Account Director

Ear to the Ground; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A creative agency in Manchester is seeking an experienced Account Director to serve as a trusted advisor to clients. This role involves leading client campaigns, managing relationships, and ensuring overall client satisfaction. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of experience in agency brand communications, a strong background in client servicing, and excellent leadership skills, along with a passion for contemporary culture, sport, and gaming.

Benefits

Flexible & hybrid working

Birthday off

Workplace nursery benefit

Enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave

Private medical insurance and health cash plan

Enhanced sick leave and mental health support

Cycle to Work scheme

Personal development coaching

Qualifications

• 5+ years in agency brand communications.
• Proven track record of developing and growing accounts.
• Excellent communication skills for working with clients and colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Own the client relationship and ensure overall client success.
• Lead the team to deliver key project documents on time.
• Identify new opportunities within designated clients.

Skills

Client servicing

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Leadership

Presentation skills

Job description

THE DETAILS:

Job Title:Account Director
Department/Hub: Client Services
Reports to: Business Director
Responsible for:Account Manager
Hours: Full time, permanent
Location: Manchester, Northern Quarter. We operate a Hybrid working policy of ideally minimum 3 days in Manchester HQ per week.

THE ROLE:

We’re looking for an Account Director who will be the trusted advisor to the Client on behalf of the agency.

You’ll be the key client point of contact, representing the client’s views to the wider agency in the delivery of projects in order to deliver brilliant and effective campaign

You’ll have overall responsibility for the management of client campaigns in order to maximise their performance for both the client and the agency

You will lead the growth of our relationship and remit with our clients.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own the client relationship and take responsibility for overall client success and satisfaction
• Lead your team to ensure that all key project documents and updates are delivered to the Client on time and to the required standard, following our agency process
• Work with all other internal teams to provide flawless delivery of campaigns whilst ensuring that the project and account hit the client’s and the company’s KPI’s
• Proactively identify new opportunities and areas of growth within designated clients
• Management and development of junior staff members including your designated Account Manager
• Ensure clear, high quality internal briefs are provided for all internal departments so that teams can manage and deliver an excellent creative response that will be effective for the client
• Take responsibility for the financial reporting of designated accounts.
• Work with all other departments to develop and maintain clear accurate budgets as well as their administration in finance software, to ensure efficiencies and maximum commercial performance
• Own account growth plans for each account and demonstrate how you will help develop each account
• Lead and coordinate pitch presentations and material/collateral with the relevant departments and staff
• Alongside agency colleagues, present creative responses, strategy and insight ideas and concepts to the client
• Work with relevant internal departments to monitor the effectiveness of projects and campaigns developing and contributing to the project evaluation

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Our ideal successful candidate will have:

• 5 years+ in agency brand communications
• Experience working as a successful Account Director
• Strong Client Servicing experience
• Ability to spot opportunities
• A track record of developing and growing accounts
• A track record of developing client leads, pitches and presentations
• Results focused and a drive for effective campaigns
• Ability to lead pitches and presentations
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Excellent communication and 'people skills', for working with a range of colleagues and clients
• Good experience of leading and motivating a team
• Keen eye for detail
• A creative approach to every project and opportunity
• Great presentation and pitching skills
• Understanding of the importance of research and insight in creative
• Good business sense and the ability to work to budgets
• Understanding on how to deliver joined up campaigns
• A love of contemporary culture, sport and/or gaming

THE AGENCY

Ear to the Ground is a global sport, gaming, and entertainment creative agency with a unique model that sets us apart. We are driven by Fan Intelligence®, our global network of 12,000 influential tastemakers and fans. Our real time insight into what fans truly want, enables us to create compelling work that consistently pushes the boundaries of culture.

We pride ourselves on being the agency that listens better than anyone to solve our clients' challenges, maximise their sport, gaming and entertainment partnerships, and ultimately build brands that lead culture.

We’ve helped clients includingNike, PlayStation, JD, NBA, Coca-Cola and 2K turn fans into consumers by delivering culturally relevant, fan-first campaigns that inspire emotional connection and measurable business impact.

You can learn more about the agency with a short film here.

OUR CULTURE

We are dedicated to making Ear to the Ground an amazing place to work where people grow, develop and thrive. We pride ourselves on our dynamic and exciting culture, excellent support of staff and fantastic benefits package. We have made it our mission to lead the way in being an inspiring, future-thinking, creative agency and are invested in our people because they are the ones that will make that happen.

Some of our benefits include:

• 🕒 Flexible & hybrid working
• 🎉 Birthday off
• 👶 Workplace nursery benefit
• 👩👧👦 Enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave
• 🏥 Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• 🤒 Enhanced sick leave and mental health support
• 🚴♂️ Cycle to Work scheme
• 📈 Personal development coaching
• + more