Marketing & Brand Activations for Hybrid Hospitality Brand, The Social Hub
About The Social Hub
Founded by Charlie MacGregor in 2012, The Social Hub (B Corp) is a hybrid hospitality brand that blends traditional hotel stays with vibrant, community-focused experiences for guests, students, coworkers, and locals. They offer a range of products and services from hotel facilities, student and extended stay rooms, coworking spaces, through to auditoriums, gyms, event spaces, restaurants and cafés, and a wide variety of events and social impact initiatives.
As a B Corp with 23 locations in Europe (including Turin and Lisbon, which are currently in development), they operate on a commitment to social and environmental impact. Proudly launched in 2024, 1% of The Social Hub’s annual turnover is pledged to the TSH Talent Foundation to support changemakers facing barriers to opportunity.
THE ASSIGNMENT
From October 2025 - April 2026, The Social Hub needed an Interim Marketing & Brand Activations Lead to manage marketing, brand, and communications needs for all eight Dutch locations: Amsterdam (City), Amsterdam (West), Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague, Eindhoven, Maastricht, and Groningen.
This interim project included localizing global initiatives, as well as leading on regional- and city-specific projects.
Specifically, my responsibilities included to:
Lead a team of 3 full-time marketing coordinators + 1 part-time intern
Establish social media strategy for @thesocialhub.netherlands (31k followers)
Lead on creative direction and production processes for brand videos, social media videos, and event photography, including working with external creatives (editors, photographers, videographers, etc.)
Collaborate cross-functionally with various internal and external teams: Social, Brand, PR, Digital, Hotel Operations, Events, Leadership, other Regional Marketing teams, Global Marketing, and more.
Oversee regional PR, in collaboration with multiple stakeholders and teams
Manage stakeholder relationships and localization needs related to regional and global campaigns (see “Other Projects” below)
Plan, organize and execute five major brand activations (key city events of the period):
Fashion Clash Festivalin Maastricht | Nov 14 - 16
Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS)Music Festival in Gronginen | Jan 14 - 17
Highlight DelftArt & Technology Festival in Delft | Feb 11 - 14
Movies That MatterFilm Festival in The Hague | Mar 20 - 28
Museumnacht(Museum Night) in Maastricht | Apr 9
World Pridein Amsterdam | Jul 5 - Aug 8 (planning in progress)
Fashion Clash Festival 2025
Fashion Clash 2025 (Nov 14 - 16) is a 3-day international and multidisciplinary fashion festival that takes place at several locations throughout Maastricht. It provides a stage for a new generation of designers, artists, and performers from the Netherlands and over 25 countries worldwide. Visitors immerse themselves in a thought-provoking programme filled with performances, exhibitions, films, workshops, talks, and participation projects.
As an official partner, The Social Hub Maastricht and Fashion Clash joined forces to host an interactive showcase and exhibition of new generation of designers and artists (from AMFI, HKU, ArtEZ, Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts, WDKA, Gerrit Rietveld Academie), as well as the official festival opening party.
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Eurosonic Nooderslag (ESNS) Music Festival 2026
ESNS (Jan 14-17, 2026) in Groningen is an iconic music festival that puts European talent in the global spotlight, offering artists career-defining opportunities.
The Social Hub’s main activation for the festival was inspired by NPR’s Tiny Desk concept, but with a twist: We brought our hotel room to the lobby, attaching a bed and furniture to the walls whilst welcoming emerging artists across Europe to share their music during intimate lobby concerts (set production done in collaboration with City Dressers).
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Highlight Delft Art & Tech Festival 2026
Highlight Delft (Feb 11-14), the biggest event in the city of Delft, is a four-day annual art and tech festival where artists, designers, researchers, and technologists showcase innovative installations, performances, and experiments at the intersection of art, science, and technology (open daily from 18:00–23:00). The city transforms into an open exhibition, with locations ranging from historical buildings to hidden urban spaces, offering visitors an immersive experience of future-oriented concepts and creative ideas.
As an official partner, The Social Hub acted as a key festival information point and venue, where our main activations included an extensive robotics and art & technology exhibition and the official Cyber Social closing party.
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Movies That Matter Film Festival 2026
The Movies that Matter Festival (Mar 20 – 28, 2026) is a 9-day event featuring over 90 powerful films, from shorts to feature-length, fiction to documentaries, as well as 8 award competitions and a variety of special events (see special events here).
Beyond the festival, Movies that Matter also produce various other events, educational/advisory work, and festival support worldwide. They use film as a way to spark inspiration and stir discourse on topics such as human rights, sustainability, and fighting injustice.
In 2026, we kicked off an official partnership for the Activist Lens category. Out of eight nominees, The Activist Lens Award (powered by The Social Hub) was presented to Oscar-nominated film, Cutting Through Rocks (2025) by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni.
The Social Hub’s main activations included two exclusive screenings (+ in-person Q&A with the film makers and activists), as well as a 12-hour movie marathon (The Sleepover that Matters) — all at our hub in The Hague.
Exclusive screenings:
The Woman Who Poked the Leopard (2025), directed by Patience Nitumwesiga
Kikuyu Land (2025), directed by Andrew H. Brown and Bea Wangondu
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For our 12-hour movie marathon (Sleepover that Matters), we featured a variety of films and film makers, turning one of our largest spaces into a cozy sleepover space adorned with large beds, popcorn machines, and a large projected screen.
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Museumnacht (Museum Night) Maastricht 2026
Museumnacht Maastricht (Apr 9) Museumnacht Maastricht is an annual art-night-out experience in Maastricht where museums and creative spaces across the city open their doors late into the evening full of workshops, art, presentations, shows, exhibitions, music, film, food and dance. In 2026, they celebrated their 10th anniversary, making the edition a special milestone year for the city’s creative community.
For the first time ever, the Museumnacht organisation introduced two “Wildcard” locations. These are sites that are not traditional museum venues but offer unique cultural programming as part of the night. The Social Hub Maastricht was selected as one of these wildcard participants, giving the us the chance to present an original cultural programme.
We curated an extensive, multi-sensory event full of workshops, live art, and exciting performances featuring 25 independent artists. The first half of the night offered interactive sessions where visitors could participate in a variety of activities such as screen printing, map making, live painting, and more. Then, the second half of the night offered live performances such as a drag show, jazz concert, and even a fire dancing dancing performance.
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OTHER PROJECTS
Beyond the major brand activations and events mentioned above, my role also entailed managing marketing initiatives, stakeholder relationships and localization efforts across regional and global campaigns such as:
As a counter to Black Friday, The Social Hub globally launched a multi-city “makers market” (Nov 28, ‘25) featuring small local businesses, upcycling workshops, and second hand shopping.
Making voting easier and more accessible for local communities by turning our Dutch hubs into official voting locations (Mar 18) and adding a festive twist with coffee, pastries, and a DJ.
A brand collaboration (Mar 20 - 29) for ‘the world’s sweetest person’ to stay in the world’s most chocolatey room, hosted at our Amsterdam (City) hub, where we converted one of our signature rooms into an elaborate space full of wonder, surprise, activations, and chocolate.
The Vintage Social Market Tour (Apr 11 - May 23) is a regional campaign that adds The Social Hub’s twist to VinoKilo’s second hand shopping experience, hosted across all eight of the hotel’s Dutch locations.
A community event (Apr 7) in Amsterdam (City), featuring conversations with Ben Cohen (as in the Ben in Ben & Jerry’s) over pizza and drinks in an effort to engage our local community in impact-driven dialogue.
