The Marketing Director, Partnerships & Collaborations owns the global alignment and execution of the Team Sports Partnership brand strategy and marketing mix across Basketball and Football including the NBA, WNBA, NFL, NCAA, AVP (Volleyball), and Brand Collaborations. This role manages a team tasked with delivering all aspects of a global marketing plan including Performance Marketing, Media & Content Strategy, Campaign Development, and Global Brand Planning & Storytelling. While the role has a partnership focus given the nature of the Team Sports business, the position itself requires a traditional marketing manager skill set with proven success leading the development and execution of 360 planning with specific emphasis on brand strategy and storytelling versus negotiation and asset delivery.
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Manage and Develop the Brand: Lead the strategy, development, and execution of fully integrated, consumer facing campaigns and drive key brand marketing initiatives in alignment with the business unit’s objectives; including but not limited to running point on delivering integrated 360 marketing tool kits, community/sports marketing, experiential/event activation, media, PR, and influencer/social marketing etc.
Deliver Global Strategies and Tools for relevant regions and countries:
Develop commercially viable and consumer relevant marketing plans, campaigns, and toolboxes for the regions/countries.
Deliver seasonal Marketing plans, calendars and KPIs for the region/country brand portfolio, in close collaboration with commercial and portfolio / shared service marketing teams.
Co-lead the planning and management of the annual marketing budgets for respective brand/category. Ensure programs are delivered on time and within budget.
Build a trusting, two-way dialogue with regional marketing teams, regularly gathering local insight and feedback. Provide brand marketing support, as the go-to person, for the region/country marketing teams.
Collaborate with the Digital Marketing Team to design and develop all key digital marketing campaigns, ensuring they are seamlessly integrated into the seasonal launch plans.
Own the planning and execution of the Wilson Brand Partnerships & Collabs strategy managing the team to deliver on-trend, on-time and on-budget global collabs for the Wilson brand. Own the pipeline, partner exploration and team’s execution of demand creation, consumer acquisition and sell-out.
Regularly collaborate with Team Sports leadership to contribute to the overall strategic foundations for the business overall, including brand purpose, KBD identification, new process development and organization culture building priorities.
Provide monthly updates on marketing plan, KPI progress and results.
Work with external agencies and in the creation and execution of seasonal plans that place Wilson Team products and stories into relevant consumer and trade media channels.
Manage the dedicated Partnership & Collab marketing related staff
Ensure Wilson is always presented to trade and consumers within brand equity and partner guidelines.
This role requires a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing, or related area; a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing highly desirable. We are seeking candidates with a minimum of 10 years of professional experience in marketing & brand management in premium branded consumer goods industry. Experience managing a global brand with emphasis on campaign development, agency management and digital media strategy and planning is a must!
Other qualifications include:
Prior experience in the sporting goods industry, consumer packaged goods or lifestyle brand is preferred
Prior experience in marketing for the sporting goods industry or a lifestyle brand is preferred.
Brand Builder & Enthusiast - excellent understanding and mastery of creative briefing, campaign development, media mix planning, the funnel, consumer journeys.
Sophisticated Consumer Mindset – in-depth knowledge of current and emerging consumer trend; ability to identify opportunities to exploit future growth leveraging market trends in the sports and retail landscapes. Natural curiosity toward understanding the Team Sports consumer and discovering trending, relevant partners in the collaboration space.
Master Collaborator – proven ability to build and optimize detailed, integrated plans across functions and personalities from Commercial, R&D, Legal, & Product to Marketing partners externally (Agencies, Creators) and internally (PR, Social Media, Experiential, Community & DTC).
Self-Motivated & Action Oriented - confidence to take initiative and ownership, bring new ideas to the table, and influence optimizations in process, team and agency management in addition to brand and marketing strategies.
Hyper Efficient - proven ability to effectively manage multiple projects across multiples brands in a dynamic environment with strong organizational, communication and follow-through skills
Creative Problem Solver - high level of creativity, both with problem-solving and marketing mix development; must be able to generate creative ideas and work alongside creatives in an intensely collaborative, dynamic environment; must exhibit and openness to constantly challenging the status quo for rooting out the most progressive and effective marketing tactics to surround and engage the Wilson consumer and/or buyer.
Big Picture Thinker - always has eyes trained on the big picture; sees challenges as opportunities and translates them into actionable strategies; confident and assertive but not aggressive and set in ways. Proactively connects the dots enabling wins, progress and growth.
Proven ability to work with limited resources and budgets.
Excellent written/verbal, time management and quantitative/analytical skills.
Advanced presentation skills – from content development to professional, streamlined formatting and delivery.
Available to travel approximately 25% of the time, including work weekdays, weekends, and evenings as required by events and business needs.
