Head of Festival Marketing

The Head of Festival Marketing is the senior player/coach at the center of DWP’s campaign engine. You bring senior-level strategic thinking and ground-level execution in equal measure. You can architect a launch plan for a brand-new festival property in the morning and spend the afternoon interrogating paid media performance for an upcoming on-sale. You set the standard for urgency, accountability, and creative problem-solving.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own end-to-end marketing strategy and execution for an assigned portfolio of DWP festivals, from initial campaign kickoff through post-event wrap.

• Treat every phase of the campaign calendar—on-sale, lineup announcements, presales, final push—as a distinct sales opportunity, with messaging and urgency tailored to each moment.

• Develop integrated marketing plans spanning paid media, organic social, email, partnerships, and on-site activations, with pass sales as the north star metric at every stage.

• Stay tightly connected to ticketing, talent, and operations so you’re never caught off guard by an on-sale date, lineup drop, or inventory shift.

• Monitor daily sales pacing across your portfolio; identify problems early and act on them immediately rather than waiting for the numbers to fix themselves.

• Lead the full marketing strategy and execution for new DWP festival brands and event launches, from initial market assessment through on-sale and beyond.

• Define the “Keys to Success” for each new property: identify the target audience, map the competitive landscape, establish the brand voice, and build the go-to-market plan from the ground up.

• Coordinate across talent, ticketing, sponsorship, and creative to ensure every element of the launch is aligned and timed for maximum market impact.

• Instill a sense of urgency and solution-oriented thinking in every direct report: every campaign decision should start with the question, “How does this sell more passes?”

• Build a high-accountability team culture where issues are surfaced quickly and met with action, not analysis paralysis.

• Lead media planning for your assigned festivals and all new launches.

• Use analytics to surface problems while there’s still time to fix them, not after the on-sale window has closed.

• Review reporting from your direct reports and challenge them to connect every metric to pass sales and campaign health.

• Lead post-event and post-launch recaps that go beyond what happened—articulating clearly what you’ll do differently to sell more passes next time.

• Contribute insights to broader department initiatives, bringing a ground-level perspective that helps sharpen portfolio-wide strategy.

Qualifications:

• 10 years of experience in marketing, with deep expertise in paid media, campaign management, and analytics—ideally in live entertainment, music festivals, or a related industry.

• A proven track record of driving ticket or pass sales through integrated marketing campaigns, with hands-on experience at every stage of the funnel.

• Demonstrated experience launching new brands or events from the ground up, including go-to-market strategy, media planning, and first-cycle execution.

• Experience managing or mentoring direct reports, with a track record of building accountable, solution-focused teams.

• Strong media planning and buying expertise across digital and traditional channels.

• Sharp analytical instincts with the ability to move quickly from insight to action—and to hold your team to the same standard.

• Exceptional project management skills: you hit deadlines, flag issues early, and keep campaigns moving without being chased.

• Clear, confident communicator who can align internal teams and external partners around a shared objective.

This position is based in Nashville. Hybrid working schedule, 4 days in office.