Director Brand Partnering Emerging Markets Central

at  Adidas

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organisation:
Create the regional Sports Marketing and Entertainment & Influencer Marketing strategy & drive the development of the Global Sports Marketing Strategy for all categories (ie Football, Running , Training and specialist sports) across the EMC region by providing sporting and regional insights to ensure strong adidas brand visibility and Asset Activation in across the EMC cluster.

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive Brand visibility and Business growth through a mature Sports Marketing strategy across all countries the EMC cluster (Middle East, North Africa, Kazakhstan, Ukraine)
• Develop the Sports Marketing portfolio in growth markets (ie Saudi Arabia) and establish adidas as the #1 sports brand across partners and consumers
• Identify and sign the best current and next generation players and athletes across football, running , training and specialist sports
• Partner with Sports Marketing Athletes, Partners and Federations including negotiating and maintenance of contracts.
• Act as liaison between players, athletes, partners and adidas internal departments, including business units, brand activation, PR/newsroom and Trade Marketing.
• Develop and manage contracted players and athletes seeding program.
• Share professional knowledge and reports of the industry landscape to improve cross functional teams’ understanding of the broader sporting landscape across the MENA region.
• Provide input into local marketing strategy based on global guidelines and regional insights.
• Recommend and participate in the planning for medium and long term future adidas projects and partnerships across all EMC countries
• Work closely with the brand comms & digital teams to develop and leverage athlete and player opportunities across their ‘owned’ social media platforms and key adidas brand channels.
• Take part in promotional appearances of adidas contracted players/athletes and meet and brief adidas contracted assets for promotional appearances.
• Comply with CAF procedures and P&L construction for new assets or renewals according to sport marketing strategy.
• Responsible for monitoring Sports Marketing financials (costs, return of investment, planning) in Qatar.
• Lead the Sports Marketing team across all EMC countries, establish performance culture and drive growth mindset for all team members.
• Influencer Management: Paid and FOC basis day to day + campaign specific
• Trend Marketing: Working with tools + teams on future planning of trends and working on agile reactive plans with speed to execute within key tradezones

KPI’s:

• Growth of Performance Categories Market Share within EMC
• Full activation tracking and delivery of contractual commitments across all partners
• EM Net Sales, Category growth, FPST and DTC/E-com traffic.
• MWB compliance.

Key Relationships:

• Governmental entities (QOC / Aspire etc), Global Sports Marketing, Activation, PR, Legal, Agencies, Franchise Partners and local athletes / ambassadors.

Knowledge, Experience and Capabilities

• Extensive knowledge of football, running, training and regional sporting landscape.
• Ability to build and maintain key industry and high-profile relationships including governmental
• Ability to create and drive strategy
• Exercise independent judgement and decision making.
• Ability to network, influence and utilize internal and external resources.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook).
• Good oral, written, and presentation communication skills.

Required Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• University degree in business, ideally with marketing and sales focus.
• Minimum 10 years of Brand and Sports Marketing Experience with an agency or client-side consumer goods company.
• Fluent written and spoken English language skills. Arabic is an advantage.

• Drive Brand visibility and Business growth through a mature Sports Marketing strategy across all countries the EMC cluster (Middle East, North Africa, Kazakhstan, Ukraine)
• Develop the Sports Marketing portfolio in growth markets (ie Saudi Arabia) and establish adidas as the #1 sports brand across partners and consumers
• Identify and sign the best current and next generation players and athletes across football, running , training and specialist sports
• Partner with Sports Marketing Athletes, Partners and Federations including negotiating and maintenance of contracts.
• Act as liaison between players, athletes, partners and adidas internal departments, including business units, brand activation, PR/newsroom and Trade Marketing.
• Develop and manage contracted players and athletes seeding program.
• Share professional knowledge and reports of the industry landscape to improve cross functional teams’ understanding of the broader sporting landscape across the MENA region.
• Provide input into local marketing strategy based on global guidelines and regional insights.
• Recommend and participate in the planning for medium and long term future adidas projects and partnerships across all EMC countries
• Work closely with the brand comms & digital teams to develop and leverage athlete and player opportunities across their ‘owned’ social media platforms and key adidas brand channels.
• Take part in promotional appearances of adidas contracted players/athletes and meet and brief adidas contracted assets for promotional appearances.
• Comply with CAF procedures and P&L construction for new assets or renewals according to sport marketing strategy.
• Responsible for monitoring Sports Marketing financials (costs, return of investment, planning) in Qatar.
• Lead the Sports Marketing team across all EMC countries, establish performance culture and drive growth mindset for all team members.
• Influencer Management: Paid and FOC basis day to day + campaign specific
• Trend Marketing: Working with tools + teams on future planning of trends and working on agile reactive plans with speed to execute within key tradezone