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SPORTFIVE Careers - Lizzie Stokes, Partnership Marketing

Are you considering a career in sports marketing?

Check out our interview series 'SPORTFIVE Careers' where we speak to members of staff from our offices around the globe and learn more about life at the world's leading sports marketing agency.

In this feature, we speak to Lizzie Stokes, EA SPORTS Account Director.

As the old adage goes “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”. Few have lived up to this quite like Lizzie Stokes, EA SPORTS Account Director.

Join us as we look at Lizzie’s journey from studying English Language at university to leading one of the organisation’s longest running accounts - as well as getting her take on leadership, management and her top tips for success in sports marketing. 

Turning passion into a career

Sport has a special place in a lot of people’s hearts - whether it’s playing, watching, analysing or just complaining about it, it is one of the few things in life that attracts universal passion. This passion has been ever-present in Lizzie’s life. From competing in team sports at school, to developing a love for the outdoors and running, sport was always central to her life growing up. 

After finishing an English Language degree at university, Lizzie had realised her strength in working on projects and wanted to combine this with the passion she had for sport - and turn it into a career. 

With no work experience or education in sport, Lizzie started to volunteer at major UK sporting events before securing an internship at a non-sporting events agency. Here, she developed the core skills of event and project management, eventually allowing her to get her first full time job in sports, servicing major sporting event sponsors. 

Looking to develop further, Lizzie moved to a sports marketing agency where she worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Pepsico and Nissan for their partnerships with the UEFA Champions League. She then went on to gain experience of rightsholders’ perspective whilst working for Team GB’s Taekwondo team during the year they held the World Taekwondo Championship in Manchester, 2019.  

Lizzie’s top 5 soft skills to succeed in sports marketing

Starting at SPORTFIVE

In 2019, Lizzie joined SPORTFIVE as an Account Manager working on the EA SPORTS account. 

The account sees SPORTFIVE employed on behalf of EA SPORTS to help maintain their position as the world’s foremost football video game developer, as well as to continue to grow their game, EA SPORTS FC, across its key global markets.

Within her role, Lizzie and other members of the team work as an extension of EA SPORTS’ in-house partnerships team, with the purpose of activating and managing their top tier global football properties across clubs, leagues and player talent in Europe.

On a daily basis, this work sees the team work with EA SPORTS to provide clubs and leagues with marketing assets, facilitating marketing activities, coordinating market-specific campaigns and managing the video-game developer's global ambassador network. 

Since joining SPORTFIVE, Lizzie has utilised her acute attention to detail and admired sense of diligence to forge strong and trusted relationships within both the SPORTFIVE and EA SPORTS teams. This has seen her rise the ranks, first to Senior Account Manager and more recently as Account Director.

“My experiences from my early career have really shaped who I am as a manager today. From starting off as a volunteer to working as an intern and then progressing to work with clients in the private, public and charity sectors... I’ve learned to understand how sport impacts so many different people"


Lizzie Stokes, SPORTFIVE’s EA SPORTS Account Director

Lizzie on leadership

A natural part of many people’s careers is the transition into a management position. Having gained experience managing people and small teams throughout her career, Lizzie’s current job has seen her take on a more demanding management role.  

As Account Director, Lizzie is responsible for the overall success of SPORTFIVE’s work with EA SPORTS, as well as managing the account’s 10 team members, spread across four countries. 

Wanting to find out more about how she manages the balance between managing a team and managing people, we asked Lizzie about her leadership style. 

She said, “My management and leadership style hasn’t changed, it is still centred around trying to create an environment for us, as a team, to deliver the highest quality of work to our client. We aim to achieve this by having clear communications, delegating, having trust and giving ownership of tasks - and most importantly, being there for each other. 

Speaking about what shaped her leadership style, Lizzie said: “My experiences from my early career have really shaped who I am as a manager today. 

“From starting off as a volunteer to working as an intern and then progressing to work with clients in the private, public and charity sectors, as well as gaining experience with rightsholders, I’ve learned to understand how sport impacts so many different people. 

“These experiences, coupled with my genuine interest for people and their lives, mean that I relate to and care about people - and when you care about people, management and leadership comes naturally.”

"...when you care about people, management and leadership comes naturally.”


Lizzie Stokes, SPORTFIVE’s EA SPORTS Account Director

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