Group Advocacy Manager

What makes this a great opportunity?

Mission

Responsible for developing, implementing and executing strategies to drive trade engagement in the On-Premise in Australia (and New Zealand when required) to drive brand awareness & engagement across Beam Suntory Advocacy programs. The Group Advocacy Manager will lead and champion brand advocacy and trade education.  They will work closely and collaboratively with the sales and marketing functions to deliver on each of the brand ambitions and objectives through best in class advocacy and brand building

Scope

The Group Advocacy Manager will lead and champion brand advocacy & training. They will lead and manage all members of the Brand Ambassador community including our 3 Brand Specific Diplomats, 5 State Brand Advocacy & Activation Specialists (SBAAS), Advocacy Events Manager & Design Manager.  Team of 10 directs reports. This role will also be responsible for the next evolution of Advocacy and Activation in Australia under our Suntory Oceania partnership – establishing a new strategy, team and capability responsible for delivering leading programs for our exceptional brands.   The Group Advocacy Manager will lead the advocacy team to create a centre of advocacy excellence – driving them to achieve their ambition to become the envy of the industry leveraging a total budget approx. $1.2m BI.

As required own the creation and evolution of Advocacy teams across NZ

Role Responsibilities

Engagement: develop and deliver engagement through The Blend Assets, providing solutions to brand plans and strategic direction creating ‘mini ambassadors’ in the on premise. Innovative engagement strategies, events and online activities to drive engagement outcomes. Working closely with the brand teams and sales team, to execute strategy. Post campaign evaluation of engagement, re-aligning campaigns to ensure success and meeting brand goals.
Collaboration: Build close relationships with sales team, agencies and global influencers. Effective collaborations to develop a strong, consistent, nationally valuable business-driven activation plan engaging the on premise, consumers, promoting  our brands  as Australia’s on premise leader.
Event co-ordination: Supporting immediate team on event execution.  Creation of Pre and post-event communications, ensuring the delivery of every event, seminar or masterclass is seamless. Measuring and reporting on the effectiveness of all activations and brand engagement via attendance and measurables
Brand Launches: Plan and co- manage new, brand launches at a local level including communications with local sales, press, and communications with, most importantly, the on premise
Budget management
Report Monthly on Advocacy: Diplomats, The Exchange & The Blend campaigns
Providing insights on drinks, brands, cocktails and international trends
Focus

Own, lead and develop the brand education strategy across the Beam Suntory portfolio

• Build, lead and deliver the brand training and education strategy for the business in line with the brand and commercial objectives.
• Work alongside the Diplomat team to deliver a leading training and educational strategy for the channel for both customers and consumers, as well as employees.
• Demonstrate an agile approach to flex plan based on customer needs and channel dynamics
• Lead the serve strategy supported by leading engagement programmes that elevate our brands and deliver commercial success

Responsible for The Blend, managing the adaptation of global platforms

• Amplify Global & local campaigns, delivering market KPI’s to meet global needs
• Raising the profile across the industry of the Blend and the Beam Suntory Advocacy programmes

Own the capability programme for all Brand Ambassadors and Diplomats

• Identify and build best in class advocacy inductions
• Continuous education programmes throughout the year to include Brand Education & Presentation skills
• Drive to embed brand stories and education across the business and externally through the expertise of ambassadors and whisky specialists
• Support the build of advocacy toolkits – training requirements, assets, tools, development.

Support team to define and deliver advocacy success

• Lead, inspire and successfully develop a team of direct reports who champion our brands through storytelling, top class education and enhanced stakeholder relationships.
• Scope the roles of the Brand Ambassadors, Diplomats and the Blend Events Manager
• Drive 1:1s and team meetings, developing a culture of high performance
• Establish clear KPIs and ensure consistent performance management
• Develop a team culture that has customers at the heart of all we do and firmly embeds and supports our mission, guiding principle and strategies and enablers firmly based on inclusion, involvement and contribution

Qualifications

• Preferred qualification in marketing, PR or events
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in brand, activation or marketing, preferably in alcohol beverage industry
• Extensive project and budget management experience and proven ability to multi task
• Preferred experience being a reputable ‘face’ within the industry