Electronic Arts

The EA SPORTS – Partnerships Manager role supports some of the most-acclaimed sports franchises from EA SPORTS, including EA SPORTS NHL and EA SPORTS UFC, as well as EA SPORTS F1. This position is primarily responsible to help support the execution of the global Brand Marketing Partnerships strategy, building and maintaining relationships with teams and brands relevant to the worlds of hockey and ultimate fighting, as well as support for F1. The role will develop and execute activations aligned to the games’ marketing campaigns and will lead day-to-day operations, campaign tracking and measurement.

The Partnerships Manager is primarily responsible for being the front-line contact for some of the biggest names and brands in sport. The role will also support with creator strategy, working cross-functionally and with agency partners, to drive meaningful impact from our network of content creators. The Partnership Manager will also assist in the development and execution of activations and partnering with internal stakeholders to gather KPIs and share learnings.

The ideal candidate for this role is passionate about driving measurable results through strategic brand marketing plans, as well as working across diverse groups of partners to manage complex executions across multiple channels

Responsibilities

• Lead NHL/UFC team, brand and media partnership marketing activations, with additional support for F1, including ownership of asset briefing, readiness and deployment; coordination and execution of partner-driven campaigns, while being the primary point of contact for partners for our global campaigns.

• Evolve our management of Creator partnerships, working across marketing teams and agency partners to drive impactful results from our content creator network.

• Collaborate across Franchise Strategy and Marketing teams in developing and planning: (a)  establishing and maintaining key partnerships across sports, teams, creators and brands to deploy complex marketing activations across several touchpoints and channels, with a focus on digital campaigns (b) partnering with and helping to manage internal CFX marketing teams coordination and deployment of key assets (c) long-term strategy and plans for global marketing campaigns; (d) signature initiatives that serve as foundations for GTM plans.

• Key driver of critical business operations and administrative functions that enable global marketing campaigns, including partnering with Finance, Legal, and Business Affairs teams to create contracts, purchase orders, invoices, track budget and payment statuses, and help manage the activations guaranteed in partnership contracts.

• Partner with and coordinate multiple CFX stakeholders, including connections with global franchise leads, to ensure and communicate campaign beat status, including readiness and risks.

•  Act as a primary driver of daily/weekly campaign tracking and readiness, including establishing meeting health, channel status updates, identification of risks/opportunities per campaign beat, and liaising with CFX partners to prepare and problem-solve against obstacles in the GTM campaign.

• Deliver campaign measurement and post mortems to assess campaign KPIs, communicate results/learnings and formulate a perspective on optimization for local and/or global campaigns.

• Key membership of the Campaign marketing team, assisting in creating a collaborative, inclusive, and inspiring workplace for all team members to engage, execute, learn, and optimize work designed to best service the franchise and the overall business. 

Deliverables

-       Partnership and creator plans for title launch and sustainment campaigns 

-    Partner activation & inventory tracker

-     Daily/weekly/monthly alignment calls/meetings with partners and key CFX stakeholders

-      Management of asset and rollout trafficking processes

-      Invoice management and financial tracking

-    Updating the marketing campaign tracker

-      Postmortem reports & learnings on campaign beats/signature initiatives 

Core Competencies

• Collaboration: Share expertise and resources to help others. Include all who can contribute to a successful outcome. Stay engaged even when not in full agreement.

• Communication: Proactively share and update stakeholders on a regular, self-managed and consistent cadence.

• Accountability: Prepare a road map for success, ensure all are clear, and take action to keep progress on track. Assume responsibility for actions and outcomes. 

• Adaptability: Embrace change and help others adjust. Modify approach according to context.  Actively seek to become comfortable in new environments or roles.

• Determination: Creatively progress around constraints and blockers. Relentlessly seek solutions designed to stay on brief, on strategy, and in pursuit of the objective.

• Productivity: Keep up with and enable an efficient and streamlined rhythm of business.

• Energy: Embrace all tasks that move the business and the work forward, be an excellent partner to external parties.

Requirements

• 5+ years in brand/marketing/partnerships role.

• Experience in the sports industry a plus, with understanding of the priorities of sports leagues, teams and athletes.

• Experience working with influencers and content creators.

• Business acumen focused on successful partnership outcomes aligned to strategy.

• Experience partnering with matrixed, cross functional teams to make insight informed decisions that satisfy prioritized consumer motivations.

• Ability to work under constraints and develop ideas from conception to execution. 

• Proven experience of proactively sourcing and creating relations with external brands and partners.

• Flexible and dynamic with the ability to adapt to changing goals and objectives.

• Ability to maintain working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders across disciplines, time zones and territories.

• Passion and enthusiasm for subject matter, with fluency in some of the supported brands and their respective sports/licenses.