Director, Sponsorship Strategy, Sports - Brand Consulting

Job Description

Who We Are

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is the leading entertainment and sports agency, with global expertise in filmed and live entertainment, digital media, publishing, sponsorship sales and endorsements, licensing, media finance, consumer investing, fashion, trademark licensing, and philanthropy.  Distinguished by its culture of collaboration and exceptional client service, CAA’s diverse workforce identifies, innovates, and amplifies opportunities for the people and organizations that shape culture and inspire the world.  The trailblazer of the agency business, CAA was the first to build a sports business, create an investment bank, launch a venture fund, found technology start-up companies, establish a philanthropic arm, build a business in China, and form a brand marketing services division, among other innovations.

The Role

The CAA Brand Consulting Sponsorship Strategy Director will play a key role in some of our most high-profile client work and new-business initiatives.  This position will lead the development and ‘sell-in’ of data and insight-driven Sports sponsorship strategies across the entire sports ecosystem – partnering with account leads to advise C-suite clients and their teams on how to implement sponsorship strategies across each media channel, sponsorship asset mix and consumer touchpoint.  In this role, the candidate will interface day-to-day with our account teams and functional leaders (Creative, Analytics, Business Development, Experiential, etc.), inter-agency leaders, as well as directly with senior clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver overarching strategic vision grounded in data for client assignments, defining and prioritizing initiatives that directly support marketing/business goals and brand KPIs

• Work with Account teams around client briefings to qualify opportunities, shaping campaign deliverables and go-to-market strategies

• Partner closely with our Insights and Analytics teams to build and apply insight and data-driven personas, segmentation models, customer journeys and measurement frameworks

• Interpret category and consumer trends to inform cultural marketing, partnership, campaign and communication strategies, determining the roles of media and creative and ideal touchpoints needed to drive desired outcomes

• Develop overarching partnership strategy, including creative platforms and narrative, defining the role of partnerships within the broader brand and marketing ecosystem

• Create partnership portfolio analyses to identify the strategic role of partnerships and ensure alignment with overarching strategy, including partner selection, rights and asset utilization

• Create activation strategies to meet brand objectives/targets and design integrated campaign approaches across channels and touchpoints

• Develop ideas for optimizing existing activations to improve effectiveness, efficiency and cultural relevance

• Create topline negotiation strategies for potential partnerships, outlining value exchange, priority assets and key leverage points

• Act as a bridge between internal teams – Account, New Business, Data, Insights, Creative – facilitating optimal team outputs while balancing efficiency and effectiveness

• Brief and collaborate with internal and external partners (e.g. client’s IMC teams)

• Develop and apply ownable positioning for brands within Sports, informing brand role, partner selection, rights and asset utilization, and creative activation

• Proactively pitch innovative ideas, new partners, new channels, and test and learn opportunities

• Cultivate relationships across CAA to find and promote new opportunities for clients

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Communications, Statistics or similar discipline

• 8-10+ years of experience in brand, integrated communications, or connections planning

• Must have experience in sports

• Expertise in interpreting consumer research and data (quantitative & qualitative) and applying to solutions-based client strategies

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills

• Strong analytical skills, ability to think critically and work collaboratively on fast moving projects

• Proven ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, while being extremely detail-oriented 

• Ability to influence, persuade and lead broader teams 

• Excellent understanding of the composition and application of creative briefs

• Experience communicating and providing consultation and advice to clients, including running brainstorms, strategy and innovation workshops

• Ability to travel and attend work events outside normal business hours on an as needed basis

• Global experience or experience working on multi-market accounts 

• Knowledge, passion and curiosity on all things sports and the surrounding culture

• Ability to confidently present plans, thought leadership and ideas to a senior leadership audiences (internal and external)

• Experience working on new business pitches, to support when opportunities arise

Preferred Skills: Include any other skills, certification, experience that are “nice to have” but not required

• Experience planning social campaigns

• Experience with go-to-market planning or ecosystem thinking for campaigns

Location

This role will be hybrid, located in our New York office.

Compensation

The annual base salary for this position is in the range of $144,000 – $180,000 in New York. This position is also eligible for benefits and a discretionary bonus. Ultimately, the salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in the role, business sector, and geographic location, among other criteria. Please talk with a CAA Recruiter to learn more.

Creative Artists Agency, LLC (the “Company”) is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate on the basis of race (inclusive of traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles), color, religion, creed, gender or sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), national origin, ancestry, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, family and medical care leave status, military or veteran status, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, political affiliation, an employee’s or their dependent’s reproductive health decision making (e.g., the decision to use or access a particular drug, device or medical service), or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The absence of a permanent address is not a bar to employment. The Company does not discriminate against individuals based on housing status, including the absence of a fixed address.The Company also complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and applicable state and local laws with regard to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities.

CAA does not accept unsolicited resumes from third-party recruiters unless they were contractually engaged by CAA to provide candidates for a specified opening. Any such employment agency, person or entity that submits an unsolicited resume does so with the acknowledgement and agreement that CAA will have the right to hire that applicant at its discretion without any fee owed to the submitting employment agency, person or entity.