Account Director, HS&E

Horizon Media•New York, NY

18h•$140,000 - $165,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Horizon Sports and Experiences (HS&E) was created to provide a differentiated and comprehensive approach for clients engaging in sports and experiential marketing. With a fully-integrated service model, HS&E includes a core focus on IP creation and monetization, strategic advisory and consulting, media rights, sponsorship, sales, and experiential strategy and activation – transforming marketers' ability to more seamlessly and effectively leverage their brand assets, content, and engagement strategies to drive increased growth. HS&E is seeking an Account Director to further develop our brand consulting practice and lead our teams B2B brand partnerships. This position will report directly to the SVP of the brand consulting division and is based in New York, NY. The Director will lead an account team(s), actively developing, implementing, and managing strategy, identification, development and execution of brand initiatives for select B2B clients.

Requirements

Team-spirited and collaborative to achieve client objectives.
Ability to work in a dynamic, fast-pace environment, working on multiple partnerships and activations at a time.
Proven leader, experience managing a team.
Passionate in the live events landscape and a desire to innovate and keep up with trends.
Tremendous organizational skills, attention to detail and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and competing priorities.
An innovative thinker, concepting creative ideas for various activations.
A strong writer, listener, communicator and presenter.
Solutions oriented and proactive problem solver with foresight and the ability to develop creative solutions.
Experience with sponsorship measurement techniques.
An advocate for and supporter of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Minimum of 7-9 years of marketing and sponsorship experience at an agency, team, league, rights holder or brand with a proven performance record.
Bachelor’s Degree.
Experience working with sports sponsorships and live entertainment required.
Strong understanding of B2B marketing principles and strategies; direct work experience across B2B brands.
Experience with relationship management of clients, agencies and vendors.
Experience working across organization and interfacing with a variety of stakeholders.
Ability to think strategically and creatively, and to communicate such thoughts proactively, efficiently and effectively.
Must be solutions oriented and focused on proactive problem solving and advanced troubleshooting.
Excellent time management, written and oral communication skills, including ability to develop well organized decks to sell in ideas and work and convey agency POVs.
Experience managing a staff of no less than three (3) account team members.
Ability to operate with urgency and motivate those around you to do the same.
Ability to remain organized across multiple workstreams and teams activating in parallel.
Ability to travel for activations and client meetings.
High level of proficiency with Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

Responsibilities

Develop, implement, and manage brand strategies for B2B clients, ensuring consistent brand visibility, targeted business impact and customer growth across client’s sponsorship portfolio.
Build and maintain relationships based on trust and collaboration across all appropriate client levels, properties, vendor partners and partner agencies with the fundamental objective of delivering on the client’s goals and business needs.
Contribute to the professional growth of their direct report(s).
Support new business efforts and oversee onboarding of new clients.
Develop, maintain and advance professional and personable relationships with B2B clients and partner agencies at appropriate level.
Establish senior level relationships with key client partners, representing high level client needs and initiatives.
Manage the development of B2B client strategies and objectives, working closely with clients to continuously update/revise based on brand/business/customer needs.
Conduct market research and competitor analysis to inform brand strategy development.
Drive new partnership solutions to deliver on B2B clients’ goals and evaluate current health of client business via analysis of relevant business metrics (ROI/ROO); introduce advanced measurement solutions and customer insights to help guide long-term activation approach and establish annual benchmarks for success.
Provide insights and recommendations to optimize brand strategies and campaigns.
Track and analyze brand performance metrics, such as brand awareness, lead generation, and customer satisfaction.
Monitor marketplace, identify new pursuits, and proactively present opportunities to grow client’s existing portfolio.
Ensure client portfolios are being managed up to the highest standards.
Manage complex client issues that require difficult solutions and/or involve multiple agency resources to solve; deliver written responses and solutions to client issues.
Write and provide thought leadership on key industry topics as requested by clients.
Lead an account team(s) in the management and implementation of clients’ marketing campaigns and client portfolios.
Provide high level oversight of negotiation process – ensure clients objectives are being met, partnerships are yielding positive ROI and team is securing partnerships within budget parameters.
Provide high level oversight of partnership operations, ensuring teams are working effectively, communicating efficiently and organizational structure is productive.
Properly delegate day-to-day responsibilities to team members.
Utilize creative and innovative thinking skills to develop partnership concepts and strategies for clients.
Ensure all client projections/new revenues are communicated to finance lead in a timely manner; escalate billing issues to finance.
Facilitate communication with internal counterparts, vendors, rights holders and upper management.
Communicate regularly with agency partners to ensure partnership strategy aligns/supports the larger media strategy; stay abreast of any business adjustments, new client initiatives, market expansion, etc. that could impact the sponsorship strategy and portfolio.
Build and maintain long-term business relationships (internal and external).
Meet with properties/vendors regularly to understand the latest industry developments.
Contribute, build and maintain positive and dynamic culture across the agency, inclusive of team-building efforts and social activities.
Manage the professional development of each direct report.
Set career development goals, track performance, and hold team members accountable.
Work with team members to improve skill sets and remove barriers to effectiveness.
Provide constructive feedback in real time.
Contribute to the execution of people functions of the agency (including, but not limited to): Staff reviews / quarterly check-ins, Identify training needs for improved performance, Developing action plans.
Monitor team’s workload and notice executive leadership if additional staff support is necessary.
Lead interview process for new candidates.
Responsible for identifying growth opportunities within the current brand portfolio to increase scope and fees for the agency.
Support HS&E’s new business efforts with strategic solutions, insights and concept development ideation.