Marketing Activation Manager

The Role

We’re building a restaurant brand that wins in the real world, not just on Instagram. The Marketing Activation Manager owns turning marketing into foot traffic at the store level. This is the person who shows up, works with operators, and activates the brand in local markets. If you’ve ever been frustrated that great marketing ideas die the second they hit the field, this role exists to fix that.

You’ll be the connective tissue between corporate brand strategy and what actually works in stores. Your job is to drive local awareness, new customer trial, repeat visits, and community presence market by market.

What You’ll Own

• Plan and execute local market activations that drive real traffic to stores

• Support new store openings with on-the-ground launch playbooks and events

• Partner directly with franchisees, GMs, and operators to execute promotions and community marketing

• Build repeatable field activation playbooks that can scale across markets

• Coordinate local partnerships with gyms, schools, offices, apartment complexes, events, and community groups

• Run sampling programs, street teams, pop-ups, local sponsorships, and guerrilla-style marketing efforts

• Train store teams on how to activate locally, not just rely on corporate campaigns

• Be in the field validating what’s working and what’s not, then feeding insights back to corporate

• Track performance of activations (traffic lift, sales lift, conversion, cost per activation)

• Help franchisees and operators execute consistently without killing local creativity

• Partner with social and digital teams to turn great field activations into content

• Own regional calendars tied to promotions, LTOs, and brand initiatives

What Success Looks Like

• New stores launch strong and don’t stall after the opening buzz

• Local markets feel the brand in the community, not just on billboards

• Operators trust you because you help them make more money

• Activations become repeatable playbooks instead of one-off stunts

• Field insights shape corporate marketing decisions

• You can point to traffic and sales lift tied to what you executed

Who We’re Looking For

• 3+ years in field marketing, experiential marketing, local store marketing, or multi-unit operations

• Restaurant, franchise, hospitality, retail, or QSR experience strongly preferred

• Comfortable being on-site in stores, events, and local partnerships

• Knows how to work with franchisees and operators without corporate ego

• Highly organized but scrappy in execution

• Can build structure without killing speed

• Comfortable traveling and being in-market regularly

• Strong communicator who can influence without authority

• Data-aware enough to measure what works, but not paralyzed by dashboards