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At Illinois Farm Bureau, parent company of COUNTRY Financial, our Advertising Sales Manager  generates advertising revenue by planning, organizing and implementing the advertising and sponsorship programs for all Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) communications platforms. Develops, manages and supervises a team of advertising sales and support staff.

Responsibilities:

• Hires, trains, and manages a sales force and support staff to sell advertising and sponsorships for all IFB media platforms and other opportunities.
• Oversees and coordinates local, regional and national advertising sales and sponsorship efforts of IFB.
• Responsible for meeting quarterly and annual sales goals.
• Works cooperatively with internal contacts to execute successful advertising sales programs.
• Oversees production of print, digital, audio and video advertisements for clients.
• Participates in department efforts to strategize future communications efforts. Analyzes data and reports analytics to key stakeholders.
• Helps create, execute, analyze and utilize results of communications platform audience measurement surveys and analytics.
• Helps implement a marketing and promotions plan, including development of promotional materials to raise knowledge and awareness of all IFB communications platforms.
• Creates and updates a rate structure for advertising for all IFB communications platforms.
• Stays adept at agricultural industry, agricultural communications trends and technology, especially in advertising.
• Manages department budget.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Veteran advertising salesman with a track record of closing deals with clients of all sizes, preferably with experience in agriculture.
• A team-oriented leader who has a passion for motivating, training and supervising salespeople and support staff and collaborating with editorial leadership.
• Ability to work with national advertising agencies and ad sales partners.
• Driven by curiosity, someone who can analyze research, surveys and analytics and be open to the new innovations and opportunities they point to.
• Ability to stay current on communications technology, particularly the platforms on which IFB has a presence – print, broadcast and digital.

Required Qualifications:

• Typically requires:
  • Bachelor’s degree and eight years of advertising sales experience OR,
  • Master’s degree and six years of advertising sales experience OR,
  • Ten years of advertising sales experience.
• Experience working directly with national advertising agencies and sales representatives.
• Adept at agricultural industry, agricultural communications trends and technology, especially in advertising across all platforms including print, broadcast, digital and social.
• Thorough knowledge of legal and ethical advertising standards across all communications platforms.
• Ability to innovate and implement new approaches and sales programs.
• Ability to analyze, understand and adjust to economic forces shaping the agriculture industry.
• Exceptional written and verbal communications skills, including confidence in presenting to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to examine communications platform audience measurement surveys and analytics and utilize them to adjust advertising sales strategies and increase advertising sales.
• Ability to organize efficiently, manage multiple projects, establish priorities and attend to details.
• Computer proficiency with working knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, DoubleClick for Publishers and various social media platforms.

Physical Requirements:

• This job operates in a professional office environment and routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.
• Travel associated with advertising sales and communications platform promotions.

Illinois Farm Bureau does not generally sponsor individuals for employment-based visas for this position.