Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

The Senior Manager Athlete Activation Football develops and executes integrated, through-the-line, marketing communications plans to support adidas’ global and specific BU marketing and business objectives delivered and supported by our football athletes.

The Senior Manager Athlete Activation is responsible for leading the strategic athlete marketing activation plans including:

• Yearly strategy development and planning in close alignment with Director Athlete Activation,
• holistic management, integration and execution/implementation of key global campaigns for adidas players,
• product launches, grassroots activations, community activations, athlete personal stories activations by leveraging sports marketing, football comms, and other strategic marketing stakeholders.

They will orchestrate and drive an annual calendar of activities against brand and category priorities, as well as players’ personal milestones and stories.

Key Responsibilities:

• In alignment with Director Athlete Activation, Sports Marketing key stakeholders, Partner Integration team and other BUs counterparts, create comprehensive yearly activations plans for Football athletes with the aim to maximize brand and (new) product exposure, players personal positioning and stories through adidas and players channels while maximizing efficiencies.
• Envision short and long-term communications strategy based on the global SBP and specific business unit objectives and drive the development of an effective athlete activation planning strategy based on the consumer and marketing objectives.
• Season by season, plan, lead and execute all required photoshoots, content creation and in person events with the respective players or ambassadors.
• Facilitate and coordinate sports marketing athlete integration into campaign activations strategies and plans for a specific BU as well as Brand needs.
• Oversee development of activation tools from conception to implementation ensuring all projects are on brief and meet the highest creative standards.

• Manage global agencies across projects and activities for the business unit: agency briefing process, development of concepts and creative elements, production and post-production workstreams; as well as budget management.
• Identify players communication opportunities for all other marketing disciplines: Digital, Social, PR and retail.
• Lead and Coordinate markets interactions to ensure successful implementation of global playbooks and plans in markets.
• Design post-activation evaluation performance by conducting or coordinating research and tracking project development, collating results into regular quality reports.
• Understand Brand and Category Global plans and strategies to ensure the right players are activated for the right story.
• Understand the target consumers and their behavior, both in football and culture.
• Develop and deliver comprehensive pre and post activation communications to bring visibility to key marketing stakeholders and market team.
• Remain up to date on the fast-developing Media Environment in general and New Media technologies and opportunities in particular.
• Work with relevant markets/regions and all support functions to drive execution of the brand and category activation of partnerships.

Key Relationships:

• Global relationships – Brand Marketing Channels, Sports Marketing Players Teams, Category Football Functions, Newsrooms, Horizontal Brand Functions, Brand Partner Marketing, Other Category/BU Brand Marketing, Culture Marketing
• Market relationships- BU / Category Leads and teams, Local Sports Marketing, Local Account Marketing, Brand Communications, Newsrooms
• Partner Creative Agencies
• External Sport partners; Relevant Player teams; and key accounts

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent interpersonal/communication skills, including negotiations skills.
• Natural storyteller and visual communicator.
• Creative mind with strong organizational and planning skills.
• Understanding of an ever-changing marketing landscape and experience in project management.
• Ability to work in a Matrix organization with experience influencing Cross-functionally and cross-culturally.
• Ability to work and adapt in a fast-paced and often challenging environment.
• Ability to deal with pressure and short deadlines.
• Some experience in integrated multi-channel marketing campaign development and execution across multiple touchpoints.
• Ability to collaborate with internal and external cross-functional groups: product marketing, communications, social, digital and sports marketing.
• Understanding and experience of the digital landscape and all social media channels.
• Passion for Football and entertainment industry: expert football culture knowledge - football history savvy, current and former top players, as well as off-pitch football culture
• Excellent .ppt skills / graphic design skills is a plus.
• Strong understanding of Consumer Marketing and Consumer experience
• Change agent comfortable driving transformation and creating clarity within new and ambiguous climates