Sports Marketer

What is this job like?

In general, advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.

Sports marketing specialists, focus on sports atheletes, teams, leagues, and events. They often work for sports teams or leagues such as the NFL or the WNBA.

Most work under pressure of deadlines and tight schedules. Travel may be necessary to meet with clients or media representatives.

How do you get ready?

A bachelor’s degree is required for most advertising, promotions, and marketing management positions. These managers typically have work experience in advertising, marketing, promotions, or sales.

Creativity and interpersonal skills are important. To get ready for these jobs, it also helps to learn how to analyze data, make presentations and write reports.

How much does this job pay?

The median annual wage for advertising and promotions managers was $100,810 in May 2016.

The median annual wage for marketing managers was $131,180 in May 2016.

How many jobs are there?

Advertising and promotions managers held about 31,000 jobs in 2014.

Marketing managers held about 194,300 jobs in 2014.

What about the future?

Employment of advertising, promotions, and marketing managers is projected to grow 9 percent from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations. Advertising, promotions, and marketing campaigns will continue to be essential for organizations as they seek to maintain and expand their share of the market.
 

Some information on this page has been provided by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More details ⇣: 

Overview:

In general, advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in a product or service. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.

Sports marketing specialists, focus on sports atheletes, teams, leagues, and events. They often work for sports teams or leagues such as the NFL or the WNBA.

Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers typically do the following:

  • Work with department heads or staff to discuss topics such as contracts, selection of advertising media, or products to be advertised
  • Gather and organize information to plan advertising campaigns
  • Plan the advertising, including which media to advertise in, such as radio, television, print, online, and billboards
  • Negotiate advertising contracts
  • Inspect layouts, which are sketches or plans for an advertisement
  • Initiate market research studies and analyze their findings
  • Develop pricing strategies for products to be marketed, balancing the goals of a firm with customer satisfaction
  • Meet with clients to provide marketing or technical advice
  • Direct the hiring of advertising, promotions, and marketing staff and oversee their daily activities

Advertising managers create interest among potential buyers of a product or service for a department, for an entire organization, or on a project basis (account). They work in advertising agencies that put together advertising campaigns for clients, in media firms that sell advertising space or time, and in organizations that advertise heavily.

Advertising managers work with sales staff and others to generate ideas for an advertising campaign. They oversee the staff that develops the advertising. They work with the finance department to prepare a budget and cost estimates for the advertising campaign.

Often, advertising managers serve as liaisons between the client requiring the advertising and an advertising or promotion agency that develops and places the ads. In larger organizations with an extensive advertising department, different advertising managers may oversee in-house accounts and creative and media services departments.

In addition, some advertising managers specialize in a particular field or type of advertising. For example, media directors determine the way in which an advertising campaign reaches customers. They can use any or all of various media, including radio, television, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and outdoor signs. 

Advertising managers known as account executives manage clients' accounts, but they don't develop or supervise the creation or presentation of the advertising. That becomes the work of the creative services department.

Promotions managers direct programs that combine advertising with purchasing incentives to increase sales. Often, the programs use direct mail, inserts in newspapers, Internet advertisements, in-store displays, product endorsements, or special events to target customers. Purchasing incentives may include discounts, samples, gifts, rebates, coupons, sweepstakes, and contests.

Marketing managers estimate the demand for products and services that an organization and its competitors offer. They identify potential markets for the organization’s products.

Marketing managers also develop pricing strategies to help organizations maximize profits and market share while ensuring that the organizations' customers are satisfied. They work with sales, public relations, and product development staff.

For example, a marketing manager may monitor trends that indicate the need for new products and services. Then they oversee the development of that new product.

Work Environment:

Advertising and promotions managers held about 31,000 jobs in 2014. Thirty-one percent of them worked for advertising agencies or public relations companies.

Marketing managers held about 194,300 jobs in 2014. 

Because the work of advertising, promotions, and marketing managers directly affects a firm’s revenue, they typically work closely with top executives. The jobs of advertising, promotions, and marketing managers are usually stressful, particularly near deadlines. They may travel to meet with clients or representatives of communications media.

Most advertising, promotions, and marketing managers work full-time. About 2 in 5 advertising and promotions managers worked more than 40 hours per week in 2012.

Education and Training:

A bachelor’s degree is required for most advertising, promotions, and marketing management positions. For advertising management positions, some employers prefer a bachelor's degree in advertising or journalism. A relevant course of study might include classes in marketing, consumer behavior, market research, sales, communication methods and technology, visual arts, art history, and photography.

Courses in business law, management, economics, finance, computer science, mathematics, and statistics are advantageous. For example, courses in computer science are helpful in developing an approach to maximize traffic through online search results, which is critical for digital advertisements and promotions. In addition, completing an internship while in school is highly recommended.

Advertising, promotional, and marketing managers typically have work experience in advertising, marketing, promotions, or sales. For example, many managers are former sales representatives; purchasing agents; buyers; or product, advertising, promotions, or public relations specialists.

Skills to Develop:

Analytical skills: As the advertising industry changes with the rise of digital media, advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization. 

Creativity: Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas.

Decision-making skills: Managers often must choose between competing advertising and marketing strategies put forward by staff.

Interpersonal skills: These managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization.

Management skills: Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members.

Job Outlook:

Employment of advertising and promotions managers is projected to grow 5 percent from 2014 to 2024, about as fast as the average for all occupations.
 
Employment of marketing managers is projected to grow 9 percent from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations.
 
Advertising, promotional, and marketing campaigns are expected to continue being essential as organizations seek to maintain and expand their market share. Advertising and promotions managers will be needed to plan, direct, and coordinate advertising and promotional campaigns, as well as to introduce new products into the marketplace.
 
Newspaper publishers, one of the top-employing industries of advertising and promotions managers, is projected to decline over the projection period. The continued rise of electronic media will result in decreasing demand for print newspapers. However, advertising and promotions managers are expected to see employment growth in other areas, in which they will be needed to manage digital media campaigns, which often target customers through the use of websites, social media, or live chats.
 
Through the Internet, advertising campaigns can reach a target audience across many platforms. This greater reach can increase the scale of the campaigns that advertising and promotions managers oversee. With better advertising management software, advertising and promotions managers can control these campaigns more easily, increasing their productivity, and thereby limiting the potential employment growth.
 
Because marketing managers and their departments are important to an organization’s revenue, marketing managers are less likely to be let go than other types of managers. Marketing managers will continue to be in demand as organizations seek to market their products to specific customers and localities.
 
Advertising, promotions, and marketing manager positions are highly desirable and are often sought by other managers and experienced professionals. As a result, strong competition is expected for these occupations. With Internet-based advertising becoming more important, advertising managers who can navigate the digital world should have the best prospects.
 
Earnings:
 

The median annual wage for marketing managers was $131,180 in May 2016. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $67,490, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $208,000.

The median annual wage for advertising and promotions managers was $100,810 in May 2016. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $44,950, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $208,000.

College Courses: 

Sample courses that might be required for a degree in Marketing:

Core Business Courses

  • Financial Accounting 1
  • Managerial Accounting 1
  • Intro to Information Systems
  • Statistics
  • Finance
  • Principles of Microeconomics
  • Principles of Macroeconomics
  • Managerial Economics
  • Management Science / Operational Management
  • Marketing
  • Organizational Behavior
  • Business Law
  • Marketing Major Courses

Consumer Behavior

  • Marketing Research for Managers
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Marketing Electives

Colleges will also require you to take some core undergraduate courses in addition to some electives. Required core courses and electives will vary from college to college. Here are a number of examples:

Arts and Humanities

  • Arts
  • History
  • Languages
  • Literature
  • Music

Math

  • Algebra
  • Calculus
  • Computer Science
  • Logic
  • Statistics

Natural Sciences

  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Environmental Science
  • Physics

Social Sciences

  • Anthropology
  • Economics
  • Government
  • Psychology
  • Sociology