Manager, Brand Partnership & Sports Marketing

Sports & Culture Marketing Professional

adidas collaborates with top athletes, teams, events, and cultural icons to shape the future of sports and culture worldwide. At the heart of these partnerships is the Sports & Culture Marketing (Brand Partnerships) team, which drives a powerful global portfolio. As adidas expands its Brand Partnerships in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, the team is looking for a dynamic Sports & Culture Marketing professional to lead and execute a bold strategy. This role will oversee the implementation of Global, EM, and SEA Sponsorships (SpoMA) and Entertainment & Influencer Marketing (EIM) strategies in Malaysia. The focus: maximizing brand impact, enhancing key brand moments, and increasing Share of Search through strategic partner activations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support the development and execution of the Malaysia Brand Partner strategy in alignment with Global, Emerging Market (EM), and SEA objectives.
• Manage the Malaysia Sports Marketing (SpoMA) & Entertainment Influencer Marketing (EIM) portfolio per Global/EM/SEA direction, overseeing budget allocation, contracts, relationships, and activations.
• Identify, secure, and manage strategic partnerships across marathons, football federations, and affiliate run clubs to strengthen the brand's running ecosystem.
• Shape and grow a structured running partner ecosystem including marathons, ARKL and affiliate run clubs to drive long-term brand credibility and community engagement.
• Develop and execute an invest & divest strategy based on ROI insights, providing quarterly reports.
• Identify, secure, and maintain the best current and next-generation partners, ensuring alignment with brand goals.
• Negotiate, maintain, and renew partner contracts in compliance with the Global Sports Marketing Policy and budget guidelines.
• Provide industry-leading partner activations to enhance brand and product awareness.
• Act as a liaison between brand partners and internal teams (Brand Activation, PR, Omni-Channel, and Sales).
• Deliver top-tier service to partners while maintaining key industry relationships.
• Develop, manage, and execute partner activation calendars in collaboration with internal teams and SEA, ensuring alignment with key brand moments.
• Develop and execute activation plans across marathons, federations, and run club partnerships, ensuring strong consumer engagement and performance credibility.
• Oversee the Malaysia partner seeding program, including product ordering, seeding lists, partner prioritization, and data tracking/reporting.
• Maximize brand partner amplification through campaign activities, facilitating publishing briefs and tracking ROI.
• Monitor entitlement utilization to optimize partnership benefits and ROI.
• Ensure alignment across consumer-facing activations by collaborating with CtC, Brand Activations/Digital (including PR), and Omni-Channel Consumer Experience.
• Maintain and update partner profiles, including contract details, social media stats, and activation plans.
• Monitor partner portfolio budget and develop mid-term plans for increased efficiency.
• Submit seasonal orders and coordinate product supply processes for partner satisfaction.
• Deliver all brand partner reporting on time and in full (OTIF).
• Provide clear vision and direction to internal teams and external partners with relevant objectives and KPIs.
• Establish a high-performance culture, fostering employee engagement and talent development.
• Support global events and partner visits when hosting the market.
• Ensure all sports marketing contract negotiations comply with global policies and local budget guidelines.

Key Relationships: Local Brand & Channels SEA/ EM SpoMA & EIM, and BUs Legal Finance External Agencies Athletes, Influencers, federations, marathons, affiliate clubs and ARKL

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Significant knowledge of the full marketing mix (advertising, events, sponsorship, partner management) with a major brand or retailer (sporting goods industry preferred)
• Strong interpersonal skills (e.g., collaboration, creativity, confidence and facilitation)
• Strategy – ability to provide input to and implement strategy.
• Ability to network, influence and utilize internal and external resources.
• Strong business sense, analytical, influencing and presentation skills
• Marketing budget Management
• Motivates employees and creates a high performing environment.

Pre-requisite Knowledge / Skills:

• Bachelors/university degree in the related field
• Minimum of 6 years equivalent professional experience, ideally in Sports Marketing and Influencer Marketing
• Advanced user of MS Office suite of products
• Fluent in written and spoken English is a must. Basic Bahasa Melayu is also required.