VACANCY: Marketing & Brand Manager

Sep 11, 2023

Leinster Rugby is seeking applications for the position of Marketing and Brand Manager.

ROLE AND PURPOSE OF POSITION

Leinster Rugby is one of four professional provincial rugby teams in Ireland. As well as running a professional rugby team, Leinster Rugby also enjoys an important dual mandate to encourage, promote and grow the participation in and playing of rugby across the province of Leinster. At Leinster Rugby, how we do our job is equally as important as what we achieve. We strive to create positive engagement with a wide group of stakeholders in the pursuit of excellence at all levels of our twelve-county community. Our Commercial & Marketing Team are responsible for generating the revenues necessary to support and grow our domestic, community and professional rugby programmes.

Reporting into the Head of Commercial & Marketing, and working as part of a team, our Marketing & Brand Manager will have responsibility for building and enhancing the supporter experience while executing the brand strategy for Leinster Rugby in line with overall business objectives, brand identity and positioning.

This position is being offered on a two year fixed term contract.

Please note: The closing date for applications is strictly 10am, Wednesday 27th September 2023.

For a full job description please see below:

Leinster Rugby is an equal opportunities employer.

JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION TITLE: MARKETING & BRAND MANAGER

ROLE AND PURPOSE OF POSITION:

Leinster Rugby is one of four professional provincial rugby teams in Ireland. As well as running a professional rugby team, Leinster Rugby also enjoys an important dual mandate to encourage, promote and grow the participation in and playing of rugby across the province of Leinster. At Leinster Rugby, how we do our job is equally as important as what we achieve. We strive to create positive engagement with a wide group of stakeholders in the pursuit of excellence at all levels of our twelve county community. Our Commercial & Marketing Team are responsible for generating the revenues necessary to support and grow our domestic, community and professional rugby programmes.

Reporting into the Head of Commercial & Marketing, and working as part of a ream, our Marketing & Brand Manager will have responsibility for building and enhancing the supporter experience while executing the brand strategy for Leinster Rugby in line with overall business objectives, brand identity and positioning.

The successful candidate will be a senior member of the wider commercial team and will be responsible for the annual brand plan and all marketing campaigns for the professional and the domestic game, including campaigns to drive membership and season ticket sales, drive attendance at Bank of Ireland Summer Camps and other domestic initiatives, boost match attendance, enhance fan engagement across multiple brand touch points, and support the overall commercial strategy of Leinster Rugby.

You will be expected to establish yourself as a trusted and reliable advisor to key stakeholders, help plan and deliver all brand marketing campaigns, and ensure agreed targets are met on time and within budget. A creative thinker, you will be required to be both proactive and responsive when it comes to promoting Leinster Rugby’s brand and commercial strategies.

The ideal candidate will be passionate, a true collaborator, commercially driven and a brand lover.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS:

Operational & Functional:                Head of Commercial & Marketing

Management Responsibilities:          Senior Brand Executive

KEY QUALITIES:

Essential:

  • A relevant third level degree or professional qualification.
  • A minimum of nine years working experience across the following areas:
    • Brand management & development
    • Membership and/or consumer campaign management
    • Content strategy and conversation planning
    • Consumer marketing and activation
    • Sports brand marketing and activation
  • In depth experience planning and executing successful brand marketing email campaigns.
  • Proven campaign delivery and success against KPIs.
  • Budget management experience.
  • Strong organisational, analytical and planning skills.
  • Strong communication and presentation skills (written and verbal).
  • Strong understanding of digital and social media from a campaign perspective.
  • Strong understanding of CRM and working knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics, Active campaign and/or similar CRM platforms including experience of audience segmentation and targeting.

Desirable:

  • Self-starter, happy to take initiative and responsibility to run with a project from start to finish.
  • A team player who enjoys collaboration and is eager to support their colleagues.
  • Self-sufficient and able to manage their own workload on a daily basis.
  • Be keen to grow into the position and earn responsibility quickly.
  • Knowledge of and passion for sport would be a benefit.
  • Results driven personality with excellent attention to detail.
  • Strong creative outlook with flexible approach to working in a sporting environment where evening and match day work is expected.
  • Proven experience managing external creative and media agencies.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Brand and Purpose

  • Act as the ‘brand guardian’, maintaining brand integrity across all marketing initiatives and communications across all brand touch points for the professional and the domestic game.
  • Monitor and manage Leinster Rugby logo usage for all communications and activations to ensure adherence to our brand guidelines.
  • Ensure all communications and activations align with Leinster Rugby’s core values and purpose and help promote our “From The Ground Up” ethos.
  • Execute the brand strategy for Leinster Rugby in line with overall business objectives, brand identity and positioning.

Brand Marketing

  • Manage and implement multi-channel brand marketing campaigns for Leinster Rugby including, fixtures in the RDS and Aviva, season tickets, memberships and brand positioning.
  • Manage the Kit design and order process and marketing campaign to drive sales.
  • Create and publish all marketing material inline with brand marketing plans.
  • Create and promote exciting match experiences for our fan base that support our objective to build bigger match attendances (RDS and Aviva).
  • Market research – create and execute bi-annual Leinster Listener insights programme, analyse data for satisfaction levels and brand NPS tracking. All outputs will guide and inform the wider Commercial Team in delivery of our KPI’s.

CRM, Email Campaigns and Membership Programmes

  • Lead implementation and use of CRM to help improve all Leinster Rugby supporter communication and campaigns including audience segmentation and targeting.
  • Develop and lead our supporter and membership email strategy including, planning, sending, recording and reporting
  • Initiate and execute innovative Product Development, Sales Promotion programmes for our portfolio of products i.e., Season Tickets, Official Memberships, Match Day Hospitality, Summer Camps and School of Excellence programmes.
  • Lead team member to develop a new membership loyalty scheme.

Budgets

  • Together with the Head of Commercial & Marketing you will lead the decision-making process on marketing investment and forecast and manage the marketing budget.
  • Be responsible for ensuring all invoicing, costs and expenses associated with our brand marketing programme are reconciled in a timely manner.
  • Increase current and secure new revenue streams where possible.

Relationship Management

  • Develop strong trusted relationships with all colleagues and key stakeholders across the professional and domestic game to fully integrate and activate the brand marketing mix for Leinster Rugby.
  • Establish and manage close relationships with key brand marketing and business partners at IRFU, URC & EPCR.
  • Oversee and manage all agency and brand related 3rd party supplier relationships.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES

The successful candidate should:

  • Achieve set KPI’s.
  • Bring a structured approach to the season’s brand communications and activations via pre-planning and commitment from all parties involved.
  • Drive and setup new initiatives e.g., Leinster Rugby Membership & Supporter Loyalty Scheme.
  • Increase CRM Target audience size.
  • Increase Official Membership audience size and revenue.
  • Develop and maintain strong and effective relationships with staff and sponsors.
  • Carry out duties and responsibilities above to an effective, efficient and professional standard.
  • Portray a professional image and become a strong ambassador for Leinster Rugby.
  • Act as a role model in embodying core Leinster Rugby club values, behaviours and culture.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work required from this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and activities required. The successful candidate will be required to respond with a flexible approach when tasks arise which are not specifically covered in this job description.