Marketing Ops Manager (Free State) at Sun International

Main Purpose of the Job:

• The Marketing Operations Manager will provide strategic direction, leadership and management to the marketing team and function for the business unit.  Planning, promoting and execution of gaming and hospitality activations, events and entertainment are key deliverables of this role.

The manager will:

• collaborate with various central office marketing support teams and unit gaming, hospitality and operational management to customise and coordinate the unit’s action plans (including promotions, activations, events and MVG Loyalty programme);
• ensure database integrity.
• and implement relevant digital and social marketing campaigns to grow footfall to the property.
• In so doing the role will drive the customer acquisition, reactivation and retention strategies and build the unit’s gaming and leisure brand to establish Windmill as the preferred entertainment destination in Bloemfontein. The role will also focus on building a solid marketing talent pipeline to support innovative and sustainable marketing solutions.

Requirements

Education and experience:

• Minimum of a 3-year B Degree in Marketing or equivalent
• Minimum of 5 years’ operational marketing experience
• Event planning experience is an advantage 
• Marketing management experience is an advantage
• Preferably obtained within the casino and or hospitality environment

Working conditions and special requirements:

• Ability to travel locally
• Ability to work shifts that meet operational requirements

Duties and responsibilities include:

Marketing Plans & Results

• Understand the business strategy and develop action plans to create relevance and grow footfall to the property
• Develop new and innovative marketing plans to promote the unit’s customer value proposition and respond to the changing gaming landscape
• Build, maintain and leverage strategic relationships to promote the property
• Grow the unit’s gaming market share in the Free State
• Collaborate with the central office marketing support teams to grow the unit’s gaming and hospitality brand presence across various channels including online and social media
• Conduct market research through collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and the use of business intelligence tools to provide a clear view of customer preferences.  Develop a strategy to respond to these learnings.
• Influence and co-ordinate promotions, events and entertainment by analysing and evaluating customer trends and preferences.
• Collaborate with gaming to develop strong acquisition, reactivation and retention strategies
• Conduct meet-and-greets with strategic partners and VIP customers
• Monitor and audit the unit’ customer relationship database to ensure the data is complete and accurate and provides consistent and reliable insights into the unit’ customers and their preferences
• Develop and measure gaming marketing and direct marketing campaigns (including digital and social) to support the business objectives
• Support VIP and key customer relationships to grow visitation and loyalty
• Measure and report on the impact of all marketing initiatives and activations

Campaign Management 

• Define and promote the business units’ customer value proposition
• Develop and co-ordinate an OMNI-channel strategy to promote cross play between online and land-based gaming
• Plan, execute, measure and conclude all promotions and events for the unit
• Create rich content to promote social and digital presence
• Provide innovative solutions and campaigns to deliver on the unit’s strategy
• Attend events to leverage opportunities to acquire new business and build strong relationships with key customers
• Develop and implement an aggressive internal and external communication strategy
• Prepare and present post-mortem analysis on all campaigns

Delivered MVG Loyalty Management

• Collaborate with central office marketing support teams to develop acquisition and retention campaigns
• Manage and monitor the implementation of the MVG Loyalty Programme and benefits for the unit
• Effectively manage the MVG team
• Manage the customer database hygiene to ensure the completeness and accuracy of customer data
• Conduct analyses of customer data and develop and implement campaigns to increase visitation
• Effectively communicate and drive the benefits of the loyalty programme in order to grow the database

Stakeholder Relationship Management

• Internal: Effective communication to ensure internal stakeholders have a complete understanding of all upcoming activations (gaming, hospitality, events, etc)
• External: Communicate and negotiate with external vendors, agents, promotors, entertainers, etc to build and maintain strong relationships.  Promote the unit and venues with the aim to collaborate and deliver on the objective to establish Windmill as the preferred entertainment destination in Bloemfontein
• Liaise with central sales and marketing teams to ensure synergy on objectives and campaigns
• Negotiate and manage vendor contract deliverables

People Leadership

• Manage positive employee relations within the department
• Drive a performance culture
• Provide direction and support to employees with regard to marketing initiatives, campaigns and innovations
• Provide motivation and leadership to promote positive working relationships
• Identify training, coaching and development opportunities in order to create succession
• Source and select talent as per EE plan
• Ensure alignment with EE, SD and procurement strategies which contribute towards BBBEE targets being achieved
• Performance Management and coaching of staff to ensure KPA’s are achieved

Budget Management

• Develop and manage an annual budget
• Revenue optimisation
• Effective cost management
• Capital spent to promote return on investment
• Quarterly forecasting and reporting
• Analysis and reporting on the monthly financial results
• Feedback on the ROI of campaigns and marketing initiatives

Quarterly forecasting and reporting

• Analysis and reporting on the monthly financial results
• Feedback on the ROI of campaigns and marketing initiatives