Marketing Lead, Local Market Activation

GEICO•Bethesda, MD

7d•$82,000 - $129,150•Hybrid

About The Position

Within Marketing at GEICO, local market activation is how national brand priorities become real, tangible experiences for customers. Getting the execution right is what makes those investments count. The Lead, Local Market Activation owns end-to-end planning and execution of consumer-facing experiential programs across priority markets — sports events, trade shows, mobile tours, and community activations. That means managing agencies, vendors, and budgets; leading cross-functional project management from concept through recap; and being on the ground making sure activations land the way they were designed. This role is a great fit for someone who is excellent at execution, genuinely energized by live events, and organized enough to hold complex, multi-market programs together without anything falling through the cracks.

Requirements

Have owned end-to-end execution of consumer-facing experiential programs — not just supported them — and can point to activations you ran from planning through recap
Are a natural project manager who holds complex, multi-workstream programs together across agencies, vendors, and internal teams without things falling through the cracks
Are comfortable on-site in high-pressure situations, troubleshooting in real time and maintaining standards when things don't go as planned
Have managed budgets at the program and market level, and can explain cost drivers and tradeoffs clearly
Are energized by live events and the logistical puzzle of making them work — this isn't just a job function for you, it's something you're genuinely good at and interested in
5+ years in experiential marketing, event marketing, or field activation, with proven experience executing consumer-facing events or large-scale activations
Experience managing national or multi-market experiential programs, not just single-event execution
Demonstrated experience managing production vendors, agencies, and on-site execution teams
Hands-on experience managing program-level budgets, including tracking, reconciliation, and forecasting
Ability to manage timelines, approvals, and deliverables across internal and external stakeholders in a matrixed environment
Background in sports, entertainment, or large-scale event environments preferred
Experience connecting experiential programs with media, PR, and social campaigns

Nice To Haves

Experience building or improving standardized activation tools, templates, or playbooks used across a team or program
Direct relationships with production vendors, event staffing firms, or experiential agencies
Familiarity with measurement frameworks for experiential, including lead capture, engagement metrics, and brand impact tracking

Responsibilities

Support development of market-level activation plans grounded in business opportunity, audience insights, local culture, and key moments
Identify opportunities to extend national campaigns into in-market experiences that drive engagement and memorability
Lead end-to-end execution of experiential activations — events, pop-ups, mobile tours, and community programs — across markets
Build comprehensive activation plans covering timelines, run-of-show playbooks, staffing, asset development, fabrication, and logistics
Own on-site execution: final production checks, staffing alignment, inventory management, and real-time troubleshooting
Develop scalable concepts that flex across markets without losing quality or brand consistency
Serve as cross-functional project management lead across internal teams and agency partners, driving workback schedules, milestone tracking, and dependency mapping
Proactively surface risks and gaps; implement mitigation plans before they become execution problems
Build and apply standardized tools, templates, and workflows that improve consistency and efficiency across activations
Manage program communications — stakeholder updates, status reports, and timely escalation of key issues
Manage experiential agencies, production partners, and vendors responsible for fabrication, logistics, and staffing
Own activation budgets at the program and market level — tracking costs, reconciling estimates vs. actuals, and maintaining accurate forecasting
Scope projects appropriately, review vendor estimates, and identify cost efficiencies without compromising experience quality
Track activation performance — engagement, leads captured, experience quality — and deliver post-event recaps with clear learnings and recommendations
Partner with Analytics to evolve how experiential effectiveness is measured over time