Vice President

VP, Brand & Partnership Strategy

About MSQ Sport Entertainment

MSQ Sport Entertainment uses the power of sport and entertainment to create deeper connections for brands, talent and rights holders with services spanning sponsorship strategy and activation, social content strategy and production, PR and communications, live experiential events and talent/creator management.

Our teams are based in North America, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

Location: New York (Flatiron) - hybrid 3 days a week in the office, 2 remote.

About MSQ

MSQ is a next-generation creative, technology and media company creating brand momentum for clients. It’s one of the world’s fastest growing marketing groups, offering flexibility, choice and transparency to clients.

MSQ’s agencies incorporate M3 Labs, Elmwood, MMT and 26 DX, Smarts, Miri Growth, MSQ Sport Entertainment, Stein IAS, The Gate, Walk-In Media, 26PMX, SPCSHP, Freemavens and UDG. Clients can work with an MSQ agency on an individual basis, or with a joined-up team designed specifically around their needs.

Over 1,850 people work at MSQ across 24 global offices. In 2023 MSQ became a certified B Corp.

Your Role

We are looking for a Senior Brand & Sponsorship Strategist to join the growing team at MSQ Sport Entertainment. This is a great opportunity for a true go-getter and self-starter who is highly skilled, endlessly curious, and eager to solve problems creatively.

This role sits at the intersection of brand strategy, cultural intelligence, and sponsorship — supporting clients across sport, entertainment, and consumer categories. You are as comfortable building a brand narrative from scratch as you are evaluating a sponsorship portfolio or identifying an earned media opportunity. As part of a cross-functional team, you will apply your expertise to deepen existing client relationships and contribute to our new business pipeline.

Skills & Experience

Core Requirements

• 8 years of experience in brand strategy, marketing, or communications — ideally spanning sport or entertainment alongside broader consumer brand work.

• Demonstrable experience developing brand strategy and narrative — including audience segmentation, brand positioning, and creative platform development.

• Strong grounding in cultural strategy: able to identify macro and micro cultural shifts, map cultural tensions, and translate these into actionable brand and creative opportunities.

• Familiarity with earned media strategy — understanding how brands build presence through PR, editorial, creator, and cultural channels alongside paid and owned. Experience collaborating with PR or comms functions is a plus.

• Experience in developing integrated marketing and communications strategies across channels.

• Pulse on culture and can identify shifts, themes, and insights at the macro and micro level including target audience-specific differences.

Research & Insight

• Able to analyze both qualitative and quantitative data to uncover insights.

• Comfortable navigating and gathering information from syndicated research tools to inform strategic materials.

• Manage research operations, inclusive of survey design and analysis, knowledge management, tooling, and vendor management.

• Experience with qualitative audience research methodologies — including ethnographic approaches, focus groups, or cultural analysis — not just quantitative data synthesis.

• Keen attention to detail, especially in representing the integrity of research.

• Basic understanding of SEO and content optimization.

Communication & Collaboration

• Able to articulate, defend, and refine a point of view within strategy and cross-functional meetings.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills that translate into clear and concise creative briefs, presentation decks, and other materials.

• Able to build a strong rapport with creative teams to advance and elevate the final product.

Responsibilities

Build Brand Strategy & Narrative

• Develop brand strategies and narrative frameworks for clients — from audience segmentation and insight through to positioning, creative platform, and activation principles.

• Lead cultural audience studies that go beyond demographics to explore values, behaviors, tensions, and cultural affinities relevant to the brand’s opportunity.

• Identify and articulate the cultural white space a brand can credibly own — and the creative and sponsorship decisions that reinforce that position over time.

• Combine analytical insights to conceive and develop strategies and narratives that drive short and long-term impact for our clients.

• Deliver ideas and concepts that set our clients apart from competitors and create a strong position for market growth.

Sponsorship Strategy

• Evaluate and recommend sponsorship and partnership opportunities across sport, entertainment, and culture — assessing audience fit, activation potential, brand alignment, and measurable value.

• Distinguish between awareness-stage and activation-stage sponsorship, and build cases for the latter when it better serves client objectives.

• Conduct competitive landscape analysis to identify where clients are absent, where competitors are active, and what that means strategically.

• Conduct primary and secondary research on clients’ current strategies, customers, and market position with a keen ability to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

Earned & Integrated Media Strategy

• Identify earned media opportunities that ladder up to brand and sponsorship strategy — including PR storytelling opportunities, creator partnerships, and cultural moments.

• Brief and collaborate with PR and communications functions to ensure creative campaigns generate organic reach, not just paid amplification.

• Think channel-agnostically: the strongest strategies connect paid, owned, earned, and experiential in a coherent narrative.

Research & Cultural Intelligence

• Lead high-level research related to a client’s competitors – examining current trends within the industry as well as what’s relevant to consumers and culture.

• Distill and identify trends and insights that can be used to inform strategy and creative opportunities.

• Conduct primary audience research — through qualitative interviews, cultural listening, or working with research partners — to generate insight beyond what syndicated tools surface.

Write, Present & Collaborate Effectively

• Prepare brand strategy briefing documents, proposals, and new business presentations outlining strategies and ideas for cross-functional and client teams.

• Collaborate with the client to identify business goals and align strategies where relevant.

• Effectively brief in internal and external creative and communications functions.

• Collaborate across creative, communications, influencer, and experiential teams to drive work that delivers on brand and business strategy.

Please note applications close on June 12th 2026

No recruitment agencies on this role please.

Benefits

• Salary commiserate with experience, ranging in $140,000-160,000

• Full coverage of Medical Health Insurance (the company covers up to 100%) Dental (company covers 50%)

• Friday hours end at 3PM (full year) 1PM Summer Fridays from Memorial Day through Labor Day

• 401K matches up to 4.5%

• Closed on all federal holidays plus a Christmas through New Year’s break