Director, Consumer Insights

Excel Sports Management is an industry-leading sports agency representing top-tier talent, blue-chip brands and marquee properties. Our success is rooted in our people, our high character reputation and our commitment to creating a diverse and welcoming workplace. We focus on team chemistry, collaboration, strong relationships, valuable networks, and ambitious ideas to deliver innovative solutions that keep our clients and agency ahead of the curve.

Excel Sports Management is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).

Position Summary

We are building a dedicated consumer insights capability within our Excel Analytics team and are seeking a Director, Consumer Insights to lead that effort from the ground up. This role sits at the intersection of consumer behavior, fandom, sponsorship marketing, and live brand experiences. The Director will own the end-to-end research lifecycle and play a critical role in evolving how sponsorships are measured, moving beyond exposure and valuation to true consumer and business impact. This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced insights professional who wants to build something meaningful, shape new measurement models, and influence high-profile brand partnerships. This role will be based in Chicago, but open to strong candidates based in NY or LA

Roles and Responsibilities

Lead end to end sponsorship and consumer research

• Personally lead and oversee primary research programs, owning the full research lifecycle across quantitative and qualitative methodologies
• Translate research into actionable sponsorship insights for external clients and internal stakeholders
• Lead measurement of B2C experiential marketing and fan activations, capturing the emotional, brand, and behavioral impact of live experiences
• Develop and execute measurement frameworks for B2B hospitality, hosting, and relationship-driven sponsorship programs

Drive Sponsorship ROI & Thought Leadership

• Develop and deploy new sponsorship ROI and impact frameworks
• Integrate consumer insight into broader sponsorship measurement models
• Serve as internal thought leader on consumer insights related to our clients, key cultural trends and behavioral shifts among fans
• Lead advanced analytics initiatives around consumer insights data including segmentations, TURF analyses, con-joint, Max-Diff, and other methodologies

Stakeholder & Client Partnership

• Partner with account team leads, sales and business development colleagues to enhance and communicate commercial appeal of Excel research capabilities
• Support business and client development initiatives with ad-hoc research and insights on varied topics including sponsorship category research, fanbase insights and consumer segmentation
• Act as trusted advisor to internal stakeholders and clients, with the ability to present insights to senior audiences and influence without authority
• Partner with Excel Analytics colleagues on key capability development initiatives related to sponsorship impact, norms/benchmarks and other topics

Tools, Platforms & Vendor Ecosystem

• Serve as a power user of consumer insights and fan intelligence platforms across syndicated data, social listening, media monitoring and other tools
• Lead identification, evaluation and onboarding of new vendors in service to closing key data and capability gaps
• Own strategy and relationships with research vendors and data partners

Build the Function

• Establish and document research best practices and standards
• Help define hiring and scaling roadmap
• Build high-trust relationships with key colleagues that foster the long-term growth and development of Excel Analytics

Education and Experience

• 5–10 years of consumer insights experience in an agency or brand environment
• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in Market Research/Consumer Behavior, Marketing, Psychology or Economics

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Demonstrated mastery of key sponsorship marketing or brand partnership drivers, considerations and activation strategies
• End-to-end quantitative and qualitative research expertise, including ability to program surveys independently within major platforms and analyze them via SPSS or similar
• Experience measuring experiential or live events preferred, incorporating multiple data points beyond consumer responses
• A passion for data-driven, narrative storytelling, weaving insights and data from multiple sources and methodologies into compelling deliverables
• Working knowledge of advanced statistics and data modeling techniques related to consumer insights analysis
• Elite verbal and written comms, including power-user status for MS PowerPoint, that enable understanding and action from stakeholders of all backgrounds
• An action-oriented, self-starter who loves being a part of a dynamic team, but also can generate first-class work product independently when needed
• Possess a “whatever it takes” attitude to go above and beyond for teammates and clients
• Has the ability to think strategically and creatively while identifying stakeholder needs, embodying a proactive, problem-solving approach guided by intellectual curiosity and structured thinking
• Must exude emotional intelligence along with the ability to communicate and connect effectively and personably, recognizing the need to adjust communication based on the audience and situation
• Uncompromised ethics and integrity, always focused on doing what is right for our clients

The pay range for this position is: $120,000 per year - $135,000 per year. This position is also eligible for benefits and discretionary bonus.  

Ultimately, the salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, business sector, and geographic location, among other criteria. 

This position is not eligible for sponsorship.

Excel Sports Management provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.  This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, leaves of absence, compensation and training.