Account Director

JR United Kingdom; Slough; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading event agency in the UK is seeking a Senior Account Director to manage client relationships and deliver high-quality events. The role emphasizes strategic planning, account growth, and collaboration with creative teams to ensure client satisfaction. The ideal candidate brings at least five years of experience in the event industry, particularly with live experiential events. This is an opportunity to work with prestigious brands, ensuring exceptional service and creativity in event execution.

Benefits

Private medical insurance

Life cover

Eye test

Annual flu jab

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Work From Anywhere for two weeks

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in the event industry.
• Proven experience managing client accounts and strategic growth.
• Solid understanding of brand development and management.

Responsibilities

• Act as the main contact for client relationships and manage multiple accounts.
• Drive accounts forward, ensuring high-quality event delivery.
• Develop year account plans and manage client pitches.

Skills

Communication

Client management

Budgeting

Strategic planning

Event management

Tools

Microsoft Office

CMS platforms (e.g., WordPress)

Job description

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We are Experience Makers - trusted by the world’s leading brands and organisations to create and deliver outstanding brand experiences and live events globally.

Founded in 1983, we have over 40 years’ experience working with our clients to deliver against objectives and challenge industry conventions. In the last year alone, as a Group, we delivered over 144 live events in more than 22 cities globally for the likes of World Rugby, Carlsberg, Formula One, The FA, Formula E, P&G (Procter & Gamble), Aston Martin Racing, Jaguar Land Rover, Dr Martens, Diageo, Westlife, Take That, and the Olympics.

We are a team of 120+ experts specialising in three distinct business pillars: Sport, Brands, and Entertainment. In each line of business, we provide clients with the creative ideas, project management rigour, and production expertise to deliver world-class experiences and music concerts across the globe.

The Group includes four agencies: TBA plc, Velocity Experience, VHE, and Top Banana.

Our expertise for each line of business includes:

Sport – Our expertise across sports and motor sport includes working with some of the world’s largest organisations and rights holders to consult on and deliver premium hospitality, guest management programmes, sponsorship activations, racing, fan zones, touring kits, and opening ceremonies.

Brands – Our team understands that creativity has no boundaries. We are forever striving to provide clients with the brightest ideas to help solve business problems. Our Brands team works closely with leading global brands to deliver both B2B and B2C experiences including conferences, product launches, award ceremonies, exhibitions, and parties.

Entertainment – Our entertainment arm brings the best global talent and spectacular large-scale production values into the corporate world. Our team has conquered some of the most technically challenging briefs to produce spectacular live shows and touring music concerts.

Group benefits include:

• Private medical insurance
• Life cover
• Eye test
• Annual flu jab
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Work From Anywhere for two weeks

Senior Account Director

Located at TBA, North Gower Street, London, NW1 2ND. Official working office hours are from 9 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday.

The role:

Support the business growth of TBA, ensuring that TBA is positioned as a trusted agency partner to clients by delivering events seamlessly and efficiently. This role is a relationship manager, client adviser and account lead. The Account Director will be responsible for managing TBA’s effectiveness over several clients, to be agreed. As the main relationship holder with the client, they are charged with the responsibility of exceeding client expectations and growing allocated client accounts, together with the identification and conversion of new business opportunities within their client accounts and/or similar categories.

In addition to managing the clients, they will be required to support other operational needs within the Group.

The Account Director reports to the Managing Director.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Act as the main contact and responsible for the overall management of client relationship(s) and key point of contact across the client account(s)
• Develop client relationship to ensure they become a long-term partner
• Possess sound knowledge of client contracts and account details
• Drive accounts forward and be accountable for ensuring the delivery of all events to the required TBA high standards
• Facilitate the initial communications between the client and the Creative and Project Delivery teams
• Develop reverse briefs, proposals, content, and debriefs
• Relentlessly nurture, develop, add value, and grow accounts
• Strengthen and protect the client brand and reputation
• Attend regular key client meetings and ensure the Project teams provide detailed reports on actions
• Ensure the TBA Project teams deliver a first-class customer service approach for the client
• Ensure the highest-quality service, data, and reporting to clients
• Oversee budget creation to ensure costs are managed and clients are invoiced to meet budget
• Demonstrate sound understanding of clients’ strategic and tactical objectives and anticipate how this will impact clients’ ability to fully maximise their investment
• Take ownership of information about the account, brand books, products, market segment data, and research

Brand & Digital Strategy

• Provide strategic input and oversight in the development and management of client brands
• Collaborate with internal and external design and digital teams to ensure brand guidelines are applied consistently across all touchpoints, including events, content, and digital platforms such as websites
• Work with clients to scope and deliver digital projects including website design/development and marketing content in the form of short films

Team Responsibilities

• In conjunction with the Creative Director, input to the allocated Design team in the development of project content that answers the brief and exceeds client expectations
• In conjunction with the Production team, oversee the end-to-end delivery of Project teams on each client account to ensure successful delivery of an event from conception to completion
• Oversee quality and high standards of delivery and attention to detail
• Ensure Project and Account team resourcing is allocated in good time with clear communication to all stakeholders
• Organise and lead the post debrief internally and with the client and oversee the introduction of improvements where weaknesses are identified
• Oversee financial management of each account, ensuring clients are invoiced the correct amount due in a timely manner so as to not exceed the contract period
• Provide regular financials report on accounts to the MD
• Take responsibility for growing new revenue streams within accounts and hitting target margins agreed
• Balance how the agency is servicing the client – ensuring that the agency isn’t consistently over-servicing

Business Development

• Produce yearly account plans outlining key objectives, timelines, and updates of results
• Own and drive the preparation and delivery of client pitches, new opportunities, and presentations
• Be responsible for the development of a new business pipeline to secure more revenue from existing and new clients
• Actively look for opportunities to help grow clients’ use of the Group’s services

Essential skills/qualifications:

• Ability to contribute to strategic discussions and articulate ideas in a clear and concise manner at all levels, both internally and externally
• Strong communication skills and ability to upwards manage as well as delegate work effectively to junior staff
• Trade show stand build experience preferable
• Ability to mentor and nurture the experiences of team members
• An appetite for progression and leading by example across all CSR matters
• Ability to work in a fluid and fast-paced environment and adapt to working whilst travelling either abroad or within the UK
• Quick learner, adaptable, and pragmatic thinker, whilst being tenacious, results-driven and resilient
• Highly motivated and committed, whilst injecting a sense of fun and spirit into the workplace
• Culturally sensitive and adaptable, whilst being an approachable team player
• Ability to take initiative and work autonomously, always maintaining a professional manner
• Entrepreneurial spirit with the ability to support the agency in its growth
• Attention to detail to ensure quality standards are met at all project touch points
• A champion and spokesperson on behalf of TBA
• A self-motivated, enthusiastic individual with a can-do positive attitude, able to use initiative
• An experienced client service candidate with a minimum of 5 years’ experience within the event industry, delivering live experiential events which include exhibitions, conferences, and product activations, to name a few
• Extensive knowledge in any industry sector
• Proven experience of owning client accounts and strategically growing them
• Line management and budgeting experience
• Ability to clearly communicate with stakeholders and collaborate with appropriate teams
• Demonstrated experience in brand development and management, with a strong understanding of how to translate brand strategy across events and digital environments and the creative process involved to produce brand toolkits and assets
• Solid understanding of web design principles and digital best practices, including UX/UI, CMS platforms (e.g. WordPress), and collaboration with developers or digital agencies
• Ability to brief, interpret, and oversee creative and digital outputs including websites, microsites, and interactive digital experiences
• Highly efficient and organised approach to workload
• Ability to juggle day-to-day tasks with high-priority work
• Proactive and resourceful, able to use initiative
• Experience with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) essential