VP, Client Leadership

Company Description

Dentsu Creative US is comprised of audacious thinkers and award-winning collaborators across the United States who blend local knowledge with global expertise. Choosing substance over stunts, our Modern Creative mandate is about unlocking sustained growth and holistic impact for brands in ways that Create Culture, Change Society and Invent the Future. We do it daily for notable brands.

Our borderless approach allows us to assemble the best talent around each brief, tapping into the expertise of the 9,000+ people in dentsu international's global creative network. This integrated model also allows our talent to learn about and explore the breadth of career possibilities within Dentsu Creative.

Job Description

This role will report into the EVP. A successful candidate will be the strategic liaison for clients, internal teams, and partner agencies. You will champion strategically sharp work, be a true partner to clients, show a passion for the brand and category, and easily navigate a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment.

You will own the relationship with sponsorship consulting clients and work with 3rd parties (properties) to discuss, evaluate and negotiate proposals on behalf of our client. With a focus on brand and sponsorship strategy, this position involves conducting relevant and insightful internal and external analysis, identifying and communicating influential business implications, creating compelling storylines and developing key recommendations rooted in strategic insights, to ensure client satisfaction. As such, candidates should be well versed in all tenets of sponsorship strategy, consulting and negotiation and demonstrate strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

This position provides day-to-day management of all aspects related to sport, music, entertainment and festival marketing partnerships and is a key contact for most relationships within industry on behalf of the client. The candidate will work closely with internal dentsu team to deliver best practices to clients, and help the client achieve their overall marketing objectives.

Key Accountabilities

• Builds and sustains relationships with senior-level clients, and becomes the client's trusted strategic partner.
• Strategic thinker capable of leading the brand's strategy with stakeholders including internal and external agency partners
• Think collaboratively and leverage various disciplines in the agency to present client brand-building and sampling opportunities
• Isn't afraid to jump in and build new bridges across our network, and client business units
• Anticipate project and/or client needs to always be one step ahead daily of what needs to be accomplished
• Identify client issues and work with our agency partners to provide solutions
• Provide honest and valuable counsel to client and agency team
• Create applicable development plans for direct reports
• Inspire agency and client confidence and seek opportunities to advance the client relationship
• Fuel agency culture and progress

Role Specific Responsibilities

• Provide direct, day-to-day leadership and strategic direction on all aspects of the client's sponsorship marketing business/initiatives.
• Deeply understand the client's business(es) as well as their sponsorship portfolio and investments.
• Lead client work as an expert in analysis and methodology by creating appropriate sponsorship and governance models.
• Oversee and analyze ongoing sponsorship and market trends within sports, arts, entertainment and lifestyle. Translate the key insights and learnings into strategic and tailored client recommendations.
• Build relationships with client(s) and partners to identify new opportunities with targeted focus on strategic insights, experiential activation and program measurement analytics.
• Manage work plans, client expectations, partner relationships, measurement and reporting tools to ensure flawless execution.
• Lead the team in conducting and assessing primary/secondary research, to inform situational analyses.
• Lead all negotiations on behalf of client, deliver value-added services and establish a key point of differentiation relative to competitors.
• Lead the creation of sponsorship marketing plans and the identification of KPIs / measurement plans

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of sponsorship marketing, sponsorship consulting agency or client experience
• Thorough understanding of competitive agency landscape, key trends
• Significant experience operating successfully, in a complex multi-stakeholder environment
• Post-Secondary degree: Focus on Marketing and/or Business
• Knowledge and experience working with industry leading sponsorship consulting tools and fan/consumer data