Senior Account Manager/Account Director, Automotive.
Location UK
Role
Full-Time
Conditions
Office (3 days a week – Tues, Wed, Thurs) and home – with occasional travel possible.
Location
UK
What we’re looking for.
As the account lead for one of the UK’s largest car parts and accessories marketplaces, and for a collection of specialist vehicle manufacturers, the ideal candidate must be passionate about communications and able to understand the often-complex nature of our clients’ businesses.
What you will be doing.
Client management activities
- Build and manage effective client relationships.
- Develop, oversee and implement delivery of comms strategies, messaging, plans and timelines, driving forward key projects and ensuring objectives are met and budgets are adhered to.
- Devise innovative and engaging ways to drive positive media coverage across all media channels – print, broadcast and online.
- Continually drive creativity throughout the accounts and the wider company, delivering unique ideas for campaigns and activations that add value to the client proposition.
- Demonstrate an understanding of and act upon the needs of wider client departments to help enhance activations and ideas, including social media and marketing
- Creating Thought Leadership content with key global Execs.
- Ultimate responsibility for all aspects of quality control across each account.
- Managing team members to ensure they deliver the highest quality communications support.
- Plan, organise and prioritise workloads of team members, with a particular focus on ensuring that actual resources used for individual clients correspond to the contracted resources, flagging any issues to senior staff members.
- As circumstances require, be prepared to carry out other day-to-day account work. For example, writing press releases, setting up media opportunities, etc.
- Oversee and handle client budgets accurately.
- Become the go to contact between clients and key third-party stakeholders where relevant, providing clients and wider account team with regular progress updates whilst driving activity forward proactively
- Lead on pitching and presenting new ideas and project work to client teams confidently – bringing the client on a journey.
- Handling media duties directly with client team, including the facilitation of broadcast interviews.
Company management activities – team
- Provide professional guidance to junior team members to help them develop key skills and advance their careers.
- Undertake annual reviews and half-yearly appraisals for relevant team members.
- Act as solid and reliable support for senior team members.
- Solid communication skills with the ability to effectively manage upwards and down.
- Help to manage the team in producing market insights, including consumer, media and industry trends as well as being aware of competitor activity.
Company management activities – general
- Help to implement current processes and take initiative on improving processes within the team and wider company.
- Set up and run key meetings when required e.g. strategic planning sessions, brainstorms.
- Adopt a proactive approach to seeking out new business opportunities.
- Preparing and assisting with new business pitches/presentations, in collaboration with the agency’s leadership team.
What skills you will need.
- Automotive industry knowledge: A strong understanding of the wider automotive landscape, including key players, the latest legislation, government policy and developments in electric vehicles.
- Client and stakeholder relationship management: Proven experience building strong client and stakeholder relationships, acting as the primary point of contact and trusted adviser. Confident presenting to and communicating with senior stakeholders, sharing information accurately and promptly, coordinating multiple parties and making decisions in the best interests of both the client and the project team.
- Managing up: A proactive approach to reporting to the leadership team, driving ideas forward and keeping communication flowing up and down the wider team.
- Budget management: Experience managing medium-to-high budgets and purchase orders.
- Quality control: Final approval and sign-off on all content, plans and communications before they reach client teams, with strong attention to detail and a firm grip on deadlines.
- Integrated thinking: Clear understanding of 360 integration across activations, with experience working alongside comms, marketing, social and other teams to make sure every department’s needs are met.
- Team leadership: Leading junior team members on activations through clear briefings, defined approval processes and close collaboration, while keeping the Associate Director and Director accurately updated on all work.
- Editorial and storytelling: A strong instinct for what makes a good news story, acting as a creative filter for the wider team and making sure all written content meets editorial standards and reflects the client’s tone of voice.
Some of the benefits we offer.
- We are an employee owned business
- Healthy agency bonus scheme (including EO tax free bonuses)
- 28 days holiday
- 4.30 pm finish on Fridays
- £250 wellbeing allowance
- Employee Assistance Programme, which offers access to therapy, guidance around diet, gym, meditation and career coaching as well as discounts on high street chains
- Monthly internal training sessions
- 11. Social activities (Summer / Christmas parties (and some in-between))
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Dog friendly office
An AE required as the central point of support across our automotive team at Performance
The Warehouse, 47-49 Cowleaze Road, Kingston Upon Thames, KT2 6DZ
