Partnership Manager, Cannes Lions

Company Description

Informa Festivals marks an exciting new chapter in B2B events, bringing some of the world's most influential creative, technology and business festivals together. We’re combining prestigious events like Cannes Lions, Black Hat, Money20/20, GDC, and London Tech Week with cutting-edge marketing intelligence platforms and advisory services to deliver unmissable experiences and insights.

Our festival-led approach reimagines traditional B2B events, creating powerful, immersive experiences that drive innovation and industry advancement. Building on decades of expertise and powered by Informa's international reach, we're shaping the next generation of business festivals.

Job Description

This role is based in our 605 Third Avenue  office.

About Lions 

The LIONS brand is probably most synonymous with Cannes Lions, The International Festival of Creativity, the definitive meeting place for the global creative communications and advertising community. It’s five days of inspiration, aspiration, unlimited magic and potential. The Festival has been championing creative excellence since 1954 with the goal of providing a global destination and the definitive benchmark for creativity that drives progress. 

LIONS is going through an exciting time as it’s recently repositioned as The Home of Creativity, supporting those in the business of creativity at every step of their journeys with an extended portfolio of new advisory, learning and intelligence services. Our purpose is to drive progress through creativity for an incredibly diverse and talented global creative community. 

You will join a team of change makers. The team’s purpose is to champion change to create the most powerful global creative community and drive growth for the brand. 

Role overview  

With phenomenal growth expected over the coming years, the LIONS Commercial Partnerships team is seeking a Partnership Manager, New Business to join our team. This role will report directly into the Head of New Business, Partnerships in one of the highest revenue driving teams in the company, and work with new business opportunities for global advertising and creativity clients. 

Our award-winning team works with world-class clients such as LinkedIn, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify, Adobe, TikTok, Pinterest, Netflix, Google and more on creative partnership solutions.  

Our team is responsible for driving new business revenue consistently throughout the year against our events product portfolio and this person will be tasked with both identifying new prospects and responding to incoming new business opportunities. 

You’ll be providing a full-service sales approach, working from initial prospect identification and incoming lead handling through to closing the deal and delivery of the partnership onsite at Cannes Lions. We are looking for an ambitious and organised business developer with an eye for creativity and new ideas who wants to work with the world’s most impressive clients to uncover opportunities. 

Key accountabilities 

• Responsible for driving quarterly and event sponsorship revenue against Cannes Lions commercial partnerships inventory 
• Responsible for responding to incoming leads by developing compelling sales proposals and bespoke product solutions for clients  
• Develop a sales outreach strategy in partnership with the marketing & sales team 
• Maintain retention relationships and drive outbound new business conversations with new clients  
• Manage sponsorships sales and delivery process end-to-end, in partnerships with our operations team  
• Report and forecast on revenue trends - incoming & forecasted on a weekly, quarterly, and annual basis 
• Accurate tracking of new business pipeline 
• Partner with finance for any payment queries to ensure seamless transactions  
• Building relationships with key clients, encouraging upsells and repeat business  
• Supporting onsite delivery of Cannes Lions 2026, utilising this moment for future lead generation  
• Supporting ad hoc commercial projects as needed 

This list is not exhaustive and there may be other activities you are required to deliver. 

Qualifications

• 2-5 years experience in B2B, event or digital sponsorship sales  
• Salesforce proficiency  
• Microsoft Office skills, including deck building in powerpoint  
• Excellent written and verbal communication  
• Knowledge of creative marketing industry is a plus  
• Experience in a commercial environment is a plus  

Additional Information

We believe that great things happen when people connect face-to-face. That's why we work in-person with each other, or with customers and partners, three days a week or more. When