Los Angeles Lakers hiring Director, Integrated Marketing in El Segundo, CA | LinkedIn (2024)

Job Title: Director, Integrated Marketing

Department: Marketing

Reports to: Vice President, Communications & Marketing

Manages: Social and Digital Associate Director, Fan Engagement Manager; Leads full integrated marketing team

Collaboration: Daily collaboration with Brand Strategy, Marketing Operations and Creative and Content leaders and teams; Regular collaboration with leaders across the organization including Game Operations, Ticketing, Corporate Partnerships, Community and Communications

Team Overview: Integrated Marketing is the heartbeat of the marketing department, building seamless and connected pathways to fans to drive growth and engagement. Considering the full marketing mix with a spotlight on digital and social, the integrated marketing team is responsible for developing and executing detailed marketing plans, derived from Brand Strategy with support from Marketing Operations. As fan and channel experts, Integrated Marketing understands and implements the best ways to connect with fans based on campaign objectives.

Position Summary: The Director of Integrated Marketing is responsible for leading the development and execution of all marketing plans, with support and guidance from cross-functional partners in Marketing Operations and Brand Strategy. From season-long brand campaigns to high-profile uniform launches, this position leads the formulation and orchestration of fan engagement to support revenue growth. Additionally, this role is responsible for overseeing the delivery of all game day marketing activities, through strategically integrated and layered approaches. The ideal candidate for this roll-up-your-sleeves position, is a results-driven collaborator who can successfully work across the Lakers ecosystem to bring an integrated fan experience to life in Los Angeles and around the world. Obssessed with the fan journey and authentic consumer connections, this role is responsible for growing the largest fan base in basketball.

Duties and Responsibilities**:

Fan Growth and Engagement

• Leads all consumer marketing planning and activations for the Los Angeles Lakers, South Bay Lakers and Lakers Gaming to drive awareness and grow fan engagement, with an eye toward holistic storytelling and integrated tactics to create an omnichannel experience
• Develops and implements marketing tactics with thematic throughlines that highlights key campaign messaging under a broader brand story umbrella
• Builds awareness, engagement, positive sentiment and favorability that drives value for commercial partners
• Uses channel and platform expertise, industry best practices and KPIs to architect and systemize clear rationale and blueprints for engagement, creating best-in-class experiences while optimizing resources
• Creates strategic approach for engaging and leveraging celebrities, influencers and creators
• Considers a wealth of touch points and formats across paid, earned and owned, including TV, video, radio, print, photo, graphics, digital, mobile, social, OOH, celebrity, influencer, creators, partners, experiential, events, giveaways, community programming, retail, e-commerce, in-arena, in-game and in-broadcast

Campaign Planning and Implementation

• Builds and actualizes the season-long, cross-functional brand marketing campaign, in partnership with Brand Strategy to serve business objectives and drive a holistic narrative across the season
• Leads and launches all on-court and off-court marketing moments across the season and offseason in a calculated manner, ensuring internal alignment and partner integration, identifying and recommending new potential commercial opportunities
• Incorporates tentpole moments, league milestones and cultural moments – everything from the NBA Cup and NBA All-Star to Christmas Day match ups and Lakers Girl Dad Night – into brand campaign narrative while skillfully retaining the news value and message of individual moments
• Identifies, develops and requests creative deliverables, content needs and comprehensive asset production within reasonable and achievable timelines and budgets, as guided by marketing operations, working with the Creative and Content team to deliver high-performing assets to fans

Game Day Marketing

• Creates and implements a rinse and repeat, layered system for game day fan engagement, that favors milestone moments, recognizes storyline potential and considers the match up, while acknowledging the pacing of an 80+ game season with finite resources
• Drives tune in to support broadcast ratings and streaming
• Collaborates with Corporate Partnerships and Marketing Operations to activate sponsorship engagement across game day moments

Global Marketing

• Develops and implements global marketing plans in select international markets, with guidance from Brand Strategy and Global Partnerships and support from external agency partners
• Drives fanbase growth and engagement in key international markets

Department Leadership

• Drives expectations for the highest quality work, delivered against organization goals
• Supports team development, providing consistent and effective creative reviews and assessments to continually improve quality and increase efficiency
• Partners daily with marketing operations to ensure effective project management and resourcing to meet deadlines and keep pace with the rapid nature of the business
• Perform other duties as assigned by executive management
• Responsibilities subject to change based on organizational needs and direction from management.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising or related field; advanced and continuing education preferred

Previous Experience

• Minimum 12 years in marketing
• Minimum 5 years management experience
• Proven marketing success at the leadership level
• Proven success launching and implementing integrated marketing campaigns for high-profile brands
• Proven success with global marketing
• Experience with sports brands
• Accomplished hands-on leadership developing high-performing teams
• Agency management

Technology Capabilities

• Adobe Creative Suite
• Understanding of asset design and production requirements across platforms
• Project Management Software (Jira, Trello, Wrike)
• Microsoft Office (including Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint)

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

• Demonstrated leadership skills in marketing with a deep understanding of marketing principles, analytics, service management, stakeholder alignment and fan engagement
• Ability to be guided by and adhere to a strategic brief, translating business objectives and brand strategy into tactical fan engagement
• Expert planner and collaborator who can roll with the read and react nature of a team business
• Ability to bring innovative and creative activations to bear while working within mandatory parameters including league rules, short timelines and limited budget
• Proficiency in briefing creative needs with clear direction on fan takeaway and production requirements
• Ability to balance tactical innovation and continued relevance while embracing a legacy organization
• Ability to simultaneously manage multiple programs at varying scales with mixed deadlines
• Understanding of authentic celebrity, influencer and creator integration
• Expert content planning and content integration to maximize channels and production while understanding need for bespoke opportunities and continual evaluation of best practices
• Works at both a strategic level as well as operating day-to-day activities
• A passion for creative ideas, integrated concepts and simplicity in ideation and execution
• Ability to work in a high-energy, fast-paced, dynamic environment and make instant, quality decisions
• Scrappy, nimble and comfortable managing effectively with changing information without getting stuck
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a demonstrated ability to be an effective leader within own team and across an organization, bridging gaps between departments and creating synergies
• Detail-oriented and a logical approach to problem solving
• A passion for basketball and sports business

Physical Demands: N/A

Location: El Segundo (offices M-F), downtown Los Angeles (Crypto.com arena for Laker home games), other occasional off-site events

Travel: Up to 10% of the time

Hours: This position requires continual attention due to the perpetual nature of the NBA season; after-hours time is mandatory; must be available to work evenings, weekends and holidays

The pay range for this role is $120,000 to $180,000. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience and certifications.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.

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