AV Director in London

The world is obsessed by small start-ups or the largest corporates. Most UK media agencies are built to serve the top 100 spending clients, and there are a multitude of boutique agencies to serve those starting out in business. The Specialist Works is different. We are built exclusively for marketers at entrepreneurial brands. Businesses that are past the messy start-up stage but are worlds away from the slow-paced nature of large corporates.

Our clients span large privately owned businesses (often PE backed, founder-led or both) and small to mid-cap public enterprises. They are fighting larger, more established competitors and know they need to think and behave differently to win. They don’t conform to category norms. Since they can’t out-spend their competition, disruption is the safest move they can make.

The marketers leading these brands are innovative, resourceful, moving at pace and in all-out growth mode. They’re powerful; redefining categories, overtaking and acquiring traditional businesses and changing consumer behaviour along with it.

Our clients share three common yet exciting challenges which define everything we do as an agency:

• Consumer – customer acquisition is key to their success
• Company – they are highly ambitious and built lean
• Category – they are often outspent by their competitors, need to outmanoeuvre the competition and are passionate about disrupting an established category

The AV team are the broadcast media specialists of The Specialist Works. We offer clients a unique combination of high service levels, international exposure and market leading analysis, which has helped bring about sustained fast revenue growth. You will be leading a team in planning and buying across all areas of AV (traditional linear spot, BVOD, CTV, radio and sponsorship). You will be directing the business of 2-3 key agency clients, free from the shackles of network agency deals to lead best-in-class planning proposals.

You’ll also be a leader of people, managing and developing others, like a guiding light; your attitude and positive behaviour will filter through the rest of the team. You’ll have a can-do attitude and an infectious ‘What’s Possible’ approach to delivering the best work our clients have seen. You’ll get the best work out of a willing team. The role can be based in either London or Bristol and we trust our people to adapt to what is most effective – thinking about what you need and the needs of your clients and colleagues. We call this employee-centric working, giving you the ability to choose where you work on any given day (home/office/other).

Key Responsibilities

• Establishing yourself as the lead on your business, recognised by all as the spearhead for the accounts
• Being the principle point of contact at senior level, taking ownership of client happiness and commercial performance, and owning internal reporting and forecasting for the AV team
• Living up to TSW’s reputation of consistently meeting/exceeding client expectations/requirements to grow their business through TSW
• Working with the client teams to understand the Client’s business dynamics so we can deliver highly relevant responses
• Anticipating and resolving client challenges by quickly identifying opportunities and threats
• Working closely with the senior client team, you’ll keep them informed of these and know when they need to step-in
• Establishing best practice through the planning process, leading to greater innovation and creativity – overseeing delivery of the Now, New, What’s Possible agenda
• Providing guidance to your team, the wider client and specialist teams with ongoing feedback to constantly improve our collective offering
• Be a pivotal part of new business pitch teams, coordinating and presenting responses
• Managing and improving the quality of everything produced by your team
• Delivering far above the minimum expected standard in every aspect of work, including media planning, optimisation, analysis, communication, negotiation and presentation
• You will concisely and precisely be able to demonstrate your technical knowledge, performance planning, online marketing and general media knowledge, to help deliver client results, team training and proposition development

What you'll ideally bring to the role:

• Good experience in utilising AV systems including DDS, Techedge, C Flight etc
• Understanding of the linear audio landscape & how radio supports TV
• Strong leadership skills to oversee the planning and output across the team on your assigned AV accounts
• Applying data insights to influence future buying and planning optimisations
• Creating, presenting and communicating insights to clients (written & oral)
• Strong experience working with data & creating actionable insights
• Experience in understanding the AV landscape & the fragmentation of viewing for audiences
• The ability to tell a story, to take clients on a journey through your response to briefs
• Experience of managing, developing and coaching team members
• Experience of working with external agency partners

Benefits

• A minimum of 3 days per week in the office
• May require some travel to meet with clients or attend industry events on an ad-hoc basis

We provide an exciting, fast paced, people first environment that allows everyone to grow, learn and thrive. We work a 9-day fortnight, meaning staff have every other Friday off! We offer all our employees share options, and we’ve built a benefits package that invests in our employees’ long-term personal and professional growth and wellbeing.

Our Values

• Passion: You share your excitement about what drives you
• Inquisitiveness: Ask “what’s possible?”. Ask “why not?”
• Caring: Be a good professional, a good colleague and a good human
• Knowledge: Know plenty. Share it. Learn more.

And we live them every day #IamPICK

Social and Environmental Commitment

At What’s Possible Group, our mission is to build a group our people are proud of. Proud of what we deliver to clients. Proud of how we treat each other. Proud of our commitment to people, planet and profit. Having rolled out a What’s Possible University with learning modules & policies, including anti bribery & corruption, DE&I and code of ethics, our people have continuous personal development, and the group is continuously improving. We are dedicated to embedding social and environmental responsibility into every aspect of our business. You'll contribute to initiatives that promote social equity, diversity, and inclusion within our workplace and in the content we create, whilst actively supporting and promoting sustainable best practice by continuously working to minimise waste, prioritising eco-friendly suppliers, and promoting remote work to reduce carbon emissions.

Your role as an AV Director will include supporting these efforts by helping to implement green office practices, coordinating initiatives that enhance our corporate social responsibility, and ensuring our operations align with our values of sustainability and social responsibility.

Sound good to you? Then get in touch. At The What’s Possible Group our culture, our creativity and our passion is powered by people. People just like you. Diversity and difference drive innovation, not only for us but also for our clients and is at the heart of everything that we do. The What’s Possible Group is proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all, regardless of race, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation or age as we seek to recruit the very best at The What’s Possible Group from a diverse talent pool. If you require flexible working options, please still get in touch and we’ll be as accommodating as we can.