Associate Marketing Manager - Advertising & Media - Ace Hardware Corporation

About This Role

The Associate Marketing Manager – Advertising & Media will support Ace’s national creative advertising and brand media efforts across all channels and acts as the primary day-to-day lead with Ace’s creative advertising agency and secondary with the media agency.  The primary responsibilities are to help develop and produce all creative for all national advertising campaigns and media executions as well as support the annual planning/buying process and ongoing changes throughout the year in which this creative is placed. This role leads the strategic brief process, oversees master timelines, and manages all projects from inception to implementation to ensure breakthrough creative is delivered and optimized across media channels. This cross-functional role helps to ensure alignment of media strategy and creative execution across all channels and departments to produce optimal results for Ace.

This position serves as the Ace Brand steward as is responsible to protect and grow brand equity and ensure the brand is represented properly throughout the enterprise.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the creative advertising agency and internal teams to develop all campaign local marketing assets, including TV, audio, digital, billboards/out-of-home and print advertising, and execute the deployment and monitoring of these assets

• Support the Advertising & Media Manager in the national creative development, production, review, and approval process including TV, online video, terrestrial radio, streaming audio, and digital resulting in 100+ creative executions annually.   Ensuring strategic integrity, consistent look, and messaging across tactics

• Support the Advertising & Media Manager in the annual media planning and buying process, including activation, measurement, optimization, and updates/changes annually and throughout the year

• Support the Advertising & Media Manager in ensuring cohesiveness of brand strategy, positioning, messaging and creative across paid and non-paid marketing channels

• Manage day to day Advertising & Media budget, timelines, activations, executions from sub-agencies within lead strategic agency, plus measurement and success metrics

• Manage day-to-day budgeting and billing processes for both the Advertising Production and Media budgets, including estimate and invoice processing, monthly projections, contract execution, etc

• Partner with legal counsel to substantiate all creative communication legal disclaimers for National TV claims in advertising

• Manage the strategic creative agency to develop and maintain a campaign guide and key assets to ensure full integration of campaigns across all marketing channels

Who You Are

You are passionate about strong strategy and creative and its ability to drive business results. You are naturally curious, creative and collaborative.  You enjoy owning and driving the process from start to finish both internally and with partner agencies.

Required Skills

• A minimum of 5 years experience in Advertising

• Previous Agency experience

• Successful track record of managing multiple agencies and vendor partners

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in advertising, marketing or related field Business or related field (commensurate experience considered) preferred.

• Strong competency in advertising production, editing, and trafficking

• Detail-oriented with ability to work within and thrive in a fast-paced multi-project environment

• Excellent interpersonal and written/verbal communications skills, including the ability to communicate effectively through presentations, one-on-one meetings, e-mails and other correspondence

• Demonstrated ability to manage a multitude of projects at any one given time, while being able to work with a team and meet respective deadlines

• Strong ability to work cross-functionally to achieve results

Compensation Details:

$84600 - $106000 Per Year

Why should you join our team?

We live our values - W.E.L.I.G.H.T (Winning, Excellence, Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Humility, and Teamwork). Gratitude. Humility. Love. You don’t often see values like these in most corporate statements, but Ace is different. These things are important to us. They represent our commitment to the company, our employees, to Ace retailers and to the Ace brand.

In addition to providing our employees a great culture, Ace also offers competitive benefits* that address life’s necessities and perks, many of which expand and improve year after year, including:

• Incentive opportunities, based on role/grade level (rapid company growth over the past 5 years resulted in incentives being paid out at an average of 122% of your target opportunity!)
• Generous 401(k) retirement savings plan with a fully vested matching contribution the first year in addition to quarterly contributions and annual discretionary contribution (once eligibility requirements have been met).  Over the past 5 years, company contributions (matching, quarterly & discretionary) for fully eligible employees have averaged 9.6% of total eligible compensation
• Comprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision and disability – up to 26 weeks short-term disability and long-term disability) & life insurance benefits for you and your dependents
• 21 days of vacation immediately available (prorated in the first year) and up to 6 paid holidaysdepending on the month of hire
• Company Car, phone and fuel card are provided for field-based positions
• Your career at Ace is more than just a job. It’s a chance to be part of something meaningful. We help locally-owned businesses thrive and make an impact in their communities – and we support our employees in doing the same by offering an annual Ace Cares Week, 20 hours off work per year to volunteer at an organization of your choice, opportunities to help Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the Ace Helpful Fund through the Ace Foundation
• Ace invests in every employee we hire, with a key focus on development and coaching. We offer on-site classes, facilitator-led courses, and a generous tuition assistance program, plus a performance management approach that goes beyond the typical annual review
• We know the work environment matters. That’s why Ace holds frequent campus events like Employee Appreciation Week, vendor demos, cookouts, and merchandise sales
• We bring them to you! Services such as mobile spas, auto maintenance, car wash and detailing, dry cleaning, dentists, eye doctors, flu shots, recycling and more!
• Employee discounts on Ace merchandise (including top brands like Weber, Traeger, Yeti, Craftsman, DeWalt and more), travel, fitness, computers and thousands more
• Birth/Adoption bonding paid time off
• Adoption cost reimbursement
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – access to free visits to therapists and lawyers, guidance on financial matters, elder and childcare, and assistance with tickets to entertainment events
• Identity theft protection

* Benefits are provided in compliance with applicable policies.

We want to hear from you!
When most people think of career opportunities with Ace Hardware, they often think of the helpful cashiers and sales associates at their local store. However, have you also considered the people behind the scenes who select, promote, ship and process the invoices for more than 75,000 products? Maybe you haven't, but we'd like you to. Because together we help our customers take care of their homes. Come find out why a career with the Ace Hardware Corporation is one of America's best kept secrets.

Equal Opportunity Employer
Ace Hardware Corporation is committed to a policy of promoting equal employment opportunities. The company recognizes the importance of diversity and leveraging the skills and talents of all people to the mutual advantage of each individual and the organization. The company is committed to the prevention of employment discrimination related to race, religion, color, sex (including sexual harassment), gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, disability and military or veteran status, sexual orientation or any other action covered by federal or applicable state/local laws.

Disclaimer

The pay range for this position starts as listed in the job posting, but could be higher based on education and experience. Please note, compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each opening. We take into consideration the minimum requirements outlined in the job description, such as an individual’s education, training and experience, the position’s work location, required travel (if any), and external market conditions when determining the final salary for potential new hires.

Be aware that salary estimates published via alternate online job boards may not be a true representation of the actual pay range offered for this position. Please refer to the Ace position description for the accurate starting pay range information and feel free to discuss this with a Talent Acquisition professional if you are chosen to move forward with an interview.

This written “Position Description” is not intended to cover all aspects of the position listed. It is meant to cover the basic/general essential job functions of a particular position. Ace Hardware Corporation reserves the right to change job duties, including essential job functions, according to business necessity.