Manager, Brand Communications (Basketball)

POSITION OVERVIEW

At adidas, we never launch a product unless we consider it perfect.

Our teams combine creativity, cultural insight, consumer understanding, and commercial expertise to create brand experiences that connect with consumers. Every communication strategy is built to strengthen the brand, bring product stories to life, and create impact across consumer touchpoints.

The Manager, Brand Communications - Basketball develops and manages retail and digital communication strategies for the US Basketball business. Guided by the global and US Basketball direction established by the Senior Communications Manager, this role translates category priorities into integrated plans that support wholesale partners and connect with consumers.

Working across Brand Communications, Wholesale Marketing, Digital, Retail, PR, Events, Product, Sports Marketing, and global teams, this position leads integrated planning for key concepts and category initiatives. The role serves as a direct connection between North America Wholesale Marketing and the Global Basketball Business Unit to ensure global strategies are relevant, actionable, and impactful in the US market.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Category Expertise: Maintain a deep understanding of category business priorities, sell-in objectives, product strategies, and Go-To-Market milestones.

Consumer and Culture Insights: Build an in-depth understanding of basketball athletes, consumers, and surrounding culture to inform strategic decisions and strengthen marketing relevance.

Global Strategy Alignment: Partner with the Global Brand Communications Storytelling team to understand global strategies, positioning, and support plans for key concepts.

Market Relevance: Influence creative development to ensure global campaigns and tools are relevant for the US market, particularly wholesale partners, while identifying and addressing communication gaps.

Integrated Communications Planning: Lead integrated planning for key concepts and category initiatives by establishing communication goals and guiding campaign strategy and execution.

Cross-Functional Leadership: Mobilize teams across PR, Retail, Events, Product, Sports Marketing, Digital, and Account Marketing to deliver coordinated consumer experiences.

Creative Development: Build and deliver strategic briefs to internal teams and external agency partners that extend or adapt global creative platforms for the US market.

Wholesale Partnership: Partner with Wholesale Marketing to identify retail opportunities and ensure Brand Marketing toolkits are relevant, actionable, and impactful.

Seasonal Storytelling: Create and deliver holistic presentations that bring key concepts and category marketing plans to life and support seasonal sell-in.

Budget Prioritization: Manage and influence category budget priorities across related initiatives in partnership with internal and external stakeholders.

Performance Measurement: Support marketing activation post-mortems to assess communication effectiveness using key performance indicators, analytics, and campaign learnings.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, or a related field.

• Minimum 4 years of marketing experience, preferably within a sporting goods, consumer goods, fashion, or lifestyle organization.

• Equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered in place of a degree.

• Experience developing integrated marketing communications programs.

• Strong understanding of how elements across the marketing mix influence consumer motivation and behavior.

• Experience developing innovative marketing strategies with strong creative instincts.

• Strong customer-facing, partnership, and influencing skills.

• Ability to lead and mobilize cross-functional teams without direct management responsibility.

• Strong project management, planning, and organizational skills with the ability to navigate changing priorities.

• Strong presentation skills and extensive experience building impactful PowerPoint presentations.

• Strong knowledge of sport, fashion, lifestyle, and consumer culture.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• Experience within basketball, sporting goods, fashion, lifestyle, or culturally relevant consumer categories.

• Hands-on experience developing or leading digital strategy.

• Experience working across retail, wholesale, digital, PR, events, and sports marketing channels.

• Experience adapting global creative platforms and campaigns for a local market.

• Experience partnering with advertising, design, or creative agencies.

• Understanding of the sporting goods industry and related retail and wholesale channels.

• Experience using KPIs, an