Group Account Director

Ethnicity Matters; Toronto; On-site; CAD 162,000 - 198,000; Full time

Job summary

Ethnicity Matters seeks a senior leader to report to the Managing Director, providing strategic and tactical leadership across multi-million-dollar engagements while monitoring daily project activities.

The ideal candidate will be entrepreneurially minded, able to manage diverse client portfolios, and drive multicultural marketing strategies that deliver measurable results. Strong leadership and relationship-building skills are essential in this role.

Qualifications

• 10–15 years of agency experience across traditional (TV/Radio/OOH) and digital
• Senior level capable of growing the business organically
• Ability to build trusting and respectful relationships with clients and internal teams
• High level of understanding regarding insights and strategy
• Experience managing teams of 5+ individuals
• Ability to manage long-term, multi-million-dollar engagements with numerous stakeholders and projects

Responsibilities

• Provide strong leadership and counsel to clients to help them identify issues and opportunities
• Lead integration across the entire integrated grid; drive cohesion and connection
• Together with EM’s executive team, hold the highest standards for the EM product
• Contribute to the vision, direction, and culture of EM via participation in the leadership team
• Be seen by the client as a trusted partner truly vested in their success
• Maintain a deep understanding of the client’s business and category
• Build strong relationships with senior clients and EM team members
• Demonstrate collaborative and open relationships with EM team members
• Lead in the accurate identification of the problem to be solved and appropriate options
• Ensure the creative product is delivered against EM’s creative vision and standards
• Educate and foster a desire for creative excellence from the client
• Grow revenue and organic growth within the account team

Skills

Client leadership

Strategic thinking

Relationship management

Team leadership

Problem solving

Job description

In this role, you'll report into the Managing Director and will provide strategic and tactical leadership across multi-million-dollar engagements, while keeping abreast of daily project activities. You're experienced with identifying clients' business needs, working with creative, in-house studio, and Consumer Connections (media) teams to understand, define, and build effective solutions that generate measurable results.

Ideal candidate will:

• Thrive in an entrepreneurial environment and be known as forward-thinking and solutions-oriented
• Have integrated advertising agency experience managing multiple portfolios of clients’ businesses
• Have a passion and genuine interest in multicultural marketing
• Have an ability to build trusting and respectful relationships with your clients and internal teams
• Be strategically minded with a strong ability to troubleshoot with clients and team members
• Instill confidence from all team members and clients that you can solve a business problem
• Demonstrate a driver personality and be highly organized
• Show the ability to lead a team, lead the client, and not just manage them
• Anticipate a client’s needs, not waiting for them to ask the question

Qualifications:

• 10–15 years of experience working in an agency environment with experience in both traditional (TV/Radio/OOH) and digital
• Senior level enough to not just lead, but grow the business organically.
• Ability to build trusting and respectful relationships with clients and internal teams
• High level of understanding regarding insights and strategy
• Experience managing teams of 5+ individuals
• Ability to manage long-term, multi-million-dollar engagements with numerous stakeholders and projects
• Comfortable interacting with clients at various levels and industry backgrounds, from C‑Suite to administrative support staff
• Strong ability to manage and set client expectations

Leadership

• Provide strong leadership and counsel to clients to help them identify issues and opportunities
• Lead integration across the entire integrated grid; drive cohesion and connection
• Together with EM’s executive team, hold the highest standards for the EM product
• Contribute to the vision, direction, and culture of EM via participation in the leadership team

Business Partnering

• Be seen by the client as a trusted partner truly vested in their success
• Maintain a deep and thorough understanding of the client’s business and category
• Build strong, trustful relationships with senior clients and work to establish wide client relationships across all EM team members
• Model and build strong, collaborative, and open relationships with EM team members

Strategic Thinking

• Lead in the accurate identification of the problem to be solved and appropriate options
• Ability to think on your feet
• In partnership with creative and strategy leads, ensure the creative product is delivered against EM’s creative vision and standards
• Responsible for educating and fostering a desire for creative excellence from the client
• Responsible for building a desire to produce excellent creative product within the account team

Skillful Communication

• Possess persuasive and commanding presentation skills
• Adapt communications to different team member levels to ensure understanding
• Ensure all team members (including leadership) are up to date on business as required

Account Management

• Ultimately responsible for:
• Revenue, financial targets, and organic growth
• Account staffing, fit, and workload management
• Attention to detail and high QC standards
• Leadership of the day-to-day execution
• Responsible for the growth and development of all members of their account team
• Expected to establish strong, trustful relationships with team members to foster team collaboration and positive attitude
• Demonstrate a positive and helpful attitude
• Maintain a collaborative attitude with other Group Account Directors

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is $130,000+. Individual compensation within this range is determined based on job related factors such as experience, skills, level of responsibility, internal equity, and business needs. This range represents the expected base salary for this role and does not include other elements of Ethnicity Matters total rewards program.