Job Summary:
Reporting to the Sr. Brand Manager, the Associate Brand Manager will be an important global marketing role in the continued growth of the Sonic the Hedgehog brand globally across various businesses including games, consumer products, film, TV, animated content, consumer products, licensing, events, music, and emerging opportunities. This person will work with the Promotions/Partnerships/Brand teams to provide Brand support to help grow their respective businesses.
The Associate Brand Manager position will oversee the development and execution of the global marketing strategies for the entire Sonic the Hedgehog brand across all areas with the goal of celebrating the Sonic IP and entertaining, engaging, and educating new and existing audiences worldwide.”. The role will require experience in creative strategy and creative development, global ‘halo-brand development’, consumer marketing, franchise management and gaming.
The role requires an individual knowledgeable in creative production of advertising and core brand assets including but not limited to trailers (visual assets development), visual identity, advertising assets (digital and traditional), social media, and PR involvement.
This role will interface closely with teams in Burbank (CA), Orange County (CA), England and in Japan. A team is composed of thoughtful, innovative, flexible, supportive/very collaborative, and most importantly respectful people. We are looking for a team member welcoming and proponent of this work environment.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Collaborate on development of brand and marketing strategies for the overall Sonic brand and various areas of the Sonic business via lifecycle management.
- Ensure business plan goals are met and budget management is achieved while maximizing global campaign effectiveness.
- Partner closely with the cross functional and international teams to ensure development, marketing, and sales executions are integrated and aligned with the project’s strategic and financial goals.
- Serve as the point person for marketing strategy and plan development to support the overall brand, and various internal Sonic teams including film, licensing, animation and emerging opportunities.
- Drive and maintain the development of creative for campaigns, creative strategy/asset production, digital content, channel, promotions and first party partnership opportunities.
- Support in various consumer research and business data analysis projects to intelligently develop marketing strategies & franchise planning.
- Provide full support to large-scale events, production and promotions, broadcasting operations, sponsor relationships, program management, and player interfacing.
- Identify areas of concern in the execution of all brand plans and course correct to maximize the success of the product.
- Develops and manages creative assets for campaigns across multiple areas of the Sonic business. Delivers assets to internal partner organizations and external partners when necessary.
- Understands the media landscape, recognizes opportunities, and demonstrates knowledge of booking creative and effective media campaigns.
- Maintains creative agencies, media agencies, event agencies, and promotional partnerships.
- Supports the development group to supply them with key consumer and marketing insight.
- Champion and evolve the voice of the Sonic the Hedgehog brand for our core audience and the next generation of fans.
- Assist in developing goals and objectives for support team members to improve worker efficiency and motivation.
- Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications and Skills:
- Proven track record of highly creative and imaginative campaigns showing strong results.
- 3-4+ years’ experience in marketing in a variety of roles potentially including game publisher marketing, creative and media agencies and/or consumer products is a plus.
- Experience with both domestic and international marketing campaign spanning entertainment across games, film, television, animation
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience in the field.
- Experience working on major global gaming and/or entertainment brands with proven track record to achieve business goals.
- Experience global marketing campaigns from the research and positioning stage through go-to-market and post-launch management.
- Knowledge of the Sonic brand along with games/entertainment industries.
- Ability to utilize budgeting programs (such as MS Excel), and analyze global budgets w/ some P&L experience.
- Strong presentation skills including development utilizing programs such as MS PowerPoint, to help ideate and global brand plans.
- Ability to leverage quantitative analytic measures, build business cases to support initiatives and focus on KPI / ROI metrics.
- Experience in project management, analysis, and the ability to work with multiple teams.
- Must provide evidence of ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
- Highly effective oral and written communication skills, attention to detail and presentation skills to executive level team members.
- Positive and professional attitude.
- Independent worker with little or no supervision required and willingness to navigate areas of unfamiliarity.
- Ability to coordinate execution of plans within budget, set timelines, and to meet deadlines without fail.
- Ability to develop, pitch, and execute a marketing plan, delegating tasks and working with cross functional teams to ensure the vision is executed effectively to meet and exceed goals.
- Knowledge of game development is a plus.
- Creative agency and media agency background is a plus.
- Must have experience working in a global environment.
- Willing to work overtime and conduct meetings with Europe and Japan at off hours.
- Occasional work over the weekend and travel may be required.
Preferred Skills:
- Microsoft Suite (including strong PowerPoint skills).
- A/V creative process (including Key Art and trailer development).
- Video game industry knowledge.
- Digital and Traditional marketing (including Performance Marketing, Print and OOH)
