Associate Account Director

Horizon Media•New York, NY

3d•$110,000 - $135,000•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 Associate Director to further develop our brand consulting practice and is based in New York, NY. This position will report directly to the Director of the sports division and will serve as the lead of an account team, actively implementing and supporting the growth of a global fintech client’s sponsorship strategy, activation, and new business efforts. The Associate Director is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing brand strategies for a global fintech client, ensuring consistent brand visibility, targeted business impact and growth across client’s sponsorship portfolio. The Associate Director will 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. The Associate Director will also contribute to the professional growth of their direct report(s). This role may support new business efforts and oversee onboarding of new 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+ years of marketing and sponsorship experience at an agency, team, league, rights holder or brand with a proven performance record
Bachelor’s Degree
Experience in sports partnerships at the professional level on a domestic and global scale
Deep understanding of the sports & entertainment landscape, experience working with sports sponsorships and live entertainment required
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 two (2) 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

Lead an account team(s) in the management and implementation of clients’ marketing campaigns and client portfolios
Oversight of negotiation process – ensure clients objectives are being met, partnerships are yielding positive ROI and team is securing partnerships within budget parameters
Oversight of partnership operations, ensuring teams are working effectively, communicating efficiently and organizational structure is productive
Proper delegation of 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
Develop, maintain and advance professional and personable relationships with clients and partner agencies at appropriate level
Oversight of team’s day-to-day communication and coordination between client (or Business Solutions team), rights holders and vendors
Manage the development of client strategies and objectives, working closely with clients to continuously update/revise based on brand/business/customer needs.
Drive new partnership solutions to deliver on client’s 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
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
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
Support HS&E’s new business efforts with strategic solutions, insights and concept development ideation