Marketing Lead, Local Market Activation

About the role

Within Marketing at GEICO, local market activation is how national brand priorities become real, tangible experiences for customers. This role involves owning end-to-end planning and execution of consumer-facing experiential programs across priority markets such as sports events, trade shows, mobile tours, and community activations.

Responsibilities

• Support development of market-level activation plans grounded in business opportunity, audience insights, local culture, and key moments
• Identify opportunities to extend national campaigns into in-market experiences that drive engagement and memorability
• Lead end-to-end execution of experiential activations — events, pop-ups, mobile tours, and community programs — across markets
• Build comprehensive activation plans covering timelines, run-of-show playbooks, staffing, asset development, fabrication, and logistics
• Own on-site execution: final production checks, staffing alignment, inventory management, and real-time troubleshooting
• Develop scalable concepts that flex across markets without losing quality or brand consistency
• Operational Excellence & Project Management: Serve as cross-functional project management lead across internal teams and agency partners, driving workback schedules, milestone tracking, and dependency mapping
• Proactively surface risks and gaps; implement mitigation plans before they become execution problems
• Build and apply standardized tools, templates, and workflows that improve consistency and efficiency across activations
• Manage program communications — stakeholder updates, status reports, and timely escalation of key issues
• Agency, Vendor & Budget Management: Manage experiential agencies, production partners, and vendors responsible for fabrication, logistics, and staffing
• Own activation budgets at the program and market level — tracking costs, reconciling estimates vs. actuals, and maintaining accurate forecasting
• Scope projects appropriately, review vendor estimates, and identify cost efficiencies without compromising experience quality
• Measurement & Learning: Track activation performance — engagement, leads captured, experience quality — and deliver post-event recaps with clear learnings and recommendations
• Partner with Analytics to evolve how experiential effectiveness is measured over time

Requirements

Local Plan Development: Proven experience developing market-level activation plans grounded in business opportunity, audience insights, local culture, and key moments

Experiential Planning & Execution: Proven experience executing consumer-facing events or large-scale activations

Operational Excellence & Project Management: Proven experience managing timelines, approvals, and deliverables across internal and external stakeholders in a matrixed environment

Agency, Vendor & Budget Management: Proven experience managing production vendors, agencies, and on-site execution teams

Budget Ownership: Proven experience managing program-level budgets, including tracking, reconciliation, and forecasting

Cross-functional Coordination: Proven ability to manage timelines, approvals, and deliverables across internal and external stakeholders in a matrixed environment

Experience in Sports, Entertainment, or Large-Scale Event Environments: Background in sports, entertainment, or large-scale event environments preferred

Integration Experience: Experience connecting experiential programs with media, PR, and social campaigns

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree preferred
• Experience: 5+ years in experiential marketing, event marketing, or field activation, with proven experience executing consumer-facing events or large-scale activations
• Multi-market Programs: Experience managing national or multi-market experiential programs, not just single-event execution
• Vendor & Agency Management: Demonstrated experience managing production vendors, agencies, and on-site execution teams
• Budget Ownership: Hands-on experience managing program-level budgets, including tracking, reconciliation, and forecasting
• Cross-functional Coordination: Ability to manage timelines, approvals, and deliverables across internal and external stakeholders in a matrixed environment
• Industry Context: Background in sports, entertainment, or large-scale event environments preferred
• Integration Experience: Experience connecting experiential programs with media, PR, and social campaigns

Skills

• Excellent execution skills
• Genuinely energized by live events
• Organized enough to hold complex, multi-market programs together without anything falling through the cracks
• Comfortable on-site in high-pressure situations, troubleshooting in real time and maintaining standards when things don't go as planned
• Comfortable managing budgets at the program and market level, and can explain cost drivers and tradeoffs clearly
• Energized by live events and the logistical puzzle of making them work

Benefits

The GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards, and Great Careers

Pay

$82,000.00 - $129,150.00 annually

Schedule

Hybrid, 3 days per week onsite. NYC or DC metro.