Vice President, Earned Media Strategy

New York City, NY (Hybrid)

$125K/yr – $165K/yrSenior Level8+ years expFull time

Posted 3 hrs ago

Job Summary

Owns and drives the earned media strategy for major brand moments, turning cultural insights into newsworthy, cross‑channel programs while leading integrated teams to act quickly in fast‑moving sports and culture moments.

  • Leads integrated earned strategies around tentpole events and cultural moments.
  • Mentors teams to sharpen storytelling, media strategy, and cultural curiosity.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Put the brand at the center of culture. Identify opportunities across sports, entertainment, music, fandom and internet culture where the brand can credibly show up and earn attention.
  • Lead earned strategy for major brand moments. Develop integrated earned approaches around tentpole sporting events, entertainment moments, partnerships, product launches, activations and cultural happenings.
  • Operate in real time. Track what’s happening across media and social every day and quickly identify conversations, headlines, trends and moments the brand can capitalize on.
  • Know sports beyond the schedule. Understand the personalities, traditions, memes, rivalries, fan behaviors and emerging storylines surrounding major sports leagues and events — particularly football and other major U.S. sports.
  • Stay relentlessly plugged into the media landscape. Know which reporters, creators, podcasts, newsletters, social accounts and emerging platforms are actually shaping conversation.
  • Build relationships that matter. Maintain strong relationships across national news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, business, culture and digital media.
  • Turn insights into headlines. Find the sharp cultural observation, tension or behavior that can become an earned idea — not just another press release.
  • Think beyond traditional PR. Develop ideas designed to travel across earned media, social, creators, experiential, talent and paid channels.
  • Work with talent and creators. Help identify the right athletes, entertainers, musicians, celebrities and creators for brand programs and develop earned strategies that make those partnerships newsworthy.
  • Be a trusted client counselor. Advise senior clients on cultural opportunities, media strategy, brand positioning, talent, risk and real-time decision-making.

Requirements

  • 8+ years of PR, communications or earned media experience, including significant experience leading work for major consumer brands.
  • A genuine passion for sports, entertainment and culture — this is essential to the role, not a nice-to-have.
  • Deep knowledge of the sports landscape, particularly major U.S. sports and the fan cultures surrounding them.
  • A track record of developing earned ideas that have broken through around major cultural moments.
  • Strong relationships across sports, entertainment, lifestyle, business, culture and national media.
  • Deep fluency in the modern media ecosystem — from traditional outlets to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, newsletters, Substack, creators and emerging platforms.
  • An instinct for what will get people talking and the ability to turn that instinct into smart, ownable opportunities for a brand.
  • Experience working with athletes, celebrities, musicians, creators and other high-profile talent.
  • Experience leading integrated campaigns across earned, social, creator, experiential and paid channels.
  • The ability to move quickly. Really quickly. You’re comfortable developing a smart recommendation when the cultural window might be measured in hours, not weeks.
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Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick is the earned-first global communications agency. Led by world-class strategic and creative thinkers and activators, Weber Shandwick has won some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including being named #1 in the Public Relations and Brand Strategies category on Fast Company’s 2024 Most Innovative Companies list, one of Fast Company’s Best Workplace for Innovators in 2023, PRWeek’s 2024 Global Agency of the Year, ranked #1 on PRovoke’s Global Creative Index in 2024 and honored on Ad Age’s A-List in 2024 & 2020 and Best Places to Work in 2019, in addition to being awarded Campaign Global’s PR Agency of the Year in 2023. Weber Shandwick was the most awarded PR agency at the 2023 and 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, including earning the PR industry’s first-ever idea-led Cannes Grand Prix in the Brand Experience & Activation category and cumulatively earning more than 225 Cannes Lions. Weber Shandwick has also been named PR Agency of the Year by Campaign US in 2021, honored as PRovoke’s Global Agency of the Decade in 2020 and ranked #1 on PRovoke’s Global Creative Index in 2021 and 2022. Additionally, the firm was named PRWeek’s Global Agency of the Year in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and was awarded PRWeek’s Purpose Agency of the Year in 2020 and 2021. Weber Shandwick also received Honorable Mention on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Marketing Agencies in 2021, as the only PR agency featured.  Part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), Weber Shandwick is the anchor agency within The Weber Shandwick Collective – the strategic communications and consulting network. For more information, visit https://www.webershandwick.com/. Social Media Community Guidelines: http://bit.ly/wssocialterms

Founded in 2001
New York, NY, US
4.4K employees (1,170 in marketing)

Salaries

Posted range

$125K/yr – $165K/yr

Taken straight from the job posting.

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Vice President, Earned Media Strategy

Weber Shandwick · New York City, NY · Hybrid