EMEA Trade & Grassroots Marketing Manager

Wilson Sporting Goods Co.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a dynamic and innovative company that empowers individuals to live like athletes. As the EMEA Trade & Grassroots Marketing Manager, you will lead a passionate team to develop and execute marketing strategies that resonate with communities and elevate brand presence. Your role will involve collaboration with various stakeholders to ensure consistency in messaging and drive engagement through creative campaigns. This is a unique opportunity to make a significant impact in the sporting goods industry while fostering a culture of teamwork and inclusion. If you're ready to inspire and lead, this role is for you.

Benefits

Pension (8% employer, 5% employee contribution)

Life Assurance

26 days annual leave + Bank Holidays

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of marketing experience in consumer goods or sporting goods.
• Strong project management and organizational skills required.

Responsibilities

• Manage EMEA Trade & Grassroots marketing strategy and team.
• Develop strategic marketing plans with sales team for execution.

Skills

Marketing Strategy

Project Management

Trade Marketing

Community Engagement

Problem Solving

Cross-functional Coordination

Fluent in English

Negotiation Skills

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Marketing or related field

Job description

EMEA Trade & Grassroots Marketing Manager

At Wilson, we are here to empower every human to live like an athlete. Passion, Creativity, Integrity, Teamwork, Ambition, and Innovation are the qualities that have made Wilson Sporting Goods Co. the number one sports equipment brand in the world. We come together to win, grow, and celebrate. We all play for Team Wilson.

We believe that being an athlete isn’t something you do; it’s who you are. It’s a universal code of conduct, a way of seeing the world and how you show up every day. We seek out diverse voices and welcome all perspectives, creating a rich and diverse culture in which we learn from one another through empathy and inclusion.

Evolving the sports world and being the best partner for players, athletes, and our community is no small task. We are continually looking to add enthusiastic, ambitious, team-first individuals who desire to make a difference — and who love to help others win. Together, we will create a better world through sport. Join us.

What You'll Do

This position is responsible for managing the overall EMEA Trade & Grassroots marketing strategy.

You will lead a team of zone-specific Trade & Grassroots Marketing Executives, Grassroots Services, and Graphic Design to ensure we are meeting business objectives and providing best-in-class support to our sales team, setting them up for success with the customer and in the community (clubs, federation, leagues, tournaments, coaches, juniors, and trial).

In addition to managing the strategy and leading the team, you will also be responsible for executing in the North Zone (UK & Nordics).

Working with the EMEA Marketing Managers, Market Managers, and Commercial Manager, you will ensure the regional business unit marketing objectives are being supported in the trade & grassroots.

• Lead a high-performing team to achieve overall Trade & Grassroots Marketing objectives.
• Working closely with EMEA, Global, and Local Creative & Design teams, you will build strategic plans for how Wilson shows up as a brand both in our retail partners' stores (physical & digital) and in the community.
• Develop and agree on strategic account marketing activity plans together with the sales team, including in-store and online execution and co-op marketing campaigns.
• Develop and execute tiered customer programs including Premium Partner.
• Ensure consistency of brand and product messaging across all customers.
• Provide strategic input to Marketing leadership regionally & globally.
• Manage an EMEA Graphic Design & Asset Production hub to provide support to Trade, Digital, Sports, PR, Comms & Influencer Marketing.
• Provide day-to-day support and coaching to all team members, ensuring clarity on medium to long-term objectives and short-term deliverables.

Trade Marketing

• Be the marketing point of contact for select customers, developing retailer relationships on a day-to-day basis.
• Responsible for the marketing elements of customer Joint Business Plans. Understand revenue targets and growth drivers to meet agreed JBP/JMP objectives.
• Manage end-to-end marketing activity with select customers including briefing, production, guidelines, executing, and reporting on campaigns.
• Support the delivery of sell-through activities, including seasonal product launches, staff training, partner events & activations.
• Responsible for delivering best-in-class toolkits for brand and product campaigns.
• Work in partnership with Sales Managers and cross-functional teams to identify and unlock brand opportunities for key accounts.
• Working with the Sales team, support seasonal sales launch events and tools including both digital and physical assets.
• Working with the business units, provide innovative and scalable training solutions for in-store.
• Build and manage retail auditing tools to ensure we are constantly measuring both online and in-store performance in line with overall business objectives.
• Work closely with Sales Support and the Sales team and customers to track sell-through and ensure campaign KPI’s are being met & report progress to Brand Marketing Manager, Market Managers, and Commercial Manager.

Grassroots Marketing

• Partnerships - Clubs, Federations/Associations, Leagues & Academies - Utilize your experience, network, and knowledge working with Clubs, Federations/Associations, Leagues & Academies to define commercial and marketing value. Coach and develop Zone Trade & Grassroots Marketing Executives and Sales Teams on building commercial and marketing value from partnerships at a country and regional level.
• Coach & Affiliate Campaigns – Design WAS & CAP affiliate programs & incentives to drive trial and conversion. Agree targets for Zone Trade & Grassroots Marketing Executives to manage with the Territory Managers within their Zone. Support sales team with coach seminars and seasonal launches.
• Trial & Experience – Work with global teams to design, produce, and manage the distribution of on-court POS to support trial and pop-up experiences.
• Tournament/Event – Retail (Wholesale & D2C) & Activation – Work with Brand marketing to define the retail and event calendar. End-to-end project management for agile retail & event activation.
• Athletes - Utilize your experience and knowledge working with players, coaches, agents, and managers to ensure we are extracting value from player rosters as part of integrated business unit marketing plans.
• Working cross-functionally with our Brand Marketing and Commercial team, develop and align KPI’s behind our strategic business initiatives.

Grassroots Services

• Develop a Grassroots Services platform to ensure the highest level of service utilizing innovative technological solutions to provide efficiencies and improve communication.
• Work with Demand Planning and Order Management to ensure accurate forecasting and delivery of product for grassroots initiatives.

Budget Planning & Management

• Responsible for building and managing the overall Trade & Grassroots Marketing budgets for EMEA in line with Wilson fiscal planning cycles.
• Monitor all financial operations related to payments, accruals & interplants.

What We're Looking For

• Significant experience (5-7 years) in a Marketing position in a branded consumer goods business and/or leading sporting goods company.
• Experience working with a variety of customers to deliver marketing execution in-store, online, and at the place of practice.
• Trade Marketing and Community engagement/building experience preferred.
• Project and Process Management / Planning and organizing - Ability to identify, prioritize, multi-task & allocate resource time effectively. Set clearly defined objectives for each project; manage complexity; plan activities well in advance; monitor performance against deadlines, targets, and milestones.
• Experience working with agencies, negotiating, and placing digital media budgets.
• Fluent in Oral and Written English. Ability to communicate in multiple languages is an advantage.
• People-oriented - Proven experience in helping people and finding it rewarding to solve people’s problems; proactively using that experience to make the whole service better.
• Problem Solver – Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines.
• Ability to coordinate cross-functionally - You like working hard and thrive on the excitement of a goal-oriented team.
• Ability to travel Internationally a must (up to 50 days a year).

What We'll Provide

• Pension (8% employer, 5% employee contribution)
• Life Assurance
• 26 days annual leave + Bank Holidays

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Marketing
• Industries
• Sporting Goods Manufacturing