Description

Job Title: Director, Brand Consulting

 EssenceMediacom is a global communications agency leading with breakthrough thinking, building explosive growth for brands, and helping our clients see the bigger picture. Our daring global network of 10,000 communications experts help our clients breach traditional boundaries in media, uncover novel ideas, and unleash exponential growth. EssenceMediacom challenges conventional thinking to build, propel, and supercharge our clients’ businesses at scale and lead our industry in critical areas such as diversity, equity, inclusion, and sustainability.  

Department Overview:

EssenceMediacom Sport, Entertainment & Culture (SE&C) is an award-winning partnerships and brand engagement division of EssenceMediacom. Our aim is to ensure our client’s sponsorship activities are impactful, accountable and aligned with their wider communications objectives to drive maximum success and efficiency from sponsorship as a key component of the communication system. Being part of the world’s leading integrated communication agency, the division combines the most comprehensive consumer and brand insight with intrinsic knowledge of all channels where sponsorship is executed to identify, secure, and develop sport, entertainment and culture partnerships that deliver long lasting brand impact.

EssenceMediacom Sport, Entertainment & Culture works closely with each department within the organization, however it’s intrinsically aligned with

EssenceMediacom’s Media Partnerships, Influencer Marketing and Content Production divisions.

EssenceMediacom Sport, Entertainment & Cultures’ offering is built on the following key pillars:

1) Partnership Marketing

• Sponsorship Measurement
• Sponsorship Negotiation
• Sponsorship Activation & Account Management
• Talent Engagement (Athletes, Celebrities, etc.)

2) Brand Consulting

• Sponsorship Strategy Cultivation
• New Business Cultivation

Role Overview:

The Director will own the relationship and work output for a selection of EssenceMediacom’s clients. With a focus on brand and sponsorship strategy, this position involves conducting relevant and insightful internal and external analysis, identifying and communicating influential business implications, creating compelling storylines and developing key recommendations rooted in strategic insights, to ensure client satisfaction. As such, candidates should be well versed in all tenets of sponsorship strategy and be comfortable operating with ambiguity, while demonstrating strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Reporting to the SVP, Sport, Entertainment & Culture, the Director will also participate in various new business initiatives to drive the evolution and growth of our Canadian offering to our clients.

This position provides day-to-day management of all aspects related to sport marketing partnerships and is a key contact for all EssenceMediacom relationships within the sport and sport media industries within the territory, across all lines of business, including clients, sport properties, sport media and other sport stakeholders.

The incumbent will work closely with EssenceMediacom Sport and Entertainments’ global network in delivering best practices to local clients, and aligning and sharing resources globally, where appropriate; and collaborate with the Client Service Teams to support and align on overall account management and sponsorship marketing relevance to help the client achieve overall marketing objectives.

Required Skills and Behaviours:

• Proven brand and/or account management skills required to create, maintain and enhance business/sponsorship strategy priorities
• Experienced negotiator with an ability to work within a complex deal framework
• Innate ability to think creatively when developing strategic recommendations, considering client objectives and key insights
• Articulate and skilled at effectively communicating information and ideas in written and verbal format to senior level contacts and stakeholders
• Ability to influence others
• Entrepreneurial, self-starter mentality with the ability to operate at a high level, to drive growth and go-forward decision-making.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal, with the ability to communicate with impact and effectiveness across all levels of an organization and with external audiences.
• An expert with PowerPoint and/or Keynote—able to build creative and visually impactful slides that creatively and coherently articulate the problems and opportunities, rooted in strategic insights.
• Highly developed sales and business development skills
• Ability to navigate client relationships from Executive levels right through to junior staff
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, and relationship management skills
• Self-starter, solutions oriented, drives results
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment

 Key Accountabilities:

Clients

• Provide direct, day-to-day leadership and strategic direction on all aspects of the client’s sport marketing business/initiatives.
• Deeply understand the client’s business(es) as well as their sponsorship portfolio and investments.
• Lead client work as an expert in analysis and methodology by creating appropriate sponsorship and governance models.
• Develop detailed strategic and tactical roadmaps that align the day-to-day focus to the strategy. This includes overseeing the team’s project management efforts, ensuring critical milestones are met and progress is reported in a timely manner.
• Oversee and analyse ongoing sponsorship and market trends within sports, arts, entertainment and lifestyle. Translate the key insights and learnings into strategic and tailored client recommendations.
• Build relationships with client(s) and partners to identify new opportunities to grow agency revenue with targeted focus on strategic insights, experiential activation and program measurement analytics.
• Manage work plans, client expectations, partner relationships, measurement and reporting tools to ensure flawless execution.
• Lead the team in conducting and assessing primary/secondary research, to inform situational analyses.
• Lead all negotiations on behalf of client, deliver value-added services and establish a key point of differentiation relative to competitors.
• Based on feedback and direction from clients, fully develop up to individual concepts to execution-ready status, including full sponsorship rights, budgets, and related media support
• In collaboration with internal teams, ensure strong alignment on overall client marketing objectives
• Lead the creation of sponsorship marketing plans and the identification of KPIs / measurement plans
• Leverage sport property resources to deliver complete and effective reporting on sponsorship activity to clients
• Develop strong client relationships and a detailed client contact and relationship strategy
• Develop strong collaborative relationships with all partner agencies. Provide point of view and strategic and creative input into the development of programs initiated at partner agencies
• Review client briefs and identify business solutions that relate to sport and entertainment marketing
• Identify strategic opportunities and develop initial concepts against key marketing and media initiatives
• Establish a deep knowledge of the clients to proactively identify ways to build business
• Monitor and ensure consistency of client service across the client base
• Lead the submission for relevant awards, and the creation of all submission materials

 Team Approach

• Contribute to foster a team culture which emphasizes excellence of delivery and focus on outcomes/results
• Lead and inspire others
• Participate in the recruitment and selection of staff as we grow
• Work with the SVP to improve talent and competence levels within team
• Develop direct reports into high performing cohesive team where applicable

 Education and Experience:

• 7-9 years in strategic sport and sponsorship marketing roles; developing and packaging services to reflect evolving client needs and agency revenue targets
• 7-10 years business management experience
• Previous experience in the Corporate Sponsorship industry, preferably through management of global sponsorship brands/properties.
• Thorough understanding of competitive agency landscape, key trends
• Significant experience operating successfully, in a complex multi-stakeholder environment
• Post-Secondary degree: Focus on Marketing and/or Business
• Established network across the sport, media and other related industries
• A combination of Agency/Brand experience would be considered an asset
• Other Assets: International and/or Media Industry Experience
• Desirable: MBA

 ABOUT ESSENCEMEDIACOM:

EssenceMediacom people, have big goals: building breakthrough growth for brands and leading with breakthrough thinking in our industry. We call them “Essentials” because they are at the heart of our work and their ideas will enable us to tap into that critical intersection of people, content, and technology to bring brand aspirations to life. EssenceMediacom is a place for you to grow your career and expand your horizons. EssenceMediacom is committed to building an agency culture that supports our people, puts diversity at the forefront of our operations, and creates opportunity for all. This collective culture is our power, where ideas are freely exchanged, and collaboration is actively encouraged in a place where you can innovate in our hyperconnected world.  

GroupM and all its affiliates embrace and celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We are a worldwide media agency network that represents global clients. The more inclusive we are, the more great work we can create together.