Overview

This position supports the business development, management and operations of Events & Sponsorships for tronc. The Events & Sponsorships Associate Director will serve as main client-facing liaison to clients and will lead advertising initiatives to drive pure event and incremental revenue across key categories. In addition, this position will serve as a lead member of the Events & Sponsorships team by working across local markets to uncover new revenue opportunities and develop new programs for sponsorships for all signature and custom events. This position requires strong leadership and management skills and will work closely with Ad VPs, Directors and Account Managers to ensure that all systems/procedures, job functions and workflows are standardized and maintained.

Responsibilities

• Lead sponsorship sales efforts with national and local sales teams to ensure ROI is met for our clients/sponsors.
• Manage local sponsorship sales efforts and client relations to ensure team profitability goals are achieved.
• Manage the implementation of pre and post sales initiatives and strategy for sponsorships.
• Serve as lead sponsorship representative for specified business sectors and key categories.
• Develop new sponsorship sales leads, expanding beyond existing clients and markets.
• Identify and prioritize prospective sponsors and navigate internal contacts for best sales approach.
• Utilize sponsorship capability deck and tailor customized proposals to targeted companies and categories.
• Understand assigned categories in sufficient depth to help support category initiatives through revenue driven concepts and appropriate marketing programs.
• Negotiate, manage and execute all aspects of contractual agreements for revenue-driven programs to achieve the greatest benefits for events within tronc.
• Collect and explain insights and best business practices for key categories to team members, sales managers and sales representatives leading to more persuasive position for our products and brands within assigned categories.
• Present ROI and promotional recaps to sales staff and clients at end of each sold program.
• Research new and existing clients for sponsorship prospects. Anticipate client needs. Prepare research to inform and educate prospects on strategic insights which can be applied to the sponsorship opportunity.
• Responsible for creating cohesive branded deck templates, evaluating and valuing sponsorship levels and pricing.
• Monitor event industry trends and make recommendations to keep events team positioned as a leader in the industry.

Qualifications

• Minimum 4-year undergraduate liberal arts, journalism or marketing degree or equivalent related event/media experience. Minimum 10+ years of marketing and promotion experience.
• Travel occasionally required up to 25%
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with key internal audiences given close working relationships across all products and channels (i.e., Editorial, Advertising, Consumer Marketing)
• Requires understanding of marketing research techniques and ability to apply findings in a promotional context.
• Requires problem solving and interpersonal skills in order to reach compromises that all parties find acceptable during negotiation
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with key internal audiences, given close working relationships necessary across all products and channels. (ie Editorial, Advertising, Consumer Marketing)
• Proven team leader with results oriented focus.
• Excellent analytical, written and oral communication & presentation skills.
• Must be effective at multi-tasking and have exceptional time-management skills.
• Must have a positive attitude and be driven to optimize results for clients.
• Must be able to work non-traditional hours to facilitate on-site activation of sponsorships