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
KPIs:
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.