Account Director

Account Director

Located at TBA, North Gower Street, London, NW1 2ND. Official working office hours are from 9 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday.

The role:

Support the business growth of TBA primarily within the sporting sector, ensuring that TBA is positioned as a trusted agency partner to clients by delivering events seamlessly and efficiently. This role is a relationship manager, client adviser and account lead. The Account Director will be responsible for managing TBA’s effectiveness over several clients, to be agreed. As the main relationship holder with the client, they are charged with the responsibility of exceeding client expectations and growing allocated client accounts within the sports hospitality, fan engagement and sponsorship activation sector, together with the identification and conversion of new business opportunities within their client accounts and/or similar categories.

In addition to managing the clients, they will be required to support other operational needs within the Group.

The Account Director reports to the Client Services Director.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

Account & Project Delivery

• Event Execution: Oversee the strategy, planning and execution of sports related projects, ensuring alignment with client objectives.
• Hospitality programme design and experiences: Deliver premium hospitality experiences for brands and/or rights holders.
• Fan Engagement: Develop and implement strategies to enhance fan experiences and engagement before, during, and after sports events.

Client Servicing

• Strong understanding of rightsholder and sponsor relationships in sports.
• Act as the main contact and responsible for the overall management of client relationship(s) and key point of contact across the client account(s)
• Partnership Management: Develop and manage relationships with rightsholders, sponsors and other key stakeholders to maximize the impact of partnerships
• Develop client relationship to ensure they become a long-term partner
• Possess sound knowledge of client contracts and account details
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Act as a bridge between sponsors and rightsholders, ensuring both parties achieve their objectives
• Drive accounts forward and be accountable for ensuring the delivery of all events to the required TBA high standards
• Facilitate the initial communications between the client and the Creative and Project Delivery teams
• Develop reverse briefs, proposals, content, and debriefs
• Relentlessly nurture, develop, add value, and grow accounts
• Strengthen and protect the client brand and reputation
• Attend regular key client meetings and ensure the Project teams provide detailed reports on actions
• Ensure the TBA Project teams deliver a first-class customer service approach for the client
• Ensure the highest-quality service, data, and reporting to clients
• Oversee budget creation to ensure costs are managed and clients are invoiced to meet budget
• Demonstrate sound understanding of clients’ strategic and tactical objectives and anticipate how this will impact clients’ ability to fully maximise their investment
• Take ownership of information about the account, brand books, products, market segment data, and research

Team Responsibilities

• In conjunction with the Creative Director, input to the allocated Design team in the development of project content that answers the brief and exceeds client expectations
• In conjunction with the Production team, oversee the end-to-end delivery of Project teams on each client account to ensure successful delivery of an event from conception to completion
• Oversee quality and high standards of delivery and attention to detail
• Ensure Project and Account team resourcing is allocated in good time with clear communication to all stakeholders
• Organise and lead the post debrief internally and with the client and oversee the introduction of improvements where weaknesses are identified

Financial Management

• Oversee financial management of each account, ensuring clients are invoiced the correct amount due in a timely manner so as to not exceed the contract period
• Provide regular financials report on accounts to the CSD and MD
• Take responsibility for growing new revenue streams within accounts and hitting target margins agreed
• Balance how the agency is servicing the client – ensuring that the agency isn’t consistently over-servicing

Business Development

• Produce yearly account plans outlining key objectives, timelines, and updates of results
• Own and drive the preparation and delivery of client pitches, new opportunities, and presentations
• Be responsible for the development of a new business pipeline to secure more revenue from existing and new clients
• Actively look for opportunities to help grow clients’ use of the Group’s services
• Performance Reporting: Track and analyse partnership success

Essential skills/qualifications:

• Proven agency, rightsholder or brands experience within the sports industry
• Experience of sport sponsorship/partnerships beneficial
• Background in sports hospitality & VIP guest management
• Experience working with major sports organizations, leagues, or brands
• Ability to contribute to strategic discussions and articulate ideas in a clear and concise manner at all levels, both internally and externally
• Strong communication skills and ability to upwards manage as well as delegate work effectively to junior staff
• Ability to mentor and nurture the experiences of team members
• An appetite for progression and leading by example across all CSR matters
• Ability to work in a fluid and fast-paced environment and adapt to working whilst travelling either abroad or within the UK
• Quick learner, adaptable, and pragmatic thinker, whilst being tenacious, results-driven and resilient
• Highly motivated and committed, whilst injecting a sense of fun and spirit into the workplace
• Culturally sensitive and adaptable, whilst being an approachable team player
• Ability to take initiative and work autonomously, always maintaining a professional manner
• Entrepreneurial spirit with the ability to support the agency in its growth
• Attention to detail to ensure quality standards are met at all project touch points
• A champion and spokesperson on behalf of TBA
• A self-motivated, enthusiastic individual with a can-do positive attitude, able to use initiative
• An experienced client service candidate with a minimum of 5 years’ experience within the event industry, with a previous partnership management role
• Extensive knowledge in the sporting sector; fan engagement, hospitality and an understanding of the different stakeholders involved
• Proven experience of owning client accounts and strategically growing them
• Line management and budgeting experience
• Ability to clearly communicate with stakeholders and collaborate with appropriate teams
• Confident communicator, demonstrating comprehensive written and verbal skills
• Highly efficient and organised approach to workload
• Ability to juggle day-to-day tasks with high-priority work
• Proactive and resourceful, able to use initiative
• Experience with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) essential