Business Director

Ear to the Ground; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading creative agency in Manchester seeks a Business Director to drive client success and lead cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate has 10+ years in client services with a strong strategic mindset, excellent financial acumen, and a passion for the sports and entertainment industries. This full-time role offers a hybrid working model and a dynamic culture, providing a unique opportunity to shape brand success.

Benefits

Flexible & hybrid working

Birthday off

Workplace nursery benefit

Enhanced maternity & paternity

Private health insurance

Enhanced sick leave

Cycle to Work scheme

Personal development coaching

Qualifications

• 10+ years in client services or business leadership within a creative agency.
• Proven track record of large-scale marketing campaigns.
• Excellent financial management experience.

Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted advisor to clients, providing strategic counsel.
• Drive account growth and lead client relationships.
• Champion a culture of insight-led creativity.

Skills

Client leadership

Strategic thinking

Financial acumen

Mentoring

Cultural insights

Job description

Overview

Job Title: Business Director
Department: Client Services
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
Responsible for: No direct reports
Hours: Full time, permanent
Location: Manchester. We operate a Hybrid working policy of minimum 3 days in Manchester HQ per week.

The Role

As a Business Director, you will serve as a senior leader within the agency, driving client success, contributing to the strategic direction of the business, and leading cross-functional teams. This role requires an exceptional combination of commercial acumen, leadership experience, and deep industry knowledge. You will be responsible for strengthening client relationships, unlocking new growth opportunities, and ensuring the agency delivers outstanding creative work that resonates with fans.

You will also be part of the Commercial Leadership team, responsible for forecasting and delivering against personal targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Client Leadership & Growth:
• Act as a trusted senior advisor to key clients, offering strategic counsel to solve their business challenges.
• Lead strategic conversations at the highest levels, ensuring client partnerships are built on long-term collaboration.
• Identify and unlock opportunities for account growth, expanding our role across client businesses.
• Collaborate with strategy, creative, and production leads to deliver outstanding integrated campaigns.
• Represent the agency as a thought leader, demonstrating category expertise in sport, gaming, and entertainment.
• Having a broader, cross-agency view. Focus on driving agency growth, leading key client relationships, and contributing to overall business strategy. Often involved in shaping the agency's market positioning.

• Commercial Leadership:
• As a member of the Commercial Leadership team, you will be driven by commercial success, with the responsibility of delivering against personal financial targets.
• Own the commercial performance of key client accounts, ensuring profitability and sustainable growth.
• Develop and oversee account plans with clear financial objectives, including revenue growth, margin management, and resource planning.
• Drive proactive financial forecasting, identifying opportunities to optimise revenue streams.
• Lead negotiations with clients, ensuring the agency is appropriately valued for its expertise.

• Strategic & Creative Excellence:
• Champion a culture of insight-led creativity, ensuring work is informed by Fan Intelligence.
• Collaborate closely with Strategy and Creative Directors to ensure campaigns are culturally relevant and commercially impactful.
• Maintain an expert understanding of the evolving sports and entertainment landscape, providing proactive recommendations to clients.

• Leadership & Team Development:
• Lead and mentor account teams, empowering them to deliver outstanding client service and personal growth.
• Foster a high-performance, collaborative culture within the agency.
• Provide clear, inspiring leadership across cross-functional teams to drive operational excellence.

Key Requirements

Our ideal successful candidate will have:

• Ideally 10+ years of experience in client services, account management, or business leadership within a creative, advertising, or marketing agency.
• Strong strategic thinking with the ability to provide senior-level counsel to clients.
• Demonstrated track record of leading large-scale, integrated marketing campaigns.
• Excellent financial acumen with experience in budget management and revenue growth.
• Proven leadership skills with a passion for mentoring and developing high-performing teams.
• A deep understanding of the sports, gaming, and entertainment industries.
• Passion for culture and the ability to leverage cultural insights to drive brand success.

This is an opportunity for an ambitious, commercially minded leader who is passionate about the intersection of sport, gaming, and entertainment. If you are ready to shape the future of some of the world’s most exciting brands, we’d love to hear from you!

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 11,000 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 have long term partnerships with the likes of PlayStation, Sony Electronics, New Balance, and Coca-Cola.

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

Benefits

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 &hybridworking
• Birthday off
• Workplace nursery benefit
• Enhanced maternity &paternity
• Private health insurance
• Enhanced sick leave
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Personal development coaching
• more