What is a Sports Marketing Assistant?

For many that aspire to work in sports marketing, owning your own business and working with high-profile athletes might be your end goal.

There are many entry level roles that will help you get your foot in the door, and being a marketing assistant is a common place to start.

But what does this involve?

Liberty Schofield is a GIS graduate and studied MSc Football Communications and Digital Marketing.

Now a marketing assistant at Ancient + Brave, Liberty talked us through the role.

1. What are your main responsibilities in your marketing role?

“My responsibilities are very varied. I’ll be looking at the content calendar and making sure that our content is aligned with our tone of voice, ensuring it’s scheduled, and copywriting further briefs. I also copywrite emails for email marketing campaigns – I didn’t realise just how much copywriting I would be doing! Another major part of my role is production management for photoshoots.”

As Liberty highlights, copywriting is a major part of the role— but what does it actually involve?

Copywriting is the writing done to promote a product or service, and is hugely important in marketing. This can range from social media posts to websites, emails, and ads, all with the goal of grabbing the attention of your target audience and encouraging them to engage with your brand.

Different companies often have varied tones and approaches, but generally, good copywriting is clear and conversational, with the aim of telling the reader what’s in it for them.

2. What surprised you about working in marketing?

“I think that it is much more strategic than I originally thought. For example, I am currently building a paid ads strategy and framework – I never realised how much marketing teams rely on strategy work.”

This strategy work refers to the planning and decision-making that happens behind the scenes before any marketing content or campaigns go live. 

This is done to give marketers a broad understanding of who the audience is that you’re targeting, and how you’re going to connect with them.

In Liberty’s example of building a ‘paid ads strategy and framework’, this can include identifying the target audience, deciding which platform to advertise on, setting campaign goals, and creating the content itself, before reviewing previous campaigns to see what worked and what didn’t.

3. What’s one key skill or insight you’ve gained so far?

“One of the most important parts is teamwork. Working in a team is a huge part of the role—for example, brainstorming sessions shape the marketing strategy and content that we push out in communications.”

Another vital attribute that marketing assistants and executives will bring to the table is energy. Speaking to GIS about his career so far, marketing expert Tom Rowell called this job “the most fun part of your career.”

“As an executive,” he said, “you’re paid to have ideas and bring energy, replacing the freshness that the higher ups don’t have. 

“As an executive you offer newness, and that’s what people want in interviews, they want someone to give a bit more than admin.”

Starting out as a marketing assistant can be your first step into the exciting world of sports marketing. Putting your writing skills to the test as well as involving a lot of creativity to capture the readers’ attention, it is, as Tom Rowell feels, an extremely fun role.

If you’re a student passionate about sports marketing, you can develop the skills that Liberty and Tom see as vital with us at GIS. Teaching both MSc Sports Marketing & Media and MSc Football Communications & Digital Marketing, you can discover more on our course offerings page. 

Article by Zakaria Anani