Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

adidas partners some of the biggest athletes, teams, events and cultural influencers around the world. The Sports & Culture Marketing (Brand Partnerships) team is at the heart of these partnerships, helping shape an industry leading portfolio that delivers adidas’s voice to the global audience.

As adidas looks to expand it’s Brand Partnership footprint in South East Asia, the team is looking for an experienced Sports & Culture Marketing leader to build and drive the Regional Strategy that is informed by deep industry knowledge across key sports & cultural pillars that resonate with SEA consumers.

Reporting into the Brand Director, SEA, this individual will be responsible for building a market leading and diverse portfolio of partners, athletes, clubs and federations that support brand and category growth. Identifying and utilizing partners at key moments to tell product and brand stories that position adidas as the top-of-mind brand in the market.

To ensure positive development of adidas brand image through a diverse partner portfolio and drive best in class activation of our SEA Brand Partner portfolio.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Planning & Strategy

• Build and own the SEA Brand Partner strategy in alignment with Global/Emerging Market Brand & Category objectives.
• Build a robust brand partner portfolio that drives impact across all SEA countries, delivering local market relevance for our global brand.
• Strategically phase & build our brand partner portfolio to deliver maximum impact during key sports & cultural moments. Ensure we have the right partners at the right time to deliver impactful brand storytelling.
• Drive the annual portfolio planning to ensure futureproofing, freshness, and efficient investment.
• Drive data driven decision making and investment strategies across SEA.
• Drive a strategic mindset to the Brand Partner function across SEA.
• Manage the process with SEA countries to identify, assess, secure and maintain industry best portfolio of talent that reflects our Brand positioning.
• Manage contract negotiations & strategies to secure partners across SEA.

Partner Activation

• Manage the delivery of industry leading partner activations to drive awareness of our partnerships and brand/product heat.
• Manage the creation of partner activation calendars with SEA countries to support key brand moments, leveraging our brand partners to deliver brand & product storytelling.
• Oversee the SEA partner seeding program to deliver optimal outcomes for our brand across SEA.

• Drive the amplification of our brand partners through campaign activity.
• Manage audits & reviews of our brand partner activity.
• Oversee entitlement utilisation to ensure we are maximising benefits and driving ROI through our partnerships.

• Manage global events and partner visits in case of being host market.

Relationships & Servicing

• Manage the consistent deliver of industry best service to our partners.
• Manage key industry relationships across the region. Leverage these relationships to unlock brand opportunities and benefits.
• Drive the integration between brand partners and adidas internal departments, including brand activation, omni-channel PR/newsroom and sales.  

Operations

• Ensure all Sports Marketing contract negotiations and operations comply with the Global Sports Marketing Policy and are in line with local budget guidelines. 
• Manage the SEA Brand Partner budget.

KPIs:

• Creation & execution of the SEA Brand Strategy aligned to business & category objectives
• Annual review & analysis of portfolio
• Long term planning to deliver ‘always on’ healthy portfolio
• Portfolio depth and brand alignment
• Impactful utilisation of partner rights
• MaEx management & securing YOY increases
• Internal compliance adherence

Key Relationships:

• SEA Brand & Category Management
• SEA Country Managers & Brand Activation/SpoMa & CM leads
• EM Hub Brand partners and Brand Activation
• Legal SEA
• Finance SEA
• External Agencies
• Athletes, Influencers, federations, and clubs

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Senior Manager with strong interpersonal, influencing skills and deep sports marketing knowledge.
• Extensive Sports Marketing experience with strong industry knowledge and established industry contacts.
• Strategic Marketing Management experience.
• Multi-functional brand marketing experience.
• Proven methodological skills (e.g. Business planning, strategic development).
• High degree of commercial and business acumen knowledge related to sports marketing.
• Strong negotiation skills and contract negotiating experience.

Required Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications: 

• Bachelors in related field
• Minimum 10 years equivalent professional experience, ideally in Sports Marketing and Influencer Marketing
• Advanced user of MS Office suite of products
• Fluent in written and spoken English is a must.