Group Director - Sport Sponsorship

Fuse is seeking a Group Director to spearhead the direction and success of multiple key agency accounts, both prominent brands with exciting pan-European sport partnerships. At Fuse, Group Directors take a central role heading up their accounts, trusted to get to know the client businesses and partnership objectives and lead communication with clients and partner stakeholders, always offering sound strategic council and recommendations to support the optimisation of client partnership investments.

They are sport and entertainment partnership experts with fluency in the nuances and trends within these passion points, with relevant developed specialisms e.g. expert rights consultancy, contract negotiation skills, integrated sponsorship activation planning with a background in strategy or partnership activation. Leading on the delivery of partnership activation planning, Group Directors at Fuse apply multi-disciplined marketing and sponsorship rights expertise to create exciting plans that meet objectives, engage target audiences and overcome marketing challenges.

Working collaboratively with other agency divisions to introduce services at the right time and for the right briefs, Group Directors help to provide consistent tangible value to clients. Group Directors will help ensure clarity on the division of responsibilities, guiding the day-to-day account teams by leading from the front, setting the tone for their teams, and supporting junior team member development, whilst ensuring proactive, seamless client delivery.

Commercially astute, Group Directors have a seasoned understanding of budgets, profitability and commercial levers, and are comfortable discussing commercials, whether related to client sponsorship investments or agency scopes and fee propositions. They have responsibility at account P&L level and work collaboratively with other Group Directors and our Operations team to drive resource efficiency, manage scopes, and ensure alignment across agency accounts.

They also play an important broader role within the agency, particularly from a new business perspective, bringing their knowledge and council to new business proposals and pitches and contributing to agency marketing and cultural initiatives.

Desired Skills & Experience

• Industry Knowledge & Experience

We are seeking a senior sports partnerships expert, confident in developing partnership strategies and providing expert council to senior-level (Director/CMO/CEO) clients. You’ll enjoy maintaining a degree of involvement in partnership activation plans, whilst being an effective delegator and senior team leader to hand over the detailed project management to your team. You’ll be fluent in key partnership trends and nuances and how these can impact on brand activities.

• Experience of and interest in developing campaigns that leverage partnerships to meet a variety of corporate objectives such as digital or technological innovation, CSR/ESG, B2B or B2C awareness and consideration and customer acquisition.

Commercials & Operations

• Understanding of key financial relationships and levers e.g. resource planning and scoping, budget tracking, reconciliations, profitability, staff-cost ratios.
• Ability to confidently discuss and negotiate budgets, manage revenue and profitability targets and manage P&L for group of accounts.
• Excellent execution of scoping process.
• Experience of negotiating partnership contracts would be beneficial.

Communication & New Business

• Exemplary written and verbal communications skills.
• Articulate and confident to lead senior level client meetings and presentations.
• Able to sell strategies and ideas with confidence, conviction and commitment.
• Capable of outlining, creating and delivering major presentations and proposals such as new business pitches and client proposals.
• Growth mindset – always looking for growth opportunities.
• Shows-up with positivity, confidence and intent.
• Desire to take proactive ownership of projects and processes.
• Ability to build and maintain strong, mutually respectful relationships with clients, colleagues and stakeholders.
• A mature communicator with the ability to overcome challenges calmly and considerately.
• An approachable team-player and keen manager, who actively seeks opportunities for their team to learn and develop with an understanding of when to jump in and when to step back; confident in effectively managing people’s development.
• Acts as a role model within the agency.

About the Agency:

Culturally Connected, Seriously Effective. A global agency with local expertise, connecting brands to the things that matter most to their audiences in culture through partnerships in sport, music, film & television, gaming & esports. These connections make our clients more memorable - the key to unlocking effectiveness. Powered by Omnicom Media Group, we bring an extra edge to strategy, execution, and measurement. Our work has won numerous awards, and the industry frequently recognises our people as top performers in their field. We place great importance on trusted relationships, sound moral judgement, and strong governance, all delivered through transparent processes.

We have a fantastic team of 120 in our London HQ and 300 more across offices worldwide, working with incredible clients, including PepsiCo, Vodafone, Nissan, British Gas, Renault, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, McDonald’s, and Just Eat Takeaway.com. We want everyone to make the most of the opportunity to shine and showcase your talents and we are happy to make adjustments in the recruitment process so you can be your best.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at OMG: At OMG, our vision is to be an agency where difference is valued and everyone is able to thrive in a culture of equality, inclusion and belonging. We are committed to providing a truly inclusive environment that reflects today’s society, where everyone is able to bring their true selves to work, and where diverse voices and backgrounds are valued, heard, and well-represented.