National Events & Activation Manager

Location: Remote with some travel

Department: Marketing

Reports To: Marketing Leadership

Travel: Approximately 30–50%, depending on event calendar

Position Summary

Good Boy Vodka is seeking a highly organized, execution-driven National Events & Activation Manager to manage and execute the brand’s national events, sponsorships, experiential activations, charitable events, and Brand Ambassador program.

This role will also serve as the primary point of evaluation for incoming event and sponsorship opportunities, helping determine which opportunities are strategically and financially worth pursuing based on market priorities, consumer reach, sales potential, activation rights, partner support, and expected return.

This is a hands-on role for someone who thrives in a fast-moving environment and enjoys turning plans into execution. The National Events & Activation Manager will serve as the central operational lead for Good Boy’s event calendar, working closely with Brand Managers, Field Marketing Managers, Sales teams, distributors, agencies, partners, and vendors to ensure every activation is properly planned, staffed, supported, executed, and measured.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable evaluating whether an opportunity is worth the investment, building an event plan, coordinating logistics, shipping POS, communicating with a distributor, managing Brand Ambassadors, working an event on-site, and completing the post-event ROI analysis.

Key Responsibilities

National Events & Activations

• Serve as the central point of review for national and regional event, sponsorship, festival, charity, sports, entertainment, and experiential marketing opportunities.
• Develop and maintain a consistent process for evaluating incoming event and sponsorship requests.
• Assess opportunities based on strategic fit, target consumer, market priority, expected attendance, demographic reach, brand visibility, sampling rights, activation capabilities, retailer or on-premise support, distributor participation, sales opportunity, total investment, and expected ROI.
• Determine whether opportunities should be recommended for approval, declined, negotiated, or further evaluated.
• Manage events from initial planning through execution and post-event evaluation.
• Own and maintain the master calendar for national and regional events, sponsorships, festivals, sporting events, charity events, trade shows, consumer activations, golf events, and industry events.
• Build detailed event plans including timelines, responsibilities, staffing, product needs, POS, sampling materials, transportation, permits, vendor requirements, hospitality, and activation elements.
• Coordinate closely with Brand Managers and regional Field Marketing Managers to ensure brand priorities are executed consistently across markets.
• Serve as the primary internal point of contact for event logistics and execution.
• Attend and manage priority events on-site as needed.
• Identify execution issues early and drive solutions to keep projects on schedule.

Sponsorship Execution

• Translate sponsorship agreements into clear activation and execution plans.
• Track all contracted sponsorship assets, deliverables, deadlines, tickets, hospitality, signage, sampling rights, digital exposure, social media requirements, and other benefits.
• Ensure Good Boy fully utilizes the assets included in each sponsorship agreement.
• Coordinate with Marketing, Sales, distributors, and event partners to maximize the commercial value of sponsorship investments.
• Maintain records of sponsorship costs, additional activation expenses, distributor contributions, account contributions, and other partner investments.

Brand Ambassador Program

• Manage the Good Boy Brand Ambassador program nationally.
• Coordinate BA staffing for tastings, events, festivals, account activations, and sponsorships.
• Work with agencies and Field Marketing Managers to ensure appropriate market coverage.
• Establish and maintain standards for Brand Ambassador appearance, training, messaging, sampling, reporting, and performance.
• Track BA hours, costs, market activity, event performance, and compliance.
• Help identify strong Brand Ambassadors who can take on expanded market or event responsibilities.

Regional & Field Marketing Support

• Partner closely with regional Field Marketing Managers to coordinate local execution of national and regional programs.
• Provide event playbooks, timelines, activation requirements, POS needs, and execution expectations.
• Ensure Sales and distributor teams have adequate visibility into upcoming activations.
• Coordinate market-specific logistics while maintaining consistent national brand standards.
• Help Field Marketing Managers prioritize events and activation opportunities based on expected impact.

Logistics & Project Management

• Coordinate product, POS, signage, displays, tents, tables, branded materials, uniforms, sampling supplies, promotional items, and event equipment.
• Manage shipping timelines and confirm materials arrive before activation dates.
• Coordinate external vendors including production companies, staffing agencies, printers, transportation providers, venues, and event organizers.
• Maintain event budgets, invoices, purchase requests, contracts, and expense documentation.
• Build repeatable processes, checklists, templates, and event playbooks to improve execution as Good Boy continues to scale.

Measurement & ROI

Every activation should have a clear objective and measurable follow-up.

The National Events & Activation Manager will:

• Maintain centralized tracking of all event and sponsorship investments.
• Track total Good Boy spend, distributor investment, retailer/account investment, and partner contributions.
• Track product sampled, attendance, consumer engagements, leads, social activity, and other relevant event KPIs.
• Work with Sales and Marketing to evaluate pre- and post-event depletion and sales performance when data is available.
• Coordinate post-event recaps with Field Marketing Managers and Sales teams.
• Evaluate whether events should be repeated, expanded, modified, or discontinued.
• Develop consistent ROI and post-event reporting standards across the organization.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

This position will work closely with:

• Brand Managers
• Field Marketing Managers
• Sales Leadership and State/Regional Sales Teams
• Social Media and Content Teams
• Creative/Graphic Design
• Distributors and distributor marketing teams
• Retail and on-premise partners
• Brand Ambassador agencies
• Sponsorship and event partners
• Finance and Accounting

The Manager will help ensure that Marketing creates the program, Sales understands the commercial objective, Field teams execute it, and results are captured afterward.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in experiential marketing, event management, field marketing, beverage alcohol, CPG, sports/entertainment marketing, or a related field.
• Strong event and project management experience.
• Experience managing multiple events and deadlines simultaneously.
• Strong organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Comfortable working independently and taking ownership of projects from start to finish.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to coordinate multiple internal teams, vendors, agencies, and external partners.
• Experience managing budgets and tracking event expenses.
• Comfortable working nights and weekends when events require it.
• Willing and able to travel frequently throughout the United States.
• Experience with beverage alcohol, distributor networks, sampling programs, or field marketing strongly preferred.

Ideal Candidate

We are looking for a doer, not simply a planner.

The right person:

• Is extremely organized and follows through.
• Takes ownership without needing constant direction.
• Can manage dozens of moving pieces without losing details.
• Communicates early when something is at risk.
• Enjoys being in the field and understands that successful experiential marketing requires hands-on execution.
• Understands the difference between an event that looks good and an event that drives the business.
• Thinks about execution, consumer engagement, distributor participation, account support, sales conversion, and ROI
• Is comfortable building systems and processes while working within a rapidly growing organization.