Client Relationships Manager – The Ocean Race
The Ocean Race

The Ocean Race

The Ocean Race takes place every three to five years and is the world’s longest professional sporting event and leading offshore sailing competition with professional crews racing around the world.

Sitting at the intersection of top-level sport and sustainability, The Ocean Race is a relevant and authentic storytelling platform – the ocean is our racetrack, and nature drives us. In 2017–18, The Ocean Race helped to spark a global movement for ocean health – and sustainability remains at the heart of everything we do.

The 14th edition of the race will start in Alicante, Spain. The Race travels around the world for 7 months managed and supervised from the race control located in Alicante and with stopovers in 8 different countries, before the finish in Genova, Italy.

Role 

We are recruiting for an enthusiastic, energetic and hardworking Client Relationships Manager to join our friendly and professional Commercial Relationships & Operations department. We are looking for an experienced profile to work with a portfolio of accounts and guide our partners to develop best-in-class, innovative and impactful activation programmes within the Race and our sustainability programme: Racing with Purpose. This is a fantastic opportunity for the right person. 

This role will run from September 2022 to July 2023. It will be a full-time position based in Alicante with international travel during the Race.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of a portfolio of accounts, serving as day-to-day contact for all partnership matters and ensuring smooth delivery of their contractual rights and benefits leading up to and during the 14th edition of The Ocean Race
• Quickly build and maintain client relationships, earning the trust of stakeholders of all levels to develop the account towards renewal
• Work closely with Communications, Racing with Purpose, Operations and other departments to counsel clients across a range of matters related to their partnership delivery
• Ensure the financial success of projects, driving efficiencies and monitoring service levels 
• Maintain momentum both internally and with stakeholders, using project timelines and weekly meetings, monitoring quality and deadline adherence and advising the management of any perceived issues in a timely manner. 
• Define partnership objectives as well as KPIs and, in coordination with the Research team, develop measurement and reporting processes.
• Assist partners in developing best-in-class, innovative and impactful activation programmes including conceptualization, planning, content creation, promotional development, media execution and event supervision.
• Attend stopover events in the role of Client Liaison and as a key member of the core delivery team 
• Manage the partnership activation budget and closely monitor that costs are aligned within approved budgets.
• Collaborate in bringing in new revenue for The Ocean Race, mainly by identifying upselling opportunities to existing sponsors, working jointly with the Business Development team. 
• Provide expertise on the optimization of the partnership benefits as well as identify additional partnership growth opportunities (broadcast, digital, licensing,..).
• Work closely with the rest of the departments at The Ocean Race, especially with the Race Village Project Manager and the Communications and Marketing team to be aware of potential endorsable projects, stories and other activities to be used as sales assets.
• Develop comprehensive executive summaries and reports of contractual deliverables of the partnerships for key stakeholders, analysing sponsorship activity and demonstrating ROI, working closely with the Research team to ensure the right data/insights.
• Provide support to any other departments of The Ocean Race requested from time to time like events, hospitality…

Experience

• 6+yrs in an commercial account management or project management role within professional sport
• Extensive experience of commercial partnerships, events and hospitality at global sports events 
• Good understanding of sports marketing principles and delivery for B2B and B2C brands
• Previous large scale sporting event experience 
• Working knowledge of sustainability principles and sustainable event practices
• Previous The Ocean Race / sailing event experience a plus but not essential
• Strong IT skills including knowledge and experience using Mac environment, Keynote, Google sheets
• Experienced with creating reports and presentations

Attributes

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• Exceptional communication skills
• Service-oriented attitude with A focus on excellence
• A good balance between a strong team player / self-starter with lots of energy and enthusiasm as you will need to work cross-department to deliver a range of projects
• Highly confident, organised, client focused, proactive, detail oriented, conscientious 
• Excellent presentation, interpersonal and problem solving skills
• Ability to work independently under pressure in a fast paced environment, handle multiple projects simultaneously and meet deadlines
• Good sense of humour
• Interest in major sports events and / or sailing 
• Be a team player and comply with the values of The Ocean Race: Trust, Excellence & Care.
• Proficiency in English, other languages a plus
• Willing to relocate to Alicante pre-race and to be onsite in all host cities during the race
• EU national or valid EU resident card;

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