Agencies
Partnership Strategy Manager
Mid Level
London, United Kingdom
hybrid
Full time
Job description
About the Role
The Strategy Manager joins SPORTFIVE's Partnership Strategy team to support brand advisory and talent marketing work within the UK. The role sits within a function experienced in identifying, creating, selling, managing and activating sponsorship deals for brands, working closely with premium rights holders to help commercialise their partnership and marketing rights. Reporting into the SVP or Director of Partnership Strategy, the post-holder supports advisory processes that distil brand marketing and commercial requirements into the best partnership routes available.
Key Responsibilities
- Support advisory processes, distilling brand marketing and commercial requirements into a process that determines the best partnership routes available.
- Join brand conversations to crystallise marketing intentions and formulate briefs that lead into active processes.
- Liaise with internal business intelligence and insight teams to decipher viable partnership routes through audience analysis.
- Think strategically to formulate the commercial and marketing benefits of various partnerships, with the lateral ability to guide and direct how partnership rights can deliver tangible, measurable impact nuanced to any given brand need.
- Keep abreast of developments and emerging opportunities within the rightsholder and media landscapes.
- Understand the nuances of what rightsholders offer in order to project distinct partnership solutions.
- Work closely with SPORTFIVE's creative functions and other third-party agencies on content strategy, production, the development of marketing assets, partnership materials and media plans for global use.
- Generate and present creative and strategic activation concepts, thinking laterally and innovatively.
Required Experience & Qualifications
- Experience in sponsorship, brand marketing or strategic planning, with a track record of shaping partnership strategy, not just delivering it.
- Demonstrable strategic planning and creative aptitude with the ability to generate original, insight-led platform and campaign ideas.
- Proven ability to translate brand objectives and marketing needs into clear, actionable partnership strategies.
- Strong marketing acumen covering brand positioning, audiences, and how sponsorship drives measurable outcomes.
- Confidence using data and insight to build a compelling argument and evaluate partnership routes.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Flawless attention to detail.
- Strong organisational and time management skills.
- Ability to work across multiple concurrent processes.
- Interpersonal skills in working with multiple departments to coordinate and advance workstreams.
- Excellent presentation skills, including creating and presenting strategy and partnership concepts.
- A real passion for and knowledge of sport, with a good understanding of UK and global sport.
- Ability to work as part of a team as well as individually, with strong leadership skills.
- Must be available for travel.
Preferred Skills
- Brand experience would be an advantage but is not essential.
Workplace
- Hybrid, flexible working model — four days in the office and one day at home.
Benefits & Perks
- 25 days annual leave plus an additional gifted day over the Christmas period.
- Full Vitality health cover including dental, optical and mental health support.
- Enhanced family leave entitlements.
- Salary sacrifice pension scheme.
- Electric car scheme.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- A day off for moving house or getting married.
- Regular social events such as summer and Christmas parties.
- Life assurance at x4 annual salary.
- Employee Assistance Programme.
- The opportunity to join an organisation that invests in and rewards its staff, provides an enjoyable working environment, and offers genuine responsibility and scope to shape a role and add real value.
The Application Process
Applications are made directly through the careers page, and candidates are assessed on their CV and cover letter before being invited to interview.
- Submit an application with a CV and cover letter.
- Candidates whose CV and cover letter match what the team is looking for are invited to the next stage.
- The first interview may take place via Microsoft Teams or through a video interview platform.
- Unsuccessful applicants at the application stage are notified of the outcome.
- Adjustments during the recruitment process are available on request for candidates who would benefit from them.
About the Company
SPORTFIVE is a global agency working across sponsorships, advertising, talent, activation and hospitality within sports, with over 1,200 employees who strategically and creatively connect brands, rights-holders, media platforms and fans across football, F1, NFL, NBA, golf, esports, the Olympics and more. The agency has been voted the No.1 most attractive sports marketing agency to work for three consecutive years and has featured in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work. SPORTFIVE is proud of its culture and the people who nurture it, and is an equal opportunities employer that believes different perspectives and experiences are the key to success.
