Associate Manager, Sports Brand Solutions

Sports Brand Solutions

The Sports Brand Solutions group serves the Disney Advertising Sales team as experts on specific sports/properties (i.e. Fantasy Sports, ESPN Films, College Football, NBA, etc). The group is vital to the sales process and drives significant advertising revenue via the creation of cross platform sponsorship opportunities and turnkey, customized marketing solutions.   The Sports Brand Solutions group oversees the development and execution of all sponsorship deliverables, to ensure sponsorship elements and enhancements run correctly.

The group works closely with internal stakeholders including Sales, Production, Product, Programming, Editorial, Revenue & Operations, Consumer Marketing and Legal to strategically maximize the revenue and sales opportunities across our sport platforms.

The Sports Brand Solutions group is a team of experts that provide creative marketing sponsorship and integration opportunities across ESPN’s vast content portfolio. The team is responsible for the complete sponsorship process including, but not limited to, rights negotiations, strategy, ideation, and execution.

The SBS team also manages the day-to-day external sales relationships with our various League and 3rd party production partners to ensure we are following the contractual guardrails and maximizing revenue opportunities.

Job Summary

The Associate Manager, Sports Brand Solutions will be tasked with supporting Disney Ad Sales in their effort to drive revenue against Fantasy Sports, ESPN Films, ESPN Originals, and Streaming/DTC properties.  Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Assist in the development of building cross platform sponsorship packages for Fantasy Pick’em Games (including Tournament Challenge), ESPN Films, ESPN Originals, and ESPN Digital Video across TV, Digital, Social and On-Site activations
• Serve as Ad Sales liaison to Production/Content and Digital Product teams
• Assist Director and Senior Manager with their efforts to drive sponsorship opportunities across the Disney/ESPN platform for ESPN Films, ESPN Originals and ESPN Fantasy Pick’em games
• Grow and develop relationships with content partners across linear, digital and social
• Collaborate directly with content partners on sponsor opportunities, integrations and positions
• Lead creative discussions between ESPN Production and ESPN CreativeWorks team in the development of custom content related to ESPN Films and Originals
• Manage the creation of sponsorship related graphics and similar assets from start to finish, in partnership with colleagues in Sports Brand Solutions, Product Design and Creative Services
• Communicate with Account Management to ensure launch success for addressable sponsorships and troubleshoot issues as they arise
• Lead creation and distribution of linear and addressable sales obligations
• Maintain select insights and data projects to support sales efforts
• Maintain current awareness of competitive sponsorship marketplace for Films, Original Storytelling, Streaming and Fantasy Pickem’ style games
• Provide recommendations on deal point letters on front end of negotiation
• Participate with Management in understanding more complex issues and resolutions
• Attend client meetings and participate on client calls, as needed

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role

• Build cross platform sponsorship opportunities
• Research and respond to RFP’s
• Lead development of obligations, competitive reviews, etc.
• Coordination with Production, Product, Digital Content, Programming, CreativeWorks, etc.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• 3+ years related work experience
• Must be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment that requires a high level of responsiveness and attention to detail
• Experience working in digital ad sales with focus on sponsorship, monetization or operations
• Proficient with PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, and Excel
• Excellent written, verbal and listening communication skills
• An optimistic, solution-oriented professional who leads by example
• Ability to work independently, think proactively, and be accountable to the team
• Detail oriented and strong time management skills
• Strong written and presentation skills
• Professional maturity and executive presence
• Action oriented

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