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In the market for new talent

UEFA’s Peter Willems is seeking a new Senior Marketing Activities Manager to help the division stay ‘at the top of the game’. Read on to find out the special qualities he’s looking for.

In the market for new talent
In the market for new talent ©UEFA.com

Peter, can you start by telling us a little about the main responsibilities of this role?

Marketing at UEFA is about driving value for the short and long term that, in time, needs to be turned into revenues for stakeholders such as football clubs and national football associations. 

In an environment where the competition to capture fans’ attention is extremely fierce, this role will involve building marketing plans for the various UEFA competitions, and leading the implementation of these plans, including promotional and brand management (e.g. David Guetta & EURO 2016, or the latest visual identity of the UEFA Champions League). Specific attention will also be devoted to UEFA’s programme to market women’s football.

The role also means carrying out constant in-depth analysis into the current and future behaviour of fans and consumers, as well as gathering insights which will help drive forward UEFA’s customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives – especially as CRM is becoming an increasingly important pillar of UEFA’s marketing activities

This important, very diverse and exciting job will put you at the core of all UEFA marketing initiatives and competitions, and you will also be helping to provide benefits for UEFA’s broadcast, sponsor and licensing partners, with whom you will be collaborating as part of your duties.

What are the big projects and opportunities on your horizon at the moment?

Given the intense competition for fans, the opportunities are pretty much limitless, so for UEFA to lead the debate, we need to be at the top of our game.

Many exciting projects come immediately to mind, such as the development of our CRM activities, the pan-European marketing plan for women’s football, and the UEFA Champions League marketing plan to grow the competition in Asian markets. In addition, other exciting projects include the UEFA EURO 2020 promotional plan for a unique tournament that will be staged in 13 European cities; the UEFA Nations League, which gets underway in the not-too-distant future; and promotional and brand preparations for the new UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League cycles.

Can you tell us about the personal qualities you’re looking for in candidates?

We are looking for a marketing expert who is a leader, who can guide, manage, engage and drive the team forward - someone who can convince peers, their team and senior management to embrace initiatives that are proposed.

The person should be committed and prepared to put in the hard yards. They should be service-minded, able to act and react quickly and decisively, and have a keen attention to detail. They should also have the appropriate soft skills to convince and lead various UEFA divisions, and take charge of cross-divisional project teams.

For those people thinking of applying, what do you feel UEFA offer as an employer that marks it as different from other organisations or companies?

From a marketing perspective, we start out with a ‘product’ - football - that is liked by over three billion people on a global level… certainly a great starting point! On top of that, we are working on a daily basis with our 55 member associations and many clubs across Europe, which is an enriching experience in itself. UEFA is also a company where there is room for initiative, and senior management are readily open to new ideas - something which should fuel every marketer’s creative appetite…

 

Interested in applying? You can find full details of the role here.