Head of Agency Relations, Licensing & Partnerships

Description
This role is categorized as hybrid . This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Warren - Cadillac Tower three times per week, at minimum. This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.
General Motors is seeking a Head of Agency Relations & Partnerships - a strategic leader responsible for developing highly collaborative and productive relationships between General Motor's marketing, its agencies and business partners, which includes leading the GM Licensed Merchandise program. The successful candidate must demonstrate the ability to problem solve undefined opportunities, innovate new solutions, and lead through collaboration while creating a culture of trust with mutually beneficial and productive outcomes.
The Head of Agency Relations, Licensing & Partnerships, will:

• Create and lead a team who will provide in-house expertise to support and liaise between the GM Marketing teams and agencies to foster strong relationships with on-going dialogue to ensure marketing plans and executions are produced on-time, on-budget and with excellence. The relationships include a wide range of agency partners including creative, foundational, CRM, media, retail T2/3, experiential, branded entertainment, social media, data, and site amongst others.
• Meet with Brand Strategy Directors and participate in key meetings to understand their business and marketing challenges to better offer solutions.
• Hold on-going dialogue with agency partners to understand the pulse of their business.
• Provide support and guidance for GM's global marketing teams with regards to their agency models and relationships.
• Integrate with GM Purchasing to develop contracts and agency compensation models that drive effective solutions and produce resource efficiencies.
• Serve as GM's internal Business Affairs expert to lead operations support such as trafficking, licensing, legal & safety reviews, staffing, navigating GM, etc.
• Horizon scan and network for industry best practices, new technologies and innovation in agency solutions to continually innovate GM's model.
• Create and oversee the GM Licensing model with measurable performance (eg. sales, profitability) outcomes. Support the business units' licensing programs to grow revenue. Develop and implement a GM Licensed Merchandise marketing plan.
• Partner with GM Purchasing to evaluate production bids and provide guidance on efficiencies.
• Seek out opportunities to drive efficiencies and best practices within contractual partnerships.

Key Responsibilities:

• Foster and maintain outstanding agency & partnership relationships.
• Guide and provide agency solutions for the brand teams, business units and their marketing needs.
• Provide expertise and guidance for global agency relationships.
• Lead GM's agency and partnership compensation models with the ability to design innovative solutions that motivate excellence.
  • Design, implement and oversee agency incentive compensation model.
• Work with business units to develop and provide on-going, detailed agency scopes.
• Lead agency business affairs responsibilities.
• Provide technical expertise for new creative production solutions including AI, CG and data tech stacks. Govern unified asset taxonomy and tagging to manage assets and their measurement.
• Partner with GM Purchasing to manage agency, partnership, and creative production contracts.
• Partner with budget management to align scopes with agency fees while optimizing marketing budget framework.
• Develop and execute GM Licensing & Merchandising model with clear outcomes (sales & revenue).
• Lead strategy and relationships with branded entertainment agencies.
• Establish and maintain relationships with multiple internal stakeholders including, but no limited to brand teams, purchasing, legal, MIT, adjacent businesses, Design, etc.
• Provide consistent communication with senior leadership and stakeholders, providing updates on status, issues, and opportunities.

Additional Description
Who You Are:

• Bachelor's degree in business, Marketing, Liberal Arts, or a related field, with a clear understanding of agency structures and processes.
• At least 10 years of experience working with or at creative agencies.
• Minimum 5 years of leadership experience, managing diverse teams and fostering a collaborative, innovative work environment.
• Proven ability to work in situations with undefined processes with the ability to develop, recommend and implement new solutions.
• Innovative mind-set to continually assess industry agency relations best practices and redefine approach.
• Highly developed and demonstrated interpersonal skills required to anticipate and navigate differences of opinions and performance issues.
• Commercial mind-set. Must understand and optimize the various agency service models especially T1/T2/T3, but also adjacent business (eg. OnStar, Accessories, CCA, etc.)
• A self-starter with the ability to operate in a fast-paced environment, manage multiple projects simultaneously, and pivot strategies based on enterprise business priorities.
• Strong analytical skills, capable of working with GM Purchasing, GM Legal, agencies and business units to write contracts that meet business needs while driving efficiencies. Exceptional attention to detail. Work with a sense of purpose and urgency.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate vision, strategy, and results to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders at all levels.

GM DOES NOT PROVIDE IMMIGRATION-RELATED SPONSORSHIP FOR THIS ROLE. DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS ROLE IF YOU WILL NEED GM IMMIGRATION SPONSORSHIP (e.g., H-1B, TN, STEM OPT, etc.) NOW OR IN THE FUTURE
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