Account Manager (12-Month Fixed Term Contract)

Inspired Thinking Group; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 38,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Wellbeing Day

Smart Working up to 40% from home

Up to 90 days abroad after 12 months

Pension scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Funding for professional quals

Referral bonuses and rewards

Job summary

Inspired Thinking Group in the United Kingdom is seeking an Account Manager to coordinate the production and delivery of in-store POS for the M&S account. You will work directly with the M&S marketing team and be responsible for keeping campaigns within budget and on time, ensuring artwork accuracy and timely approvals through our Media Centre system.

This role requires commitment, resilience and a keen focus on project management, briefs, timelines and supplier relationships across internal

Qualifications

• Experience in Account Management, Project Management, Marketing Operations or Production roles.
• Strong project management skills with ability to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Receiving briefs from the Account Director or client and communicating timelines, templates and costings.
• Lead pre-production meetings to ensure clear artwork briefs and deadlines.
• Maintain production briefs, print specifications and allocations via RUN/Media Centre.
• Ensure purchase orders are raised on time and costs are tracked and communicated.

Skills

Account management

Project management

Stakeholder management

Budget management

Print production knowledge

POS marketing materials

Excel

PowerPoint

Tools

Media Centre

RULE system

Workflow management systems

Purchase orders

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to coordinate and facilitate the production and delivery of in-store Point of Sale (POS) for the M&S account. The Account Manager works directly with the M&S marketing team and is responsible for the keeping all campaigns within budget and on time. The role exists in support of the Account Director for each business unit area and focuses on verification, accuracy and completeness of all artwork running through our bespoke approval system Media Centre. This role requires commitment, resilience and a keen focus on project management.

Your day to day responsibilities include:

• Receiving briefs from the Account Director or directly from the client (M&S Marketing) and clearly communicating timelines, creative templates that will be followed and costings.
• Linking all briefs back to the M&S planning managers and managing the relationships between M&S Marketing and Planning teams to ensure campaigns run smoothly and artwork can be approved in good time.
• Lead pre-production meetings for your business unit per campaign (prior to briefing artwork) to ensure M&S marketing have given a clear finalized artwork brief
• Maintain a great relationship with ITG Artwork Production Team (this team are based in Birmingham at ITG Head Office) and flag urgent or large campaigns in advance, giving them realistic deadlines
• Brief final artwork to ITG Production team using pre-approved templates, with enough time for them to complete the job well, especially during busy periods. Avoid bottle neck artwork periods by pre-planning and having open discussions with the wider team on when artwork is expected to be briefed.
• You will accurately manage information from the M&S business units, formulating full production and artwork briefs, producing detailed print specifications and maintaining print allocations for POS material via our tech systems, RULE & Media Centre.
• Ensure that printers have been engaged each campaign on deadlines, workload and realistic timings on when they will receive Purchase Order and final artwork
• Ensure all M&S cost trackers for POS are kept up to date, and costs are communicated regularly with ITG Account Director, M&S Planning Mangers and M&S marketing.
• Ensure Purchase Orders are raised in good time in advance of the file to print date and all issues are flagged in advance with the M&S team.
• Maintain critical path dates on Monday,com production board, using the main programme board, liaising with M&S Planning managers & Creative SAM who are managing the creative project from brief to implementation
• Send out reminder emails for key dates (send to M&S Marketing POS team, ITG Marketing execs)
• Ensuring WIP report showing all live jobs from media centre is sent each morning and job status report is shared each Friday with client, including any status updates which need to be shared

• Previous experience in an Account Management, Project Management, Marketing Operations or Production role.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple campaigns, deadlines and priorities simultaneously.
• Experience working within a fast-paced marketing, retail, agency or production environment.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build relationships across clients, internal teams and external suppliers.
• Highly organised with exceptional attention to detail and accuracy.
• Experience managing budgets, cost trackers, purchase orders and campaign expenditure.
• Knowledge of print production, artwork workflows, POS marketing materials or retail marketing campaigns would be advantageous.
• Comfortable working with workflow management, approval and project management systems.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to work within agreed budgets and deadlines.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

Work’s a treat!

Perks at ITG

— alongside a competitive salary, here's what you can look forward to:

• Time off that works for you — 25 days' holiday + bank holidays, a paid Wellbeing Day, flexible bank holidays to honour cultural or religious observances, and the option to buy or carry over up to 5 extra days.
• Flexibility & lifestyle — Smart Working with up to 40% from home, and after 12 months, the option to work from abroad for up to 90 days a year.
• Family & life milestones — Enhanced family friendly leave, 3 extra days for your wedding/honeymoon, and an Employee Assistance Programme whenever you need support.
• Financial perks — Pension scheme, Corporate Medical Cash Plan, electric car salary sacrifice scheme, and tax-efficient payroll giving to your favourite charities.
• Growth & recognition — Funding for professional qualifications, monthly Employee of the Month awards (£250 bonus), and referral bonuses of up to £1,500.
• Community & wellbeing — Regular Wellbeing Workshops, 30+ Wellbeing Champions, a paid Volunteer Day, and an online perks platform with discounts on top brands, days out, and gym memberships.

We Value Diversity

We champion and welcome diversity in our workforce and ensure all job applicants receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender or gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or nationality.

We are not only committed to increasing the visibility and recognition of talent from under-represented groups within our organisation, but the wider industry too.

At the end of the day, we make sure we take time to look after ourselves, each other, and the planet, because we’re always stronger together.

ITG have a number of community groups available to employees and exist to offer a safe space for like-minded colleagues, with shared interests to connect, socialise and check in with each other.