Sr. Marketing Manager

Description

About Lucky Lincoln Gaming

Lucky Lincoln Gaming is the 5th largest route gaming operator in Illinois, generating over $110M in annual revenue, and we're building to become the largest. We're scaling fast, and the field is where our growth is won or lost. This is a company for people who want real ownership, real accountability, and the chance to build something bigger as we expand into new states and new markets.

About the Role

You will run all of Marketing for Lucky Lincoln Gaming. One person, end to end. Our Regional Directors, District Managers, and Field Team back you up, but you're the quarterback, the planner, the doer, and the project manager who makes it happen. Most of the job is in the field with location owners, learning what actually brings players into a venue and keeps them coming back. 

Sometimes it's the retail offering, the hospitality, the snacks, or the rewards. You find out, then you turn it into programs that grow same-store sales and market share as we climb from 5th to 1st in Illinois.

Here's the edge: you control the marketing spend, so you'll have direct conversations with location owners about what works and what's a waste of money. You'll also build our player loyalty program from the ground up, run campaigns for our owned gaming parlors, rebuild our website, and position the brand for a younger audience as we open Chicago. There's no playbook waiting for you. What you build becomes the playbook for every market we enter next.

What You'll Own

• All of Marketing for Lucky Lincoln Gaming: the annual plan, the budget, and the results
• Regular field time with location owners, learning what drives traffic and loyalty at our best-performing venues and scaling those lessons across the network
• Gaming room standards, working with Regional Directors and District Managers so every room is top notch and every space and signage opportunity is maximized
• Marketing spend decisions, including straight conversations with location owners about what's working and what isn't
• The player loyalty program with SMS and email campaigns that keep players engaged without wearing them out
• Loyalty performance, tracked through new sign-ups, monthly activation rate, opt-outs, and spend per player as machine-level data comes online
• Campaigns for currently owned gaming parlors
• Multichannel campaigns across digital ads, geofenced social, scratch-off mailers, and handouts, each tied to a specific campaign with measured return
• Sales enablement, giving the revenue team the brand, materials, and campaigns it needs to win and keep locations
• A full website rebuild and a modernized outbound program that reaches younger audiences, starting with Chicago
• The marketing scoreboard: KPIs, measurement framework, and reporting cadence for spend efficiency and year-over-year same-store sales, built with our finance and data teams

What Success Looks Like

• Same-store sales grow year over year, and you can point to the campaigns, promotions, and loyalty mechanics that drove it
• Gaming rooms across the network meet a consistent, high standard, with space and signage fully put to work
• The loyalty program is live on our player rewards platform, with sign-ups, activation, and retention all trending the right way
• Every campaign dollar ties to a measured return, and spend efficiency improves against the framework you built
• Marketing is a visible lever in market share gains, helping the revenue team win new locations and keep the ones we have
• The new website and outbound presence win with location owners and younger players, especially in Chicago

Requirements

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years of progressive Marketing experience, including ownership of a full marketing function
• Bachelor's Degree required
• A track record in multi-unit, decentralized consumer businesses. Hospitality groups, restaurant or franchise systems, multi-location consumer services, and small-format gaming translate especially well.
• Proven ability to drive customers through physical doors with local marketing, events, promotions, and loyalty programs
• Hands-on experience building and running loyalty or CRM programs, including SMS and email, with a clear read on engagement and churn metrics
• Working command of digital and direct channels: geofenced social, paid digital, direct mail, and in-venue materials, all tied to measurable results
• Experience marketing to business owners or franchisees while growing their end-customer traffic
• A quarterback. You plan, you execute, and you manage a dozen moving projects without dropping one.
• A doer. You'll set up an event on Friday night, run the raffle, talk with players and owners, and present the results to executive leadership on Monday.
• The backbone to tell a location owner a program isn't working, and the judgment to know when it isn't
• Measurement discipline:  You know what to track, why it matters, and how to tie every dollar of spend to an outcome
• Executive presence that earns buy-in from an ambitious leadership team
• Eligible for disclosure to the Illinois Gaming Board as a sales agent, and able to maintain eligibility under applicable Illinois gaming regulations

Compensation

The base salary range for this role is $150,000 to $180,000, plus a performance bonus tied to marketing spend efficiency and same-store sales growth. Actual compensation within the range depends on experience and qualifications.

Highland Holdings and its portfolio companies are equal opportunity employers. We evaluate all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We offer a full suite of benefits, including medical, dental, vision, 401(k) matching, and more.