Client Planning Account Manager

You will be joining one of our four client planning teams, working across a varied portfolio of nationally recognised consumer brands spanning premium retail, beauty and personal care.

The client mix offers genuine variety. You'll support a combination of fast-paced, high-volume retail activity where organisation, attention to detail and responsiveness are essential, alongside established consumer brands with distinct audiences, positioning and communications challenges.

Within the mix you'll have the opportunity to work across:

• A major multi-location premium retail account, combining predominantly regional campaigns with some national activity. The volume and pace of work means you'll be managing multiple campaigns, locations and priorities at any one time.
• A portfolio of well-known beauty and personal care brands, each with different audiences, positioning and communications needs, giving you exposure to a varied mix of consumer marketing challenges.
• A genuinely omnichannel media environment spanning out-of-home, digital video, paid social, search and wider digital channels, with different channels playing different roles depending on the client, audience and campaign objectives.

Your role will sit at the heart of the accounts you support. You'll be responsible for keeping across everything happening — budgets, timings, campaign delivery and client communications - so exceptional organisation, attention to detail and the ability to prioritise multiple workstreams will be key.

A major part of the role is client servicing and account management. You'll build trusted day-to-day relationships with clients, coordinate activity across specialist teams and make sure campaigns and projects are delivered smoothly and to a high standard.

Alongside this, you'll have the opportunity to continue developing your broader planning and strategic capabilities. You'll work closely with experienced planning and digital specialists, building your knowledge across channels, audiences, data and communications strategy.

This could suit someone already working in an Account Manager or media planning role, but equally someone from a digital planning, buying or activation background who has strong client servicing skills and wants to develop into a broader integrated media role.

Key Responsibilities

• Being a key day to day contact for clients – helping to maintain a strong working relationship and ensuring they are kept up to date with all activity on the account
• Obtaining briefs from clients + working with relevant the7stars teams to create client responses
• Using industry tools and client insights and data to pull together channel implementation recommendations
• Presenting recommendations to clients alongside media plans
• Building out audiences using TGI and YouGov Profiles as well as working with data and insights to create more sophisticated segmentations
• Liaising across all other specialist teams at the7stars to ensure best practice implementation across all plans
• Monitoring campaign performance whilst active; coordinating this with channel teams and updating clients on performance throughout the campaign
• Coordinating and collating central account management documents such as year plans, finance tracker for the use of the wider team as well as being the main client contact for any and all account queries
• Excel skills at an intermediate level are ideal (pivot tables, functions etc) you will create plans and reporting analyses using this
• Building and maintaining relationships with key media owner and external partners and being confident in negotiating the best opportunities for your clients with them
• Sharing best practice work with the wider agency – e.g. in company meetings, case studies, website, social etc
• Active member of the7stars leadership teams
• Participation in the7stars wide initiatives, including Values Weeks
• Getting involved with relevant pitches + new biz leads
• Working alongside sidebar teams + specialists at the7stars to upskill self (understanding data, insights, strategy, digital etc)

Requirements

• Experience agency side working as a media planning manager, account manager or similar client-facing position
• Experience in online and offline media planning and/or buying; you are a quick learner who enjoys developing their expertise across more platforms
• Strong client servicing skills, with the confidence to build trusted day-to-day relationships and take ownership of account delivery
• Someone who lives and breathes media. You’ll be coordinating across multiple channels and teams, so a real passion for understanding what you’re working with is a must
• You will have a working knowledge of the wider media landscape
• Digital media experience would be particularly useful, whether gained through digital planning and buying, activation, AV or a broader integrated role
• You don't need to be an expert across every channel, but you'll be curious and keen to continue developing your broader media knowledge
• Able to manage high-volume, multi-location accounts with strong organisation and prioritisation skills
• You’ll be a practical ‘doer’, someone who rolls up their sleeves and gets the job done
• Excellent time management skills and the ability to multi-task whilst working towards key deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Strong interpersonal skills — confident speaking to teammates, clients, third parties and media owners
• A keen problem solver
• Strong presentation skills and the ability to communicate information and ideas clearly, both written and verbally
• An interest in developing your planning capabilities and strategic media knowledge, working alongside planning specialists to broaden your expertise

About the7stars

the7stars is unlike any other agency. The distinction started the day we launched in 2005 when we named ourselves after a pub, but more importantly when we made a promise that we were going to do things differently.

And this commitment has stuck with us. It guides how we work, how we think and how we treat one another and can be expressed in a single word.

Freedom.

Our Freedom philosophy lives across our entire business from people, product and planning. It means we plan & buy media how we want, develop careers how we want, take holiday when we need it, invent tools when we need them, give people a platform to speak up, question and express themselves freely - but more importantly it has allowed us to create an amazing place to work.

We have a unique working environment and open structure which encourages personal development through client contact, team work, training, exposure to all media and internal teams – and a “sky’s the limit” approach to your growth within the agency.

the7stars is 300 passionate media people that are able to focus purely on creating great work for our clients. UK focused, we also operate within an agile global network of like-minded friends, extending our client portfolio into Europe and the US.

• Uncounted holiday
• Discretionary performance related summer profit share & Christmas bonus
• Flexible & hybrid working with a focus on togetherness (4 days per week in the office)
• Personalised training plan & access to coaching
• Flexible pension plan through Royal London (8% employer contribution under £35k)
• Optional private medical insurance (Vitality) & cash back plan (Medicash)
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Work from anywhere up to 2 weeks each year
• Paid for gym membership with a choice of 5 gyms
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Personal finance advice & support
• Life Assurance & Critical Illness cover
• Profit share scheme (after 3 years’ service)
• Electric Vehicle scheme
• Nursery Partnership
• Tech & Cycle to Work scheme
• Season ticket loans & expensed Railcard
• New Business Bonus eligible in your first years as a the7stars employee

the7stars is committed to creating a diverse environment, where employees feel empowered to share different ideas, perspectives and experiences in a collaborative and creative work environment. Equality and inclusion are at the heart of our culture. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.