Senior Account Director

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Role Summary
Senior Account Director that sits within the activation 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, content, PR & comms, experiential and events.

Job Title
Senior Account Director – Partnerships
Reports To
Business Director
Role Summary
Senior Account Director that sits within the activation 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, content, PR & comms, experiential and events.
Purpose of Role
The Senior Account Director is the most senior day to day account support and is responsible for the teams’ response to briefs and on time delivery of campaigns and projects, as well as being abreast of all the financial procedures. The SAD should be an exceptional client handler and activation specialist, 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.
The SAD should be highly organised and process-driven; someone who can thrive in a fast-past environment. It is their responsibility to delegate out work that comes in and have an eye on all work going out, whilst being aware of the workload of all team members, flagging any capacity pinches ahead of them becoming a problem. You need an in-depth knowledge of the industry and strong interpersonal skills, so you can understand the demands of clients, different teams within the business, media, talent, agents and suppliers – and connect them at the appropriate times to deliver success.
The SAD should be extremely well versed when working with rightsholders – with a detailed understanding of rights, their impact on activation and campaigns and how to sweat them as much as possible on behalf of the partner (our client).
The SAD should also have experience and be comfortable managing and working with an external agency group i.e. ATL creative, digital, PR and media agencies – understanding how to bring the group together on joint integrated client RTB’s (as well as effectively managing day-to-day relationships).
Key Responsibilities
As a Senior Account Director, you should be confident in all the areas laid out below:
Multiple Account Management

• Oversee multiple accounts and increased workloads through proof of delegation (both upwards and downwards) of tasks and responsibilities.
• Work 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 to keep work manageable.
• Proactively drive projects forward, bringing in wider agency expertise and personnel in the process; ensuring all steps and stakeholders are factored into project timelines.
• Connect teams within the business to deliver on client work of the highest standard.
• Manage 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.
• Adapt your communications based on the needs of your clients and your team, flexing your approach to different requirements, working styles and personalities.
• Effectively communicate (both verbally and in writing) clear and concise client 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. Instil confidence by showcasing your understanding of the client’s brand and business when “selling” the idea to them.
• Review and reinforce a high standard of comms and presentations going out to clients, stakeholders, and campaign partners.
• Challenge and press the agency view but always with a solution-based mindset.

Approach, Initiative, And Problem Solving

• Be positive, proactive and solutions-driven – always think one step ahead.
• Remain fully accountable for day-to-day operations, at the same time as training and empowering the team to feel in control and accountable themselves (particularly AM, SAM and AE).
• Be abreast of all day-to-day account work, anticipating potential problems or opportunities.
• Have meticulous time management; allocating time appropriately to planning, scope and budgets, campaign activity and wrap up.

Relationships

• Develop a very strong working relationship with your client and the rightsholder, listening actively to really understand desires, dislikes, opportunities and the most effective ways of working
• Be approachable and accessible to every member of your team.
• Have solid day-to-day working relationships with all teams within the agency, knowing how to work with different departments such as experience, social, strategy and creative – following the processes of these teams and overarching Havas Play planning process.
• Proactively manage external agency relationships that are part of clients all agency group i.e. ATL creative, digital, PR and media agencies.
• Manage line reports, staying close to their development, ambitions, and objectives.
• Set a great example and high standard for AEs, SAEs, AMs, SAMs and ADs – so they can learn and develop from you.
• Build and constantly develop deep relationships with rightsholders, understanding their proposition, communication guidelines, activation principles and general rights packages.

Strategic Skills And 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.
• Confidently deliver the response to brief process; interrogating the brief and delivering insight, strategy and creative.
• 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.

Campaign Execution And Administration

• Oversee all plans, organise and manage comms activations from kick off to completion, including PR stunts, news sell ins, media events, content generation, influencer engagement and coordinating all relevant suppliers to deliver.
• Understand time needed to execute projects successfully. Be confident in writing scopes and negotiating these with client.
• Ensure you have the right team in place, with the right capacity and skillset to deliver excellent work for your clients.
• 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’s 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 And 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 to brainstorms and be proactive about new ideas for current or prospective clients
• Be across partnership and rightsholder innovation – how are rights being activated in new and impactful ways pertinent to our clients

Integrated Marketing & Comms

• Hold a very comprehensive understanding of the current media and cultural landscape, and how this evolves and can be affected by local/world events.
• Have a thorough knowledge of media partners and influencers across appropriate sectors and be able to provide a high level of strategic recommendations to clients on approach for working with them.
• Hold a comprehensive understanding of developments in social and digital media (including new platforms, technologies, brand opportunities and creative campaigns)and be able to advise clients on the appropriate strategies and targets/platforms to achieve their objectives.
• Work closely with wider teams (creative, production) to develop and deliver creative content to a high standard, using a range of external suppliers.

New business

• Identify opportunities for organic client growth; capitalise on these moments and take initiative to implement actions to achieve it.
• Deliver a target of 10% YOY organic growth on current client set.
• Hold strong contacts within relevant industries; nurture and grow these relationships to bring in new opportunities to the business.
• Feel confident taking a lead role in new business pitches, understanding briefs, galvanising teams and delivering on time.

Partnerships

• Understand the partnership landscape (typically across sport and entertainment) and relevant rightsholders pertinent to client opportunities, prioritising those that can drive business and brand growth for Havas Play clients
• Be able to support negotiation processes (at a high level) and have a well-rounded opinion on rights packages and commercial sponsorship opportunities
• Bring best in class rights management tracking, utilisation and reporting
• Be able to push and sweat rights on behalf of clients – ensuring you maintain professional integrity with partners/rightsholders whilst striving to over-deliver for the client

People Management

• Manage day-to-day running of the team, keeping all members up-to-date on account work status, and ensuring regular internal meetings and/or check-ins are arranged.
• Continually assess capacity of teams and distribution of work.
• Give clear guidance to your team, from initial briefing, through to support along the way and any developmental feedback required.

Time Management

• Deliver logical planning, strong communication and the ability to manage expectations both internally and externally.
• Deliver highly efficient time management; 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 team’s time (under-capacity or those feeling the pressure with too much on).

Finance

• Be fully competent with the finance processes; monitoring your team are setting up new job numbers, processing POs and invoices efficiently.
• Have 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.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Director

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Advertising and Other

• Industries

  Advertising Services

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