Account Director

Dentsu; London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global B2B agency is seeking an Account Director to lead client account planning and team development. The role involves driving innovative solutions, managing client relationships, and overseeing campaign finances. Join a dynamic team that values diversity and offers a hybrid working environment with generous benefits.

Benefits

Private health & dental insurance

29+ days of annual leave

Flexible working hours

Career development through Dentsu University

Access to LinkedIn learning

Opportunity to volunteer for 2 days per year

Qualifications

• Experience in managing client accounts and campaigns.
• Strong understanding of B2B marketing strategies.
• Ability to lead and mentor team members.

Responsibilities

• Lead planning across key client accounts and drive innovative solutions.
• Build and maintain strong client relationships as a trusted advisor.
• Oversee campaign management and financial activities.

Skills

Client service experience

Media planning

Team leadership

Financial management

Job description

Job Description:

THE AGENCY

We are Dentsu B2B, one of the biggest and most successful B2B agencies in the world, and further part of the incredible Dentsu parent groups. Since our establishment as a global end-to-end, best-in-class B2B agency, we are growing at a rapid and exciting pace. You will be joining a team of over 1,000 B2B specialists globally, acting as agency of record for some of the biggest and most exciting B2B brands in the world where we provide service across our many practice areas, including Media, Creative, Insights and more. But don't just take our word for it - we've recently won The Drum's Best Large B2B agency award.

At DB2B, we are determined to be the best - and we know that only comes from having the best people on our teams. So, as we progress and develop as a company, you will too. Within our fast-growing network, there's plenty of opportunity to develop your skillset through market-leading training schemes, including our proprietary Merkle University courses. You'll be encouraged to be curious, to share new ideas and to be innovative and bold - we believe great ideas should come from everyone in the team. To that end we're also actively engaged in ensuring DEI is at the heart of what we think, say and do. We work as part of the many pillars within our global and local DEI group - and strongly encourage all of our teams to be actively involved here too.

In exchange for your contribution to our award-winning company, we make sure you'll find the right work-life balance - mental wellness is incredibly important to us so we ensure everyone takes advantage of their generous holiday allowance as well as several additional Wellness Days each year - additional days off which are enjoyed by everyone within the Dentsu group. We know right now that the ability to work remotely is as important as the ability to come together f2f as a team and agency, so we have enabled each team to build bespoke charters to identify the rhythm and cadence of when it will add value to be in the office collaborating round a table and when it's useful to work from where suits you - all with the goal of driving success for our clients, our teams and our agency in the smartest ways possible. We're really proud of our company values and culture, and we want you to feel fully part of that fantastic community, something we celebrate in our regular company and team socials.

THE ROLE

The Account Director role is responsible for leading the planning across key client accounts within their portfolio. Taking a leadership role both of the team and the accounts they are running, they will demonstrate strong account ownership and operations, best-in-class media planning and great team development - all to developing growth within people and accounts.

Leading a team, this role will have a lot of autonomy and take day to day ownership over the client and assist with ad hoc new business projects. Together with the team they will drive innovative and ambitious solutions which deliver material business value to clients, across a portfolio of accounts and be responsible for the financial management of all campaign activity within the team

THE KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Immerses self and team in clients' business: understanding their challenges, objectives, external economic environment, markets they operate in, competitive threats and relevant partner agencies; knows their business model, how it is performing and what success looks like; knows client's products inside out and applies this knowledge to deliver innovative, ambitious client plans and service
• Own relationships with mid-level clients on a day-to-day basis and build strong relationships as a trusted advisor with clients and industry stakeholders, deepening the relationship to ensure retention and growth
• Acting in partnership with key clients this role will oversee and manage campaigns, including oversight and development of strategy, strategic business initiatives, and ad hoc requests to service our client's business.
• Delivering a dynamic presence in presentations and other forms of client communication, adapting to different client requirements.
• Supporting, training and mentoring the Account Managers and Executives in delivering all campaign planning, campaign implementation, finances and other areas of growth.
• Managing the team's training schedule for both internal & external training opportunities
• Drafting all Scope of Work documents for account campaigns and projects
• Support in the reporting & analytics of campaigns
• Link insights to recommendations, optimisations and expansion of client activity
• Lead senior vendor relationships, understanding of all associated rates and margin, and maintain a partnership role in testing/access to new products and capabilities
• Take the initiative for assisting the management team with wider projects as required, including but not limited to DB2B product development, industry positioning, award entries and representing DB2B at external events
• Improves client satisfaction to expand existing revenue streams and build new ones
• Use knowledge of DB2B (and Dentsu) capabilities to influence and contribute to innovative, ambitious and value driven solutions
• Involvement in agency pitch teams as part of on-going business development

THE KEY BEHAVIOURS

• Takes on challenging projects/problems and creates project plans and processes that get things moving
• Holds self and others accountable to meeting high standards, does not let deadlines slip, and provides and guidance to ensure standards are met and delivered.
• Knows who their broader stakeholder group are and ensures they are kept informed appropriately, both internally within the team or across the business and amongst clients.
• Is willing to check in with the team on projects/tasks being worked on individually and as a team, to encourage collaboration, upskilling and room for feedback from broader stakeholders.
• Understands client's marketing strategy and objectives, how all the op-cos can help deliver that and is able to represent them to the client
• Stays calm & helps the team and clients navigate significant change/frustration
• Finds the right balance of constructive challenge and adaptation when faced with opposition (be that driven by clients, team or leadership)
• Steps back from current problems to see future implications to avoid risk & benefit from opps
• Asks the non-obvious questions to get at underlying issues
• Looks across DB2B & Dentsu to find the right people to deliver against client needs
• Works with the Client Lead to sets clear direction for the team, focuses them not just on today but on longer-term plans
• Develops self and people to ensure they can deliver (technical training, client servicing, team leadership)
• Gives balanced feedback and recognition
• Sets realistic forecasts and spots opportunities for cross-selling
• Sees patterns in data, understand what it means and translate into action plans
• Creates helpful client proposals on a range of topics, not just their own brand / area / expertise
• Willing to support outside of campaign and day to day requests to help grow and improve team and clients' ways of working.

THE KEY SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Good all-round client service experience
• Experience of reach / awareness planning across at least medium-sized clients
• Utilisation of planning and insight tools
• Strong media planning experience & ideally good sector/B2B experience
• Experience of at least two functions including digital
• Experience in managing the finances for campaigns
• Maintain strong relationships with the media owner and partner community
• Good overall knowledge of DB2B (and Dentsu) products and services

A few of the benefits

• You'll have a great compensation package, private health & dental insurance, corporate discounts and career development through Dentsu University, and free access to LinkedIn learning
• 29+ days of annual leave (25 days of regular holidays, birthdays off and 3 additional wellness days)
• We also offer the opportunity to volunteer for up to 2 days per year and tend to close down the agency between Christmas and New Years
• You'll have a hybrid working schedule, with flexible start/end hours

Inclusion and Diversity

Our diverse and inclusive culture enables our employees to bring their whole selves to work and be proud of doing so. For us, this is the foundation for great innovation which, in turn, generates better outcomes for our people, partners and communities. This is why we encourage applications from people with disabilities, and of all ages, nationalities, backgrounds and cultures.

We are happy to discuss flexible and agile approaches to working for all our roles - we can't promise we will be able to offer you everything you want or need but we do promise to discuss it with you openly and honestly. If you have any reasonable

Location:
London

Brand:
Iprospect

Time Type:
Full time

Contract Type:
Permanent