Account Director/ Shopper Lead

Hogarth is the Global Content Experience Company. Part of WPP, Hogarth partners with one in every two of the world’s top 100 brands including Coca-Cola, Ford, Rolex, Nestlé, Mondelez and Dyson. With a breadth of experience across an extensive range of sectors, Hogarth offers the unrivaled ability to deliver relevant, engaging, and measurable content across all channels and media - both established and emerging. The number of channels at our fingertips; the need for speed; and the drive for mass personalisation, all mean that brands need different solutions.  Our global team of over 7,500 craft and technology experts brings together creative, production and innovation to help clients navigate this exciting and ever-changing world of today’s content experience.

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 100,000 talented people dedicated to doing extraordinary work for our clients. We operate in over 100 countries, with corporate headquarters in New York, London and Singapore. WPP is a world leader in marketing services, with deep AI, data and technology capabilities, global presence and unrivalled creative talent. Our clients include many of the biggest companies and advertisers in the world, including approximately 300 of the Fortune Global 500. Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.  

The Role

The Shopper Lead manages and leads all Shopper creative and production for Studio X in Japan for The Coca Cola Company (TCCC). They are responsible for the successful execution of Shopper touchpoints within Studio X including – planning, delivery, overall satisfaction, quality of service, on-time, and on-budget completion of deliverables. They partner to analyze, solve and present viable strategic production roadmaps and solutions to our clients and internally across the WPP network. They champion new and better workflows and work with our global network to test and implement new technologies to uplift our offering. They will partner closely with the Japan Leadership of the broader WPP team supporting the TCCC account.

The successful candidate will use their superior problem-solving skills, judgment, and excellent relationship building skills to be a leader and mentor for the team overall. They can identify and champion great creative work and understand the importance of flawless delivery. They are also strong leaders of teams who inspire others to act courageously. Additionally, they have a passion for operational efficiency within the production space and are creative in their solutions, as well as a collaborative solutions-oriented approach.

Strategy and Management

• Project, plan, and manage annual budget for Shopper team. Drive revenue and profitability, against annual targets
• Partners with WPP team leadership and agencies to engage with our most senior clients/partners to develop, sustain, and grow the scope of Studio X production across both organic and new business
• Develop the relationship of strategic, trusted production partners
• Engages with teams and partners to gain full understanding of their objectives and requirements, and partners with them to define the scope and production strategy for programs and requests
• Curates and casts the most appropriate team through thoughtful resource and capacity
• Leverage Hogarth’s global production network to ensure the most efficient, effective and profitable production services are delivered which meet the client’s needs
• Partners with agencies and clients to be sensitive to the client's needs and concerns, while managing expectations and pushing back appropriately

Financial Management

• Demonstrates strong commercial acumen and financial management, understanding the economics of our business and contributes in a way that supports the financial model.
• Consistently creates solid revenue forecasts, with accurate representation of committed vs. upside/downside revenue
• Cross collaborates with WPP agencies on TCCC client needs through OpenX and identifies opportunities for growth within the existing client work
• Owns/collaborates on contract negotiations
• Reviews and approves final SOWs, Ratecards, and Change Orders

Operations

• Leads and drives Studio X production team to flawlessly deliver work that meets client’s business, operations, and strategic goals, assigning clear responsibility for tasks, decisions and clear objectives.
• Ensures they have the right people, process, partners, and deliverables to get to the best production solutions
• Continually assesses and simplifies complex processes to make them more efficient
• Ensure that all work is carefully monitored and quality-assured, despite day-to-day pressures and that work produced is of the required quality expected both by the client and our organization
• Proactively identifies, tracks, and mitigates account risks and issues, escalating appropriately.

Collaboration

• Builds strong partnership and collaboration across team, capabilities and functions within internal agency team, as well as with clients and key external partners
• Motivates and drives the integrated team towards forward progress, action and results
• Develops and maintains high levels of team effectiveness (trust, communication, collaboration, productivity, diversity, engagement).
• Effectively and impartially navigates teams with conflicting priorities
• Builds strong, trusting relationships with key stakeholders and clients across the business

Team Development

• Manages teams to successfully execute in a quick paced environment across varied project types.
• Takes active responsibility for morale of the team. Works with leads to identify issues impacting team satisfaction and proactively recommends solutions to address them.
• Coaches, trains, and mentors team members in Studio X
• Reviews team structure and resources on an ongoing basis to ensure high quality delivery, quality and service for our clients, while appropriately maintaining agreed profitability
• Supervises and offers support even to those you do not directly manage.

Requirements:

• Successful experience in a strategic, complex, multi agency /client environment
• Demonstrated experience working with Senior and Executive management at the agency and with clients
• Experience leading production from an operational standpoint
• An appreciation for how great work gets done and a commitment to ensuring flawless execution
• Confidence and experience working with a major global brand with multiple subsidiaries
• Strong cross-capability and cross-function collaboration and communication skills
• Commercially focused with a passion for delivering and exceeding results
• Inspiring leadership, ability to rally teams and experience in driving change and governance through cross-functional teams with internal and external constituencies
• Demonstrated experience of successfully working within a virtual team environment
• The ability to thrive in an ever changing and dynamic work environment
• Ability to effectively manage multiple projects and relationships cross functionally
• Experience with complex decision and planning processes
• Ability to conduct presentations comfortably to large group
• Quality and delivery focused. Self-initiating, adaptable, team orientation, conflict resolver, change agent.
• Understanding of the print graphic production process - from brief, proposal, photoshoots, colorproofing to delivery
• Business level English and Japanese language

What you will bring

You will have a proven ability to work with senior client and agency leaders and a track record in managing (and growing) client business and projects. Your leadership style will embrace the attractions and challenges of an agency environment: You will bring the gravitas to stand up to senior clients, the energy to pitch in and help with whatever needs doing and the flexibility and accessibility to work with and bring out the best in a diverse group of WPP people and agencies. Given the degree of change we are experiencing and encouraging across our business, you will already have demonstrated a history of managing ongoing and ambitious change at a senior level. And, you will make it a priority to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture in your team.

You will be an open, optimistic, and extraordinary leader with the highest standards of personal ethics, the emotional intelligence to work collaboratively both within and outside of WPP and its agencies, and the guts to discern and do what is right, making the tough decisions and owning them.

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