Associate Director of Marketing

Associate Director of Marketing

Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County (VAAAC) is seeking a strategic, creative, and results-oriented marketing professional to oversee the day-to-day marketing function and lead integrated destination marketing initiatives that strengthen the VAAAC brand, increase destination awareness, inspire travel, and contribute to measurable visitation and economic impact.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Destination Marketing and Management, the Associate Director will translate organizational priorities into consumer marketing strategies, campaigns, and measurable media investments. The role provides strategic and creative oversight of brand execution, paid media, marketing partners, campaign performance, and the marketing team while collaborating across VAAAC and with destination stakeholders.

• Lead and develop the Marketing Specialists (2) through clear expectations, coaching, performance feedback, accountability, and professional development.
• Translate marketing strategy into coordinated priorities, workplans, timelines, and measurable deliverables; ensure effective communication with senior leadership and other departments.
• Provide strategic and creative oversight to ensure work is high-quality, effective, consistent, and aligned with the VAAAC brand.
• Strengthen team capacity, culture, workflows, tools, and resources; manage personnel matters in accordance with VAAAC policies and in partnership with organizational leadership.

• Develop and implement the annual consumer marketing strategy and tactical plan in alignment with VAAAC’s organizational and destination priorities.
• Steward a compelling and differentiated destination brand that reflects the character, experiences, communities, and tourism assets of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.
• Use audience insights, traveler motivations, market opportunities, barriers to visitation, and emerging trends to inform strategy and investment.

• Integrate paid, owned, earned, shared, partner, and experiential channels to increase awareness, consideration, visitation, and overnight stays.

• Lead integrated campaigns from audience definition and creative briefing through implementation, optimization, and evaluation, with clear objectives, timelines, budgets, and KPIs.
• Direct paid media strategy and investment across relevant digital and traditional channels, determining priority audiences, markets, timing, channel mix, and spending levels.

• Evaluate, negotiate, and optimize media opportunities based on reach, targeting, cost efficiency, performance, and strategic alignment.
• Guide content and social media priorities so day-to-day execution supports broader campaign and brand objectives; identify opportunities to extend high-performing content across channels.
• Maintain an integrated marketing calendar and leverage partnerships, promotions, sponsor ships, and events to expand campaign reach and impact.

• Use tourism data, audience research, consumer insights, website analytics, first-party data, and media performance to guide strategy and investment decisions.
• Establish and monitor KPIs, translate results into actionable recommendations, and provide regular reporting on marketing effectiveness and return on investment.
• Advance measurement, attribution, and the responsible use of emerging technologies, including AI, to improve efficiency, creativity, and performance.

• Support development of the annual marketing and media budget; manage assigned budgets with accurate forecasting, pacing, reconciliation, and reporting.
• Recommend investment shifts based on performance, market…