Marketing Director

Activate Games; Lexington (KY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Activate Games is seeking a Marketing Director to lead its marketing strategy and execution. This role involves managing campaigns to drive customer acquisition, ensuring brand consistency across channels, and overseeing a dynamic marketing team.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in brand management and a proven history of driving successful campaigns in a multi-location environment. Join us to play a pivotal role in our growth!

Learn more about Activate at our website.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in marketing, with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role.
• Proven track record driving customer acquisition and retention.
• Experience managing agency relationships and production workflows.

Responsibilities

• Plan, execute, and optimize multi-channel marketing campaigns.
• Ensure brand consistency across all communication channels.
• Manage and develop a high-performing marketing team.

Skills

Campaign strategy

Creative direction

Project management

Email/SMS marketing

Marketing analytics

Tools

Google Analytics

Attentive

Job description

Job Description - Marketing Director

Activate Games America

Reports to: VP of Marketing

Location: Warehouse

Type: Full-time / 40-50 Hours Weekly

About Activate Games

Activate is the world's first active gaming facility where players move, compete, and problem-solve in immersive, tech-driven game rooms. With rapid expansion across North America, we're building a category-defining brand at the intersection of entertainment, fitness, and technology.

Position Overview

The Marketing Director is responsible for leading the day-to-day execution of Activate's marketing strategy — translating brand vision into campaigns, content, and programs that drive customer acquisition, repeat visits, and revenue growth across all U.S. locations. This role bridges strategy and execution, managing internal team members and agency partners while owning key marketing channels and performance outcomes. The Marketing Director works closely with the VP of Marketing, Operations team, and Sales team to ensure marketing activity is aligned with business goals and measurable at the location level.

Key Responsibilities

1. Campaign Strategy & Execution
   • Plan, execute, and optimize multi-channel marketing campaigns across paid, owned, and earned channels
   • Translate national brand strategy into actionable, location-level marketing programs
   • Develop and manage a rolling marketing calendar aligned to seasonal moments, new openings, and revenue priorities
   • Oversee campaign briefs, creative development, and approval workflows with internal and agency partners
   • Ensure campaigns are launched on time, on budget, and measured against clear KPIs
2. Brand & Creative Leadership
   • Serve as the internal steward of the Activate brand — ensuring consistency across all touchpoints including digital, print, in-store, email, and social
   • Partner with Mediocre Creative and other agency partners to brief, review, and approve creative assets
   • Oversee the internal production of marketing assets, ensuring quality and brand alignment from concept through delivery
3. Channel Ownership & Performance
   • Own performance across key marketing channels including email/SMS (Attentive), organic social, paid media support, and maintain website content in the new CMS
   • Monitor channel-level KPIs (traffic, conversion, repeat visit rate, booking revenue) and optimize based on data and provide regular reporting
   • Manage Lifecycle Marketing Manager on CRM and retention strategies
   • Review and validate agency-reported paid media performance against BigQuery data
   • Provide weekly and monthly performance reporting to the VP of Marketing and leaders
4. Grand Opening & Local Marketing
   • Lead marketing execution for new location grand and reopenings, including pre-launch awareness, influencer activation, and week‑of programming
   • Build and maintain scalable local marketing playbooks that give operators clear guidance while maintaining brand standards
   • Support grassroots community partnerships, nonprofit collaborations, and market‑level campaigns in accordance with the strategic execution guidance
   • Oversee and manage the local marketing budgets, approving and denying partnerships, managing the chamber relationships, ensuring local teams are trained on properly evaluating them for ROI
5. Team & Agency Management
   • Manage and develop marketing team members including the Marketing Specialist, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, and Production Graphic Designer
   • Set clear expectations, provide regular feedback, and build a culture of ownership and accountability
   • Manage day-to-day relationships with creative and media agency partners — including briefing, timeline management, and performance reviews
   • Identify gaps in team capabilities and make recommendations on resourcing

Required Experience

• 7+ years of experience in marketing, with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role
• Proven track record driving customer acquisition and retention in a multi-location or franchise environment
• Strong background in brand management, creative direction, and campaign execution
• Experience managing agency relationships and creative production workflows
• Hands‑on knowledge of email/SMS marketing platforms (Attentive or similar)
• Proficiency with marketing analytics — comfortable working with Google Analytics, paid media dashboards, and data tools
• Experience in entertainment, hospitality, fitness, or consumer brand marketing preferred
• Excellent project management skills — able to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines across markets
• Strong communicator and collaborator across marketing, ops, sales, and tech teams
• Highly organized with a bias toward testing, iteration, and continuous improvement
• Comfortable in a high-growth, fast-moving environment

What Success Looks Like

• Campaigns launch on time and generate measurable lifts in traffic, bookings, and revenue
• Brand consistency maintained across all locations and channels
• Agency partners are well‑managed, well‑briefed, and delivering quality creative on schedule
• Marketing team is clear on priorities, developing professionally, and executing at a high level
• VP of Marketing has clear, data‑backed visibility into marketing performance at all times

Learn more about us at: https://playactivate.com/

Activate provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, genetic information, age, disability, or status as a Vietnam‑era or special disabled veteran in accordance with applicable federal laws. In addition, Activate complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location where Activate has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leave of absence, compensation, and training.