Associate Director of Brand Marketing

The Associate Director of Brand Marketing reports directly to the VP of Marketing & Brand Management. The role owns brand strategy, positioning, messaging, architecture, standards, brand partner marketing, and long-term brand health for the Fred Rogers Productions (FRP) brand, FRP's portfolio properties, and future initiatives. The role serves as Fred Rogers Productions’ lead steward of brand strategy while partnering closely with the Associate Director of Social & Integrated Marketing, who leads integrated campaign planning, audience development, and channel execution.

Where the Associate Director, Social & Integrated Marketing brings campaigns to life across channels, this role defines what each brand stands for and keeps it consistent. It turns the VP's marketing vision into brand plans, positioning, and guidelines. It also serves as the day-to-day marketing lead for FRP's production and internal partners and its brand and creative agencies on brand efforts.

This is a strategic and hands-on role. It calls for equal comfort writing a brand positioning statement and partnering with internal teams, external partners, and agencies to sustain and optimize each brand over time.

This role reinforces FRP values externally and internally: respect for ideas, skills, beliefs, backgrounds, and perspectives of colleagues and partners; thoughtful approach to every aspect of our work and collaboration; acknowledgment and embrace of differences; and holding ourselves to the highest creative and executional standards because we believe children and families deserve world-class educational content and experiences.

Key responsibilities

Brand strategy and positioning

• Partner with the VP of Marketing & Brand Management and the Associate Director of Social & Integrated Marketing to translate FRP's long-term marketing vision into annual brand and audience growth plans for FRP and its portfolio of properties.
• Define and maintain the brand architecture across FRP's properties: how the master brand and each series relate, and where each one intersects various stakeholders (such as children, parents/caregivers, educators, donors, etc.).
• Write and maintain positioning, messaging frameworks, and brand voice for each property, and brief internal teams and agencies on them.
• Support brand planning for new series, launches, and initiatives in partnership with the Associate Director of Social & Integrated Marketing, such as establishing strategic objectives, audience priorities, messaging frameworks, and launch requirements for integrated marketing campaigns.
• Own FRP's brand guidelines and style guides, and review all materials for brand accuracy, including but not limited to partner, licensing, and agency work, before they go to the VP.
• Set and maintain brand standards, positioning, and creative guardrails that inform marketing, communications, partnerships, and audience engagement efforts across the organization.
• Lead special branding projects in collaboration with the Communications and Engagement Team and the Associate Director of Social & Integrated Marketing.

Internal partner and external agency management

• Serve as the day-to-day marketing contact for FRP's internal partners, escalating strategic matters to the VP.
• Coordinate joint marketing plans with partners, including premieres, seasonal moments, and location-based entertainment.
• Manage brand, creative, and research agencies: write briefs, review work, and hold them to scope, timelines, and results.
• Support corporate sponsorship and fundraising teams with brand materials and partner-facing positioning.
• Support additional Marketing and Brand Management Tasks as assigned.

Insights and measurement

• Lead brand research, including brand health, awareness, perception, and audience segmentation studies in partnership with the Associate Director of Social & Integrated Marketing.
• Monitor competitors, media trends, and family audience behavior, and turn findings into recommendations for the VP.
• Define brand-level KPIs (awareness, consideration, sentiment, reach) and report on them to the VP and internal stakeholders, complementing campaign KPIs owned by the Associate Director of Social & Integrated Marketing.

Budget, planning and team

• Build and manage brand, partner marketing and agency budgets within the department budget set by the VP, and report on spend and return.
• Act as the VP's delegate in brand meetings and cross-functional forums with production, licensing, communications, education, community engagement, and finance.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• 8 + years of progressive experience in brand marketing, brand management or brand strategy, including at least 3 years managing people or agency teams.
• Proven experience managing a portfolio of multiple brands or properties, with responsibility for positioning, guidelines and brand consistency.
• Track record of managing licensing, distribution, production, or co-marketing partners.
• Experience directing creative and brand agencies, from briefing through final approval.
• Experience commissioning and applying brand and audience research.
• Experience building and managing marketing budgets and reporting on return on investment.
• Strong creative judgment, storytelling and writing skills.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, consensus-building and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and adapt in a changing media environment.
• This position follows a hybrid work arrangement and requires a minimum of two days per week in the Pittsburgh office. Additional onsite attendance may be required based on department, project, or business needs.

Preferred

• Experience in children's media, family entertainment, educational content or consumer products.
• Experience with nonprofit, public media or mission-driven organizations.
• Passion for educational children's media and experiences.