Director of Marketing and Admissions Revenue

Director of Marketing and Admissions Revenue

As a business driver, you will lead the marketing and admissions revenue functions for Adventure Aquarium. You will be primarily responsible for developing high-performance marketing, ticket sales, and PR strategies and tactics to achieve attendance and revenue goals. You’ll lead the day-to-day promotions, membership, public relations, onsite programming, content, and group sales efforts to deliver business targets. You will partner with our Atlanta-based Property Support Center (“PSC”) to deliver each element of the Adventure Aquarium marketing mix with excellence. With a constant eye on attendance and other critical business metrics, you will be a hands-on leader who ideates, executes, and tweaks strategy to reach established targets. To be effective and successful, you will provide strategic thinking, departmental leadership, partnership, and executional excellence in delivering property business goals.

What You’ll Do

- Develop annual ticket sales, marketing, and public relations plans; execute plans to deliver targets.
- Forecast attendance and ticket mix, manage capacity limits, and admission prices based on historical data, market conditions, trends, competitive activity, and third-party consultation (Digonex).
- Provide ongoing monitoring of business performance and goal attainment; recommend shifts in strategies and tactics as necessary to ensure financial plan attainment.
- Lead a team of four full-time sales and marketing professionals to achieve business objectives and inspire the property toward “creating memories worth repeating” for every guest, overseeing the development and implementation of the aquarium’s:
- Membership program, providing strategic guidance to ensure the successful delivery of channel objectives
- Promotions strategy and plan,which leverages brand assets and paid/earned/owned media to establish Adventure Aquarium as a brand of choice with our target guests and drive visitation
- Annual group sales plan,providing strategic guidance to ensure the successful delivery of channel objectives
- All public relations and social mediastrategies and tactics
- Content creationfor email, social media, and PR.
- Onsite multi-week festivals/activations/programming to drive attendance and delight guests with fresh and innovative experiences
- A small number of sponsorshipagreements
- Partner with third-party PR, media planning & buying, and sponsorship agencies to execute plans
- Author campaign briefs, informed by guest insights and defined KPIs, working with PSC to execute paid media creative, paid media placement, website updates, and email sends.
- Review and approve advertising strategy, creative concepts, media mix, weight, and timing; provide feedback professionally and in a way that demonstrates partnership with the PSC and respect for the process.
- Plan and administer the annual Marketing budget.
- Utilize post-visit surveys, online reviews, and Placer.ai data to guide marketing strategy and identify growth opportunities.
- Lead the process to identify, develop, and promote new products, including events, limited-time offerings, onsite programming, and up-sell opportunities. Play a vital role in developing the strategic plan and new exhibit concepts.
- Bring a spirit of collaboration and service to the position, applying insights to assist property leaders in determining where the aquarium brand has opportunity.
- Serve as an official aquarium spokesperson
- Represent the Aquarium with tourism partners, national zoological networks, and industry-related meetings and conferences.
- Model and reflect the Adventure Aquarium culture to guests, partners, direct reports, supervisors, peers, and property and PSC leadership.
- Purposefully develop all direct reports through an ongoing commitment to growth, creating an environment of clarity in expectation, praise/recognition, and accountability.
- Other duties as assigned.

What You’ll Bring:

- 10+ years of progressive marketing experience required
- Minimum four years of leadership experience required
- Bachelor’s degree in business or marketing preferred (may be substituted with equivalent years of experience in a related field)
- Experience infor-profit attractions, theme parks, museums, or sports franchises is strongly preferred
- Competitive spirit, motivated by hitting daily/weekly/period/annual goals
- Proven success targeting mothers of children under 12 years of age and school/camp groups
- Expertise and passion for cross-functional collaboration with PSC (Property Support Center) team members and numerous partners to gain insights, resulting in an optimal plan
- Understand and manage projects from concept to completion. Develop and achieve strategic objectives, plans, and time schedules; organize and manage competing priorities, while maintaining a steadfast commitment to detail
- Ability to harness data into actionable insights
- Ability to inspire and motivate property stakeholders towards a shared vision
- Ability to accept feedback and sell ideas that will improve the business
- Highly organized with strong verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to work independently and cooperatively as part of a team
- Business leadership demonstrated through patience, kindness, trust, unselfishness, truthfulness, forgiveness, dedication, and humility
- Ability to travel locally to attend expos and networking events during and outside scheduled hours
- Ability to travel out-of-state two to three times per year for corporate meetings
- Ability to work a flexible schedule, including weekends, evenings, and holidays
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and quick adoption of technology

Who You Are

You have a talent for balancing strategy and execution and are unafraid to get your hands dirty bringing your plans to life. You can be creative and analytical. You can juggle multiple priorities, effectively utilizing resources to get the job done on time. You value the strength of a team and know it is better to go together than go it alone. You have a keen ability to cultivate data into insights, insights into action, and action into results. You are rewarded by constant improvement and leading others to success.

What You’ll Get

- Base salary ranging from $110k-$120k with 25% annual bonus potential
- Comprehensive benefits plan through Cigna
- 2 weeks’ vacation, 1-week personal time, 1-week sick time, 8 paid holidays; all based on a full calendar year
- 401(k) with company match and Profit-Sharing Plan after 3 months of service
- Day one access to fully funded tuition and tuition assistance programs through our GROW U program
- Free admission and 24 General Admission tickets annually, to be used by family and friends
- Complimentary tickets to local attractions when available
- 30% Discount in our Retail and Photo areas and in-house food vendors
- Training and development

Special Requirements:

- Successful completion of pre-employment background check
- Examples of previous marketing campaigns: broadcast, digital, social, PR, etc.
- Ability to speak, read, and write effectively in English
- Ability to operate a computer and keyboard
- Ability to sit and stand for extended periods

About us:

As a Herschend Family Entertainment property, Adventure Aquarium is in the business of creating memories worth repeating by greatly exceeding guest expectations, serving others, creating emotional connections, and seeking constant improvement. Stewardship, guest satisfaction, and team member satisfaction are our core areas of focus. We aim to be a great place to work for great people by leading with patience, kindness, humility, respect, unselfishness, forgiveness, truthfulness, and trust. Together, we will create emotional connections that will last a lifetime

Adventure Aquarium, a Herschend Family Entertainment Property, maintains a continuing policy of non-discrimination in employment. Herschend is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based upon race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, as well as any other category protected by law. Furthermore, it is our policy to provide equal opportunity to individuals with disabilities and protected veterans in all phases of the employment process and in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. This policy of nondiscrimination shall include, but not be limited to, the following employment decisions and practices: recruiting, hiring, promotions, demotions or transfers, layoffs, recalls, terminations, rates of pay or other forms of compensation; selection for training, including apprenticeship; and recruitment or recruitment advertising.

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