Senior Account Manager (Partnerships & Activation)

Job Title 

Senior Account Manager (Partnerships & Activation)  

Reports To 

Account Director / Business Director 

Role Summary 

Senior Account Manager role that sits within the Account Management Team at Havas Play.  

An integrated role spanning sponsorship activation, integrated comms, digital content and as well as an understanding of brand marketing experiential and events. 

To work as account lead on BKT Tires and EE. 

Purpose of Role 

The Senior Account Manager is the central “cog” of the team. It is the responsibility of the SAM to both manage up and delegate to ensure their accounts run as smoothly as possible. Through identifying actions and completing in a timely manner, the SAM must be across the day-to-day workload of the account and ensure junior team members (AM, SAE & AEs) are working to the same standard.  

It is vital for the Senior Account Manager to build and display strong working relationships not only with your core team but also with the other agency divisions (strategy, creative & social).  

As the main day-to-day contact for the client, the client should have complete confidence in the SAMs ability to run the account and work in the best interests of their brand. The client should trust your opinion/counsel and see you as a vital member of the team, and a key person to drive projects forwards. 

The SAM requires strong interpersonal skills, managing the demands of both clients, rights holders and suppliers – collecting and prioristising requests, briefs and actions; as well as being abreast of the demands of the team. The SAM must then establish a plan of action and mobilse the appropriate expertise within the agence to deliver. 

Key Responsibilities  

As a Senior Account Manager, you should be confident in all of the areas laid out below:  

Multiple Account Management:  

• Ability to take on 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. 

Writing and Presentation Skills:  

• Have strong creative, formatting 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.  

Approach, initiative & problem solving: 

• Be positive, proactive and solutions-driven – always think one step ahead  

• Take ownership and be fully accountable for day-to-day operations including supporting junior team members 

• Develop the ability to both identify and solve problems before your ADs or clients do. When highlighting a problem always have a view of what a solution might be. 

• Always think ahead having your clients and brands front of mind. 

Relationships:  

• Upmost importance is a strong working relationship with your client and being seen as a trusted point of counsel. Be an active listener to really understand your clients world.  

• Beginning to learn how to challenge & press the agency view but always with a solution-based mindest. 

• SAMs must have solid day-to-day working relationships with all teams within the agency, knowing how to work with different departments such as strategy, insights and creative, and following the processes of these teams 

• In addition to this, the SAM needs to develop strong relationships with external contacts such as tech and other suppliers and invest time into nurturing and growing these to maximise opportunities 

• Manage line reports and development needs, while proactively managing senior reports. 

• Sets a great example & high standard for your AE, SAE & AMs to learn & develop from. 

Management of creative team, studio and outputs:  

• SAM must be confident in managing the creative studio and outputs including static and moving assets  

• Work with the studio booking team to secure creative time, and work with team and client to secure sign off and delivery of assets as needed  

• Work with client to critique and feedback on creative assets, and brief creative team appropriately  

Strategic skills & answering briefs: 

• Be a champion for the agency’s processes – set an example for your team on how to interrogate and answer a brief creatively, and how to position and articulate ideas to the client 

• Be confident in supporting the response to a brief process from interrogating the brief, to insight, strategy and creative briefing, with senior reports & team leads 

• Demonstrate how you are thinking strategically in your day-to-day work across your accounts and how this is helping with the client’s campaign/business objectives.  

• Assume the role of the client and objectively challenge both strategic and creative work as required 

Campaign execution & administration: 

• Be confident to plan, organise and manage activations, including rights activation, management of live events, content generation, influencer engagement and coordinating suppliers   

• Show how you galvanise your team to ensure everyone is aligned on the objectives for the client and as an agency team 

• Oversee the 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: 

• Show genuine interest in your client’s business 

• Flag anything that may be of interest to your clients – competitor activity, news relating to brand ambassadors, media insights etc. 

• Stay abreast of new innovations within the industry to be able to contribute effectively in brainstorms and take new opportunities/ideas to your AD/SAD  

• Demonstrate a strong understanding of the sponsorship landscape identifying trends and bringing new ideas to your client 

People Management 

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

Giving clear guidance to your AE, SAE & AMs, from initial briefing, through to providing feedback and support along the way. 

Time Management  

SAM 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.  

Flag any pinch points on your accounts to your AD/SAD to ensure that the standard of your work is not being affected. Be aware of time across other team members/AEs and support them in managing their time to ensure tasks are completed to a high standard.  

Finance 

Be fully competent with the finance processes; including setting up new job numbers, processing POs and invoices.  

Working with suppliers to obtain cost estimates and supporting your AD/SAD to generate SOW documents for client sign off. 

Negotiating with suppliers and interrogating costs to ensure best options for both Cake and our clients.  

Basic understanding of driving client account profitability, particularly on production. Work with you AD/SAD to start learning how to prepare fee proposals. Be inquisitive about your clients and where there could be opportunities to grow existing scopes or additional projects. Identify and work with your AD/SAD on how to approach & progress it with the client.