategy that captures the essence of Charleston while engaging a luxury audience.  

• Identify and activate emerging trends, platforms, and creators to ensure the brand remains culturally relevant and visible.  

• Partner with influencers, tastemakers, and cultural figures to expand reach beyond the local market.  

Demand Generation and Revenue Partnership 

• Partner closely with the Chief Sales Officer to align marketing and revenue strategies 

• Ensure marketing efforts drive awareness, consideration, and demand across hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and future assets 

• Support new openings, activations, and seasonal programming with integrated campaigns that convert to business results  

• Establish clear handoffs and accountability between marketing and sales functions 

• Support the group sales channel through targeted marketing initiatives including content development, digital collateral, trade presence, and campaign strategies that position BHC’s meeting and event offerings within the luxury corporate and social market. Ensure the meetings and events value proposition for The Charleston Place and The Cooper is market-facing, media-supported, and competitively positioned. 

Public Relations & Storytelling 

• Direct all public relations efforts, positioning BHC and its properties within top-tier local and national media.  

• Cultivate relationships with leading travel, lifestyle, and luxury publications to establish BHC as a must-visit destination brand.  

• Drive storytelling that highlights Charleston as a destination while elevating BHC’s role in shaping its future.  

• Lead executive visibility and thought leadership to position BHC as an influential voice in luxury hospitality.  

• Oversee crisis communications with a focus on protecting brand reputation at the local and national level.  

• Select, direct, and evaluate external PR and marketing agency partners, including the agency of record, ensuring agencies are aligned to BHC’s brand standards, property-level priorities, and portfolio-wide narrative goals. Establish clear performance expectations, manage agency relationships as strategic extensions of the internal team, and hold partners accountable to measurable outcomes. 

Integrated Marketing & Campaigns 

• Develop and execute integrated marketing campaigns that drive local engagement and broader brand awareness.  

• Ensure marketing initiatives reflect the unique identity of each property while reinforcing the strength of the BHC portfolio.  

• Partner with property teams to create experiences and activations that resonate with Charleston locals and visitors alike.  

• Collaborate with the VP of Programming & Experiences and Brand Director to ensure the programming calendar is developed with market visibility in mind—providing consumer insight, cultural trend analysis, and media opportunity identification that shapes programming into newsworthy, demand-driving activations. Ensure BHC events, cultural partnerships, and guest experiences are positioned and amplified to reach both local audiences and destination travelers. 

Partnerships & Destination Leadership 

• Establish strategic partnerships that elevate BHC’s presence within Charleston and extend its reach into luxury, cultural, and travel markets.  

• Collaborate with local institutions, artists, and cultural leaders to authentically represent Charleston.  

• Align with like-minded brands and platforms to expand visibility and credibility.  

Digital Marketing & Owned Channels 

• Lead BHC’s digital marketing strategy across paid, owned, and earned channels—including paid search, paid social, display, email, and SEO—ensuring digital investments are optimized for both brand awareness and direct revenue conversion. 

• Oversee CRM strategy and email marketing programs that deepen guest relationships, drive repeat visitation, and support lifecycle engagement across the portfolio. 

• Partner with revenue management and sales to align digital channel strategy with rate, occupancy, and demand objectives. 

• Ensure the BHC website and property digital presences reflect brand standards and are optimized for discovery, storytelling, and conversion. 

Performance & Leadership 

• Define KPIs across brand awareness, social engagement, earned media, using insights to refine strategy.  

• Oversee marketing budgets to ensure strong brand investment and measurable return.  

• Build and lead a high-performing team across brand, social media, PR, and marketing disciplines.  

• Serve as a strategic advisor to executive leadership on brand perception, cultural relevance, and market expansion opportunities. 

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE: 

• Minimum of 12–15 years of progressive leadership experience in marketing, brand, public relations, and social media, ideally within luxury hospitality or lifestyle brands.  

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred. 

• Proven success building brands that resonate with target audiences.  

• Deep expertise in social media, content strategy, public relations, and brand storytelling.  

• Experience positioning a destination or portfolio within travel and luxury markets strongly preferred.  

• Established network of media, influencers, and industry relationships at the national level.  

• Strong understanding of how to translate a sense of place into a compelling brand narrative.  

• Exceptional creative judgment with a refined eye for luxury aesthetics and detail.  

• Executive presence with the ability to represent the brand externally. 

• Experience managing external agency partners, including PR agencies of record, creative agencies, and digital/media agencies. 

• Working knowledge of CRM, email marketing platforms, and digital analytics tools.