Title: Director of Marketing & Brand
Department: Marketing
Reports to: CEO
Background: Sporting Club Jacksonville, or “Sporting JAX” is the club founded in 2020 by a local Jacksonville ownership group and named in collaboration with the First Coast community in 2023.
The club’s goal is to operate a men’s professional USL Championship club, a women’s professional USL Super League club and a USL Youth Academy through work with city and county authorities to develop a 15,000-capacity community stadium and training facilities to host the clubs in Northeast Florida.
The ownership group is led by successful business entrepreneur Ricky Caplin and includes sporting legends Tim Tebow and Fred Taylor, as well as experienced professional soccer executive Steve Livingstone and local community innovator Tony Allegretti. Additionally, UF women’s soccer coaching legend Becky Burleigh leads Sporting JAX’s efforts as a consultant to the women’s pro team.
The club is a community-oriented organization focused on providing opportunities for youth development, fostering competition, and delivering exceptional professional soccer experiences.
The club’s stadium and facilities will reach out beyond soccer to other sports and other sporting communities. Sporting JAX exists in part to advance soccer and an equal playing field in our community as well as provide a “sporting chance” for the underserved and marginalized. We will lift trophies as well as voices. We are Sporting JAX.
Position Overview: The Jacksonville DMA is growing rapidly with a significant increase in soccer enthusiasts to our region. The Director of Marketing will be responsible for leading, developing and executing brand marketing strategies and activations for both the men’s and women’s clubs in the pursuit of identifying and curating a new soccer supporter base for our clubs from recognized segments in our community.
This position will be responsible for leading a small marketing team and liaising with our marketing agency, carrying out multiple duties within the marketing department, fulfilling strategic objectives & responsibilities, executing campaigns to drive fan growth and engagement, and creating world-class match-day experiences.
This is a full-time position with competitive benefits and paid time off. Must be willing to work unsociable hours including evenings and weekends for home matches and other events, as needed.
Essential Duties:
- Manage, protect and help grow the organization brand across men's, women's pro teams and USL Academy
- Develop, implement and successfully execute strategic marketing plans to support goals across the organization
- Oversee and direct marketing department ensuring strong integration with other parts of the organization including executive, sales, operations and business development
- Lead, manage and direct marketing staff and agency across key areas of marketing including traditional, content, digital and social, influencer, SEO, email, print/direct mail and broadcast
- Be responsible for and manage to a high professional level relationships with outside agencies/partners/vendors in respect to marketing activities
- Capture, record and organize data to develop new fans and drive brand awareness in the market
- Collaborate with the sales team to create campaigns focused on both growing the new Season Ticket Member base, retention, group, advance, theme, and walk up tickets
- Oversee and direct event marketing efforts including researching and budgeting for engagement with community events throughout our market and executing event participation to generate community awareness and data capture
- Plan and oversee advertising and promotional campaigns which may include TV, radio, print, social and digital marketing in an effort to ultimately drive sales and increase brand recognition and affinity
- Record, analyze and present KPI’s on a weekly basis. Maintain consistent oversight and awareness of campaign results and effective marketing spend, and proactively take corrective action, as needed, to optimize results
- Evaluate market trends and adjust strategies to adapt to the changing market and competitive conditions; identify and implement applicable best practice strategies and approaches to successful sales & marketing
- Collaborate with senior management to ensure all creative assets properly reflect the brand and are consistent with marketing and sales objectives
- Be a liaison with Partnership Sales and Activation to ensure the organization’s partners are supporting sales through internal and external partner distribution channels
- Work with the all other departments to ensure cross-platform execution
- Collaboratively support community initiatives
- Direct media buys, including trafficking creative and copy in coordination with graphic designer
- Implement marketing campaigns utilizing platforms such as HubSpot, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Survey Monkey, Meta, etc., and mobile apps, among other platforms, to properly engage with fans through their consumer journeys.
- Manage the marketing budget, PO, and reconciliation process.
- Work closely with operations staff to ensure all consumer facing marketing and brand elements are presented appropriately on matchdays and at club facilities
- Work with other departments on the origination and execution of theme nights and promotions for home matches
- Research, plan and help implement new matchday experiences to improve the fan experience in conjunction with various other stakeholders in the organization.
- Assist with matchday activities such as execution of pre-match ceremonies, in-match activations and other marketing initiatives.
- Responsible for facilitating donation inquiries and requests, including tracking and reporting of requests
- Recruit and manage any marketing interns
- Other duties and special projects as assigned
Qualifications:
- Ability to lead within a fast-paced environment and deliver against demanding timelines
- Excellent organizational and planning skills; must be self-motivated, creative, and detail oriented. Ability to organize and oversee multiple priorities and projects simultaneously under deadline
- Strong interpersonal communication skills; able to present a positive and professional image of the organization
- Able to work individually and in a collaborative team environment
- Ability and availability to work unsociable hours, evenings and weekends as necessary.
- Demonstrated ability to lead a marketing team; experience leading marketing and media agencies
- Multi-channel management experience with content creation, deployment, and analysis
- Extensive understanding of creative production processes
- Extensive experience developing digital and social creative solutions
- Strong problem-solving, decision making and analytical skills
- Demonstrated understanding of how marketing, creative and media work seamlessly to help brands succeed
- Understanding and respect for the sales process; will provide key support for sales success in the organization
- Proficient in Microsoft office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint ), Google Suite.
- Proficient with CRM, database management and email marketing platform (e.g. Hubspot, Factoreal, Fan Compass, etc.)
- Passionate about soccer utilizing the sport to lift up the community
- Must be legally authorized or able to obtain authorization to work in the U.S.
Experience:
- At least 4+ years of experience within the sports, entertainment, advertising agency or media industries
- At least 4+ years of experience working with media agency to coordinate delivering creative assets in accordance with media plans
- At least 2-4 years of direct supervisory experience
Educational Background Required
- Bachelor's degree required - Advanced degree a plus
- Sports and entertainment industry marketing experience preferred
Benefits: This role offers a competitive salary and benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance, disability. Additional benefits include paid time off, paid holidays, discounted tickets and discounts on team merchandise.
NO PHONE CALLS OR EMAILS, PLEASE. Those selected for further consideration will be contacted directly.
The information contained in this job description is not exhaustive of all the duties and responsibilities, nor is it intended to be an all-inclusive list of the skills and abilities required to do the job. At the discretion of management, duties, and responsibilities may change due to reasonable accommodation or other reasons at any time.
SPORTING JAX is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, class, religion, country of origin, political belief, disability, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or any factor protected by law.
