Account Director - EMEA

JR United Kingdom; London; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job description

Company Overview:

Reinventing out-of-home planning and placement for the performance age. Billups is the leading independent out-of-home (OOH) specialist in North America and is continuing to grow in the EMEA region (with personnel across NL, UK, BE, DE, IT, ES…) plus APAC. Delivering OOH managed services globally, helping advertisers and agencies strengthen media performance through our patented analytics and measurement platform. Our mission is to transform the power of places to connect brands with their consumers.

Role Overview:

The Client Team (comprising Client Services, Client Development and Campaign Ops departments) undertakes a wide range of responsibilities in driving Billups’ business forward, developing and nurturing client and partner relationships. As part of our Client Services function, the Account Director - EMEA role collaborates closely with reports, peers and Senior Account Director(s) in:

1. Leading key clients and directing your team.
2. Advocacy and implementation of Billups’ regional mission / vision / purpose, strategies, platform and services, across your team.
3. Client and partner delivery, by being a senior point of daily servicing contact, ensuring requests and expectations are managed proactively, and that our strategic and executional delivery against KPIs exceeds expectations.
4. Helping your Senior Account Director(s) identify ways of delivering organic and diversified revenue growth; converting these.
5. Helping your Senior Account Director(s) develop and convert new business opportunities.
6. Establishing target plans against key accounts and categories.
7. Identifying, securing and executing meetings with prospects and leads, collaborating closely with Client Development function colleagues in doing so.
8. Directing daily supplier relationships, regarding the development and execution of industry-leading OOH planning.
9. Collaborating with the Investment Team regarding trade deal alignment and optimisation across markets and vendors.
10. Complying with all company and departmental policies and procedures. Ensuring the same across your team.
11. Ensuring process is followed, and enhancing this as needed, to ensure quality consistency.
12. Driving tool and system adoption across your team; actively contributing to tool and system development and deployment, including participating in requirement definition and testing periods.
13. Executing day-to-day administrative tasks and projects internally.
14. Actively engaging wider Billups’ centralised resources within existing or new conversations - for example Marketing, PlatSol and Design Teams.
15. Providing a supervisory role including: (i) interviewing, hiring, and training high-performing talent, (ii) planning, assigning, and directing work, (iii) appraising performance, (iv) rewarding and disciplining your team members, and (v) addressing complaints and resolving problems.
16. Compiling accurate, updated business planning and forecasting across your clients. Working with your Senior Account Director(s) to identify potential challenges and develop solutions.
17. Helping ensure annual budget delivery for your clients, linking closely into your Senior Account Director(s) and Finance Team to maintain tracking and oversight.
18. Contributing to pushing the boundaries of current and future function goals and strategies.

Required Media Experience: 8 - 10 years:

1. A strong knowledge of the OOH media landscape, demonstrating a knowledgeable opinion on client and supplier news and activity.
2. Wide UK or EMEA or International OOH and/or comms planning experience.
3. The desire and ability to learn new international markets and work with local teams across multiple regions.
4. Proven experience of successfully leading a team. Delivering the highest standards of client service levels.
5. The ability to manage diverse work groups and functions across timezones, cultures and geographic locations.
6. A commercial mindset, with the confidence to engage your line reports to deliver strong commercial upside in challenging conditions, through organic and diversified means.
7. Experience prospecting, researching and data mining for business leads and opportunities.
8. Wide experience at negotiating pricing and booking campaigns.
9. Some experience conducting analyses and developing financial models to identify critical trends, support strategic decision-making and create forward visibility.
10. Strong reasoning: the ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. The ability to analyse and synthesise large amounts of data in order to identify and present meaningful observations and recommendations.
11. The ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, percentages, area, circumference and volume. Being able to apply concepts of basic algebra and geometry.
12. Adept at using various applications including database, spreadsheet, report writing, project management, graphics, word processing, presentation creation/editing, email communication and CRM software.
13. The desire to grow yourself, your team members and Billups’ business.

Core Role Duties:

1. Responsibility for the day-to-day management of your team to ensure they are effectively servicing clients and are proactively contributing to growing client and agency business.
2. Ensuring a thorough understanding of your clients’ strategies and objectives, and the KPIs Billups must deliver for them.
3. Developing strong long-term relationships with your day-to-day and senior agency, client and media vendor contacts, building trust and collaboration.
4. Driving the same across your team, putting relationship mapping in place.
5. Engaging and directing internal teams in responding to enquiries.
6. Directing Billups’ delivery in responding to your clients’ servicing needs, including the production of media planning.
7. Directing Billups’ delivery in ensuring the smooth booking of media campaigns for your clients.
8. Directing Billups’ delivery in ensuring the timely activation of media campaigns for your clients - ensuring campaign start dates are tracked and that everything is ready to go live on time; ensuring liaison with relevant vendors for management of artwork delivery and approval processes.
9. Directing campaign reporting for your clients - overseeing access to ‘Proof of Posting (POP)’ and Campaign Attribution, ensuring this is received by clients and / or their agencies in a timely fashion.
10. Contributing to, and engaging your team plus the Billups’ Marketing Team in, the compilation of case studies and other relevant best practice and market intelligence materials.
11. Driving consistency in our work through self and team adoption of the appropriate templates and guidelines. Delivering operational excellence as an individual and with your team.
12. Responsibility for shared file drive management, ensuring documents and content are saved in the relevant folders. Ensuring client and media vendor documents and folders are regularly updated within our directory.
13. Directing the resolution of any campaign issues or discrepancies across your clients, drawing upon wider internal and external support as needed. Coaching your team in resolving issues.
14. Control of your team’s diaries regarding the arrangement of team meetings or presentations.
15. Ensuring Client Development function support through Client Services function creation of, or access to, materials or content.
16. Developing and growing your industry knowledge plus that of your team through: (i) meeting and event attendance, (ii) accessing company training, (iii) conducting site visits, (iv) engaging with Billups’ communication platforms. Ensuring knowledge and best practice is shared across the whole Client Team and business.
17. Assisting your Senior Account Director(s) in managing your team’s calendar for elements (i) - (iii) above, and adherence to the budgets associated.
18. Helping to manage and host internal training sessions.
19. Attending and helping lead wider company initiatives including new business pitches, social events, town halls etc. Ensuring the same across the Client Services function.
20. Frequent travel both in-market and overseas, as required. Attendance of relevant client / partner / industry events.
21. Other duties as assigned by your Senior Account Director(s).

Required Interpersonal Skills:

1. Expressing ideas and thoughts clearly, both orally and in written form.
2. Excellent organisational skills.
3. Exhibiting strong listening, comprehension and engagement.
4. Experience in taking initiative, exercising sound judgement in decision-making.
5. Strong relationship management skills with the ability to communicate across all levels - both internally and externally. Establishing and maintaining excellent rapport.
6. Demonstrating tact and diplomacy in communicating to clients/agencies and media suppliers, as well as with colleagues internally. Eliciting this across your team.
7. Bringing creativity and passion to your team and its services, embracing change and innovation.
8. Skill in developing people and building a team. Demonstrated ability to lead a team.
9. Being viewed as a credible, approachable, thoughtful and purposeful senior team member; exhibiting Billups’ values (particularly under pressure) and inspiring others to do the same.
10. Driving and contributing to the establishment of a positive team spirit. Being pro-active and a team player, with the ability to engage others and motivate them.
11. Wide experience in resolving challenging client issues and team issues.