Associate Manager Brand Strategy

The ESPN Brand Insights team is responsible for defining, protecting, and evolving ESPN's brand identity as the leading voice in sports media. The team translates fan insights and market trends into brand positioning, equity fundamentals, and creative direction, then partners across marketing, content, and digital teams to bring those strategies to life across live sports, original content, and DTC platforms. Team members range from senior leaders who define brand fundamentals and set strategic direction to associates who execute campaign plans, track performance, and keep initiatives aligned to brand and fan engagement goals. Together, the team ensures every fan touchpoint reflects ESPN's fan-first, innovation-driven vision.

The Brand Insights Assoc Manager is an early-career professional role within ESPN's brand organization, helping shape how fans connect with ESPN across a dynamic, technology-driven sports media landscape. In partnership with senior leaders, this role supports brand strategy development and execution that enhances fan engagement and delivers extraordinary experiences across platforms. This role reports into the Director Brand Innovation. This role is based in New York, NY.

Responsibilities:

In this intermediate role, you will contribute to the planning and execution of brand initiatives that strengthen ESPN's position in sports media and deepen fan relationships across digital and linear touchpoints. You will solve a range of problems with moderate guidance, analyze options, and provide clear, structured recommendations, acting as an independent worker and problem-solver while collaborating closely with cross-functional partners. This role matters because it helps translate ESPN's innovative, fan-first vision into actionable brand strategies, requiring strong analytical skills, communication, and the ability to work both collaboratively and independently.

• Support the development and execution of multi-phase brand initiatives, including campaign planning, content integration, and cross-platform activations.
• Assist in maintaining and tracking detailed plans, timelines, and deliverables with key stakeholders, ensuring alignment to brand objectives and fan engagement goals.
• Help monitor audience behavior, industry trends, and competitive activity to inform ESPN brand strategies and identify opportunities for innovation.
• Contribute to the development of presentations, reports, and updates for leadership, clearly explaining complex information and insights to a variety of stakeholders.
• Collaborate with internal partners across marketing, content, and digital teams to ensure brand initiatives are integrated consistently and effectively across ESPN platforms.
• Support tracking and analysis of key performance indicators for brand campaigns and content, incorporating learnings into future planning and optimization.
• Maintain key documents and repositories (e.g., presentations, trackers, reports) to ensure information is current, organized, and accessible to the broader team.
• Provide informal guidance to new team members on processes and tools, modeling a proactive, solution-oriented, and collaborative approach to work.

Required Qualifications:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret data and translate insights into actionable brand recommendations.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with a proactive and positive attitude and a desire to get things done.
• Demonstrated capability to work both collaboratively within a team and independently with moderate guidance, as an early career, independent worker and problem-solver.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex information clearly to stakeholders at different levels.
• Good organizational skills with experience maintaining trackers, presentations, and shared documents to support project execution.
• Comfort with quantitative analysis and using metrics to evaluate performance of campaigns or content.
• Basic proficiency with productivity tools such as Microsoft Office Suite (e.g., PowerPoint, Excel) or similar software.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in marketing, brand strategy, communications, or business management, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience and familiarity with digital content platforms (e.g., YouTube, streaming, social media), including formats, policies, and key performance indicators.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills applied to content or campaign performance measurement.
• Familiarity with presentation and spreadsheet tools such as Keynote and Excel.
• Prior experience in the entertainment or sports media industry.

Required Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field

#ESPNMedia

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY is $73,600.00 to $101,200.00 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.