Creative Partnerships Manager

Our client is one of the world's leading sports rights holders. They run a global calendar of more than 40 premium live events across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as well as one of the biggest team events in world sport. Their commercial team sells partnerships to major consumer and B2B brands.

This hire joins a small, growing planning team inside the partnerships function, which is already strong on strategy and insight and now needs someone who can bring the creative side. Brands now expect rights holders to pitch with a real idea, not a list of rights. You'll be the person who finds the story where a brand meets the sport and turns it into a creative platform worth buying. It works like an agency's strategy and creative pairing, but on the rights-holder side. The pace is fast, with a couple of major pitches a month and quick-turn creative thinking every week as the sales team opens new conversations. You won't be designing or selling. An in-house design team handles visuals and the sales team handles the selling.

The Role

• Interpret partnership briefs and decide where creative thinking will add the most value.
• Find the ownable territory where a brand's audience, culture and objectives meet the sport.
• Build organising ideas and narrative platforms that connect activity across channels and over time.
• Generate activation concepts across broadcast, social, content, experiential, hospitality, B2B and community.
• Ground every idea in audience insight, category dynamics and relevant case studies.
• Plan and run ideation workshops, then shape the output into a focused, prioritised response.
• Write clear visual briefs for the in-house designers and give them room to find the strongest solution.
• Test feasibility early with rights, operations and delivery teams before anything reaches a brand.
• Write concise concept copy and rationale, shape seller talk tracks, and present the thinking yourself when it matters.
• Build category playbooks and a library of reusable concepts that make early-stage responses faster and sharper.

What You'll Bring

• Experience as a Partnerships Manager, Creative or Content Partnerships Manager, or Account Manager / Senior Account Manager at a sports, sponsorship or entertainment agency. Equivalent experience at a brand or rights holder also counts.
• A track record of shaping the creative idea behind partnerships, not just managing them. Your portfolio should show how you've turned a brand challenge into a clear, joined-up concept.
• Sport, sponsorship or live events experience is a real plus, but strong creative thinkers from wider brand or agency partnerships work will be considered.
• Comfort with pace and volume. Many briefs land quickly, and the job is to get ideas to a pitchable standard, not perfect them over six weeks.
• Persuasive writing and the ability to explain complex ideas simply to commercial and senior stakeholders.
• Confidence leading workshops and working with sales, strategy, insight, design and delivery teams.
• Commercial judgement to balance originality with brand fit, evidence and what can actually be delivered.

Location & Workplace Policy

• Surrey, with easy access from South West London
• Hybrid working, 3 days in the office

Salary & Benefits

• £50,000 per annum plus travel allowance, up to 15% annual bonus
• 25 days holiday, pension, private medical, enhanced family leaves, learning and development opportunities, free and discounted event tickets

If this sounds like your next move, or you'd like a confidential chat about the role, get in touch at jodie.clayton@majorplayers.co.uk or connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodieclayton/

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