Sports Marketing Associate Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Optimum Sports is the dedicated sports marketing agency within OMG. Unlike traditional sports marketing agencies, Optimum Sports operates in both the Sports Sponsorship and Sports Media landscapes. With the combination of both disciplines under a single offering, Optimum Sports is able to provide its clients with unique and advantageous marketplace leverage through which it delivers cohesive, multi-platform sports marketing strategies. Ingrained with the latest research and ROI tools, Optimum Sports facilitates everything from Ideation to Execution to Actualization.

Our approach integrates media, investment, property, and insights to develop strategy, manage negotiation and execution, and evaluate performance of partnerships. Established in 2003, we continue to innovate in the sports marketplace and build solutions for our constantly evolving world. 

The Associate Director reports directly to the Senior Director and serves as the direct line of communication with clients. This person will analyze, design, initiate, and oversee sponsorship marketing and ticketing strategies for assigned client(s). This includes the overall investigating of opportunities, evaluating them for fit with client/brand objectives, managing day-to-day execution, and providing follow-up analysis of instituted programs, as needed.

Qualifications:

• Undergraduate degree required (preferably Marketing, Business, Sports Management or Communications)
• 8+ years' experience working in a sponsorship marketing position with direct client-facing access
• 4+ years of relevant experience in sports
• Experience working on sports sponsorships and 360 activations is a plus, inclusive of local partnership stewardship (e.g., hospitality and ticketing management)
• Experience across mainstream media channels (national TV, local, digital, social, etc.)
• Strong communicator - both written and verbal - and presenter, in person and on conference calls
• Extensive client facing experience
• Highly organized, with the ability to manage and prioritize many simultaneous deliverables
• Proficient in Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Google Docs, Teams

Critical Skills:

• Strong background in sponsorship marketing and media strategy, with experience in building out integrated recommendations across various budget scenarios
• Background in athlete/talent activation within broader sponsorship efforts a plus
• Strong ability to effectively communicate ideas in both a written and verbal setting
• Ability to work well under pressure and deliver assignments under deadline
• Industry knowledge and understanding of sports marketing and sponsorship landscape along with media vernacular and trends
• Strong management skills and the ability to be a team leader
• Self-sufficient, enthusiastic and proactively pursues assignment
• Support direct reports in developing overarching sponsorship strategy
• Co-lead broader sports strategy development for client education
• Design materials (PPT presentations, POVs, etc.) that convey strategy supported with appropriate research, past observations that translate into optimizations, etc.
• Interpret relevant research from third party data, industry trades and additional sources
• Primarily manage day-to-day comms with client POCs
• Develop broad understanding of clients' business needs, KPI's, goals and objectives
• Ability to work seamlessly across internal and external groups
• Work directly with planning and investment teams to develop holistic client strategy
• Promote use of data and other insight tools to build strategic recommendations
• E.g., Target analysis, competitive, marketplace intelligence
• Collaborate with external agency partners on IAT deliverables including but not limited to a respective annual business planning, brand/master brand communications strategy, tactical recommendations, sponsorship and/or talent activations, etc.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for sponsorship asset/deal point and budget tracking
• If funding is sourced from various LOBs, includes oversight across the portfolio
• Detailed knowledge of all working budgets; accountability to address internal and client-based budget allocation questions and responsible for any budget reporting
• Detailed knowledge of contractual assets; accountability to address internal and client-based allocation recommendations and management across cross-functional teams
• Familiar with and staying up-to-speed on the evolving sponsorship and NIL landscape - related to sports-specific properties (e.g., leagues, teams, etc.) as well as the athlete/talent ecosystem - along with ticketing industry trends, technological advancements and best practices
• Have base knowledge of the sports marketplace to identify new opportunities, areas of white space, vacant ownership positions, etc. that fit within the overarching client strategy and work in conjunction with internal teams to bring these to life
• Oversee direct reports by managing workload, delegating responsibilities, checking work for accuracy and being their lead POC in terms of mentorship and growth development