Wasserman operates at the epicenter of sports, music, entertainment and culture, serving talent, brands and properties on a global scale. Our brands and properties division works with iconic brands and rights holders, supporting business growth through all marketing disciplines. We're a trusted partner to every major league, team and venue, building meaningful connections between brands, properties and fans.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Wasserman's presence spans 28 countries and more than 68 cities, including New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico City, Toronto, Paris and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.teamwass.com.
Job Description
CSM Middle East became part of the Wasserman agency following an acquisition in October 2023. In the Middle East region we continue to operate as CSM for the short-term whilst we go through the necessary changes to our business licenses, and we expect to rebrand, in line with the rest of the global CSM business, in 2025.
Wasserman operates at the epicenter of sports, music, entertainment and culture, serving talent, brands and properties on a global scale. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Wasserman’s presence spans 27 countries and more than 65 cities, including New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico City, Toronto, Paris and Sydney, with over 3,000 employees.
Each of our people are extraordinary in their own right, bringing diversity to our thinking, experience and expertise to help us produce work that our competitors don’t and wont. What we do is fast-paced, exciting and rewarding which is why we love it and why you’ll love life at CSM/Wasserman. If you are someone who sees the extraordinary in the ordinary, then we would love to hear from you.
What will you be doing
We are looking for a Senior Account Manager to be a part of the CSM/Wasserman Middle East team, leading the activation program for a regional sponsorship recently undertaken by a global Wasserman brand client. The partnership is in the arts & culture space, and is new to our client, who also has an extensive global sponsorship portfolio across sport, arts and culture.
You will be part of our Brands & Properties team based in CSM/Wasserman’s UAE offices, working with colleagues across Middle East, but as part of a global account team that services this specific brand across multiple partnerships and consulting workstreams in multiple markets. As such, therefore, you will report into a Senior Manager based in UK. The day to day client is based in the Middle East, heading up their regional marketing function, and you will be the day to day point of contact with the client as well as their rights holder partner.
This role is expected to take up approximately 50% of your time, with the remaining 50% to be allocated to other CSM/Wasserman client work in the Middle East in due course. It is also expected that the scope of work for this client in the Middle East will grow over the medium term, and you will play a key role in driving that growth, and supporting the client as required across other sponsorship workstreams.
The initial requirement of this role is to establish an outstanding & trusting working relationship, on behalf of our client, with their rights holder partner, to ensure our client’s contractual rights are delivered, and to oversee a local sponsorship activation program with relevant partners and suppliers. You’ll be expected to be the main CSM/Wasserman point-person for our client in the Middle East, and to quickly build the processes and ways of working to allow them to maximise the return on investment for their new sponsorship. You’ll be tasked with leveraging the expertise within our global account team, as well as that of our regional offices and teams in the Middle East.
Key Responsibilities:
·Key day to day senior contact with rights holder
·Oversee, develop and implement the year-long partnership activation plan, including rights management &
policing, customer events & experiences, VIP hospitality experiences, communications & content, and measurement & evaluation programs, from start to finish including pre-production planning and on site execution
·Responsible for delivery of contractual rights for client in relation to its regional partnership
·Day to day management of partner’s commercial rights and activation plans
·Creation of detailed timelines for team members, vendors, and clients
·Initiate and participate in ideation sessions to develop big ideas and test creative and commercial concepts
·Support and coordinate the development of presentations, proposals, brand materials and summary documents
·Working closely with client and rights holder to agree joint action plan for delivery
·Provide ad-hoc advice around regional sponsorship considerations, becoming a ‘go-to’ person for the client and the CSM/Wasserman account team for all things relating to the client in the Middle East
·Oversee the smooth running of the account with a high degree of autonomy
·Lead client meetings, beyond regular status updates
·Demonstrate leadership and inspiration in developing innovative solutions to client situations
·Challenge thinking whenever required with tact
·Anticipate client / resourcing issues before they arise to proactively implement solutions
·Cost control, vendor coordination, venue requests, power request and other production related elements
·Budget management including estimations, vendor negotiations, labour management, venues, and clients
The Skills and Experience you will need
·Strong sponsorship consulting, activation and project management experience
·Process-driven, exceptional in relationship management
·A strong and broad marketing expertise and background, specifically around the creation and delivery of integrated partnership marketing programs and campaigns
·Proven experience in using sponsorship to drive customer reward and customer acquisition objectives
·Expertise in delivering experiential marketing activities as part of the sponsorship activation mix
·3-6 years experience of sponsorship marketing, preferably with experience in the arts & culture ‘space’
·Collaborative problem solving skills to utilise in complex situations
·Ability to handle numerous tasks simultaneously with a true attention-to-detail
·Excellent organizational and communication skills
·Comfortable directing small groups of cross-functional teams, some of who may work remotely
·Desire to work in an environment where co-workers challenge each other’s’ thinking to produce a better product for clients
Wasserman does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.