Account Director

Agency :

Job Description :

Job Title: Account Director

Reports To: Business Director / Managing Partner

Role Summary

Account Director that sits within the Account Management team at Havas Play, delivering multi-channel campaigns for sport, culture, and entertainment clients. An integrated role spanning partnerships, activation, rights management, with an understanding of social, comms, experiential and events.

Account Director on HSBC to lead their partnership portfolio, across tennis, gaming, music with additional partners next year.

Purpose of Role

The Account Director is one of the most senior day to day account support and it is their responsibility to delegate out the work that comes in and have an eye on all work going out.

Aware of and managing workload of all team members, flagging any capacity pinches ahead of them becoming a problem.

Having an indepth and current knowledge of the industry, as an AD you should be a trusted source to both the team and clients for advice and guidance on campaign planning, executions and potential growth opportunities.

The AD is responsible for the teams response to briefs and on time delivery of campaigns and projects (with support and guidance from SAD/ BD/Managing Partner).

An AD requires strong interpersonal skills, understanding demands of both clients, rights holders, and suppliers – connecting the different teams in the business to deliver on briefs and campaigns; as well as being abreast all of the financial procedures throughout their accounts.

The AD should be an exceptional client handler who is adept at managing multiple clients, leading and developing the team and working within a diverse mix of team structures. You should possess a commercial mindset; be able to manage large-scale budgets and identify and deliver on potential growth opportunities for the business.

Key Responsibilities

As an Account Director, you should be confident in all of the areas laid out below:

Multiple Account Management:

• Ability to oversee multiple accounts and increased workloads through proof of delegation (both upwards and downwards) of other tasks and responsibilities.
• Working across multiple clients and projects at one time whilst maintaining a high work standard. Staying calm and displaying a positive attitude whilst under pressure, and successfully delegating in order to keep work manageable.
• Ability to proactively drive projects forward, bringing in wider agency expertise & personnel in the process; ensuring all steps & stakeholders are factored into project timelines.
• Connecting teams within the business to deliver on client work.
• Supporting on managing the capacity of the account teams, keeping work to scope and having a handle on any over or under delivery.

Writing and Presentation Skills:

• Have strong creative and corporate writing skills, to be used across external documents such as client proposals and reports, as well as internal documents such as toolkits and case studies
• Ability to adapt your communications based on the needs of your clients & your team.
• Effectively communicate both verbally and in writing to be clear & concise in client-facing comms as well as when briefing suppliers and the internal team
• Have great attention to detail and ensure all written work is delivered to a high standard of quality
• Demonstrate confidence in competently talking clients though a document or pitching an idea, outlining the process you’ve taken to answer the brief
• Instill confidence by showcasing your understanding of the client’s brand/business when “selling” the idea to them.
• Reviewing and reinforcing a high standard of comms and presentation amongst the teams going out to clients and businesses

Approach, initiative & problem solving:

• Be positive, proactive and solutions-driven – always think one step ahead
• Aspire to be fully accountable for day-to-day operations at the same time as
• empowering the team (particularly AM, SAM) to feel in control and accountable themselves
• Stay close enough to the day to day work coming and out of the accounts, anticipating potential problems and issues.
• Always think ahead – leaving enough time for planning, scope and budgets to be created ahead of work beginning.

Relationships:

• Have a strong working relationship with your client and be seen as the trusted point of counsel. Be an active listener to really understand your clients world.
• Feel comfortable and confident challenging & pressing the agency view, always with a solution-based mindest.
• Be approachable and accessible to every member of your team
• Work fluidly with different departments such as strategy, insights and creative, and following the processes of these teams
• Manage line reports staying cloise to their development, ambitions and objectives.
• Sets the standard for your team to learn & develop from.

Strategic skills & answering briefs:

• Champion for the agency’s processes – Have a strong POV on how to interrogate and answer a brief creatively, and how to position and articulate ideas to the client
• Be confident in the brief process from interrogating the brief, to insight, strategy and creative briefing, delegating to your team and drawing on other business team leads where necessary
• Demonstrate clear strategic thinking in your day-to-day work across your accounts and how this is framing the client’s campaign against their business objectives.
• Have a good understanding of how to structure a brief response
• Campaign execution & administration:• Oversee all plans and activations, including rights activation, live events, content generation, influencer engagement and coordinating suppliers
• Understand time to execute projects. Write scopes and negotiate these with client, where necessary (with support of BD/MP)
• Ensure you have the right team in place, with the right capacity and skillset
• Make sure your team is aligned on the objectives for the client and as an agency team
• Maintain motivation of your team – ensuring no one is overwhelmed with workload or falling behind on deliverables
• Oversee the AM/SAM administrative processes on your accounts (status reports, campaign reporting, budget trackers) and ensure they are being updated and delivered to the client on time

Client services & industry knowledge:

• Understand your client’s business so that you are in the best possible position to advise, challenge and upsell
• Stay abreast of new innovations within the industry to be able to contribute effectively in brainstorms and be proactive about new ideas for current or prospective clients

New Business

• The AD should look to identify ways to grow their clients organically – capitalising on these moments and taking initiative.
• Support on delivering a target of 10% YOY organic growth
• An AD should have contacts within the industry, making sure they nurture and grow these relationships in order to bring in new opportunites to the business.
• An AD should be instrumental in helping deliver pitches, understanding briefs, galvanising teams and delivering on time.

People Management

• Management of day-to-day running of the team including keeping all members of the team up-to-date with account work and ensure that regular internal status meetings and/or check-ins are arranged.
• Continuous assessment of teams and distribution of work.

Time Management

• AD encompasses good logical planning, strong communication and the ability to manage expectations both internally and externally.
• Efficient time management is essential.
• Ensure that you and the team are delivering work on time and are conscientious with deadlines.
• Anticipate pinch points on your accounts. Be aware of your teams time – any under-capacity or those feeling the pressure with too much on

Finance

• Be competent with the finance processes; monitoring your team are setting up new job numbers, processing POs and invoices efficiently.
• Clear understanding of driving client account profitability, scoping and negotiating fees for projects and understanding feasibility.
• Be inquisitive about your clients and what else they’re up to. Understand which other agencies they work with and how the relationship is working.

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Contract Type :

Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job.