Client Director

The Specialist Works | B Corp ™; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9-day fortnight

Fridays off every other week

Job summary

The What’s Possible Group is seeking a Senior Client Director in London to lead 3/4 agency client accounts, free from network agency constraints, and deliver best-in-class planning across online and offline channels.

You will manage and develop a team, drive strategic recommendations, and engage in new business pitches, while maintaining senior client relationships to ensure growth and successful outcomes.

Qualifications

• Experience in a media agency leading multi-channel campaigns.
• Ability to translate planning principles into media implementation.
• Strong client communication and management skills, including project management.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage 3/4 agency client accounts with strategic planning.
• Oversee briefing through campaign evaluation for consistency and learning.
• Guide and train the client team and specialists with ongoing feedback.
• Contribute to new business pitches as part of the team.

Skills

Media agency experience

Client leadership

Multi-channel planning

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Tools

Google Analytics

TGI

Ad Intel

Touchpoints

Job description

About the Group

The world is obsessed by small start‑ups or the largest corporates. Most UK media agencies are built to serve the top 100 spending clients, and there are a multitude of boutique agencies to serve those starting out in business. The Specialist Works is different. We are built exclusively for marketers at entrepreneurial brands, businesses that are past the messy start‑up stage but are worlds away from the slow‑paced nature of large corporates.

Our clients span large privately owned businesses and small to mid‑cap public enterprises. They are fighting larger, more established competitors and know they need to think and behave differently to win. They don’t conform to category norms. Since they can’t out‑spend their competition, disruption is the safest move they can make.

The marketers leading these brands are innovative, resourceful, moving at pace and in all‑out growth mode. They’re powerful; redefining categories, overtaking and acquiring traditional businesses and changing consumer behaviour along with it.

Our clients share three common yet exciting challenges that define everything we do as an agency:

• Consumer – customer acquisition is key to their success
• Company – they are highly ambitious and built lean
• Category – they are often out‑spent by their competitors, need to out‑maneuver the competition and are passionate about disrupting an established category

Department Purpose

Our Client Team provides strategic planning support and coordination across all media to guide clients along their growth journey. We are the “front of house” team that represent the TSW business for all clients. We think harder and work smarter, connecting what matters most both within and beyond traditional media.

We are always challenging ourselves to think “What’s Possible?” for the dynamic businesses we partner with.

We deliver best‑in‑class strategic recommendations and outstanding account management to facilitate our growth‑hungry clients to deliver and exceed their business goals, ensuring they always have the right resource at the right time from across the agency.

Role Overview

You will be directing the business of 3/4 agency clients, free from the shackles of network agency deals to lead best‑in‑class planning recommendations.

You’ll also be a leader of people, managing and developing other TSW’ers, like a guiding light; your attitude and positive behaviour will filter through the rest of the team. You’ll have a can‑do attitude and an infectious “What’s Possible” approach to delivering the best work our clients have seen. You’ll get the best work out of a willing team.

Requirements

• Establish yourself as the lead on your clients’ business, recognised by all as the spearhead for the accounts
• Accountable for owning and interrogating client briefs to produce the highest quality responses. You will be overseeing the planning process from briefing all the way through to campaign evaluation for consistency and future learning
• Effectively plan and communicate cross‑channel strategy / approach / planning for current and prospective clients – working closely with our Activation specialists regarding the effective implementation and delivery of campaigns
• Your experience across both Online and Offline channels will be evidence within this. Within Online, we expect the Client Director to understand Online channels and platforms in detail, as part of the wider media mix and the implications they have on account set‑up, measurement and ongoing optimisation
• Oversee the performance of your client’s campaigns and proactively identify areas for improvement and optimisations
• Understanding the Client’s business dynamics so we can deliver highly relevant responses to briefs
• Anticipating and resolving client challenges by quickly identifying opportunities and threats. Working closely with the senior team (Group Client Director and Managing Partner), you’ll keep them informed of these and know when they need to step in
• Providing guidance and training to your team, the wider client team and specialists with ongoing feedback to constantly improve our agency offering
• Be a pivotal part of new business pitch teams, coordinating and presenting responses

Key Deliverables

• Established strong relationships with your clients, so that both the client and internal specialist teams can identify your role in leading the day‑to‑day account
• Demonstrated expertise in diagnosing briefs and applying the planning process to deliver best‑in‑class recommendations across an integrated channel plan(s)
• Demonstrated solid understanding of the strategic purpose and benefits of channels, platforms and media types and lead the discussions and recommendations to clients with support from channel specialists
• Filtered this understanding across the broader account teams
• Shone understanding of market dynamics and how this can affect the role for communications
• Applied tools & system to client briefs to deliver insight and inspiration
• Presented responses to briefs & communicated to clients (written & oral) – providing confidence in the strategic direction and performance of campaigns
• Pulled insight from data and used it to develop ideas with the teamsKept things simple, no matter how complicated they are!
• Shown ability to tell a story, to take clients on a journey through your response to briefs
• Established yourself as a line manager and leader within the client team

What We’re Looking For

Technical requirements

• Detailed understanding of core planning principles and their application to campaigns (Brand and Performance)
• Detailed understanding of different KPIs by media channel and their relationship with both planning principals and business outcomes
• Strong knowledge of planning tools (TGI, Ad Intel, Touchpoints, etc) and measurement tools (Google Analytics, etc)
• Multi‑media planning expertise (Offline and Online channels)
• Strong knowledge of Online media platforms and associated technologies. Strong knowledge of the planning principles that impact deployment across them. We’re not looking for someone who will spend all day “in platform” – rather someone who has experience working with them, can deliver best in class planning across them, and ensure the delivery is always meeting expectations of the plan
• Awareness of the broader media and marketing ecosystem, online and offline, and how it can be connected, e.g. through search

Experience – Essential

• Media agency experience, with recent experience leading the planning of multi‑channel campaigns
• Plenty of experience translating a detailed understanding of key planning principles into media implementation for both offline and online channels
• Experience working on performance‑focused campaigns, delivering detailed reporting and analysis, alongside strategic measurement recommendations
• Extensive experience planning or buying online media campaigns (e.g. search, social, display)
• Strong client communication and management skills, including project management and conflict resolution – this role involves significant client interaction, so this is critical
• Management experience
• A track record of winning, growing and retaining clients in an agency or consultancy environment

Nice to Have

• Previous experience working hands‑on delivering performance campaigns
• Previous experience working hands‑on building and optimising campaigns in online media platforms (e.g. paid search, paid social)
• Experience of working with external agencies (Creative/BTL/PR)

Working Conditions

• A minimum of 3 days per week in the office, with expectation of working between both Kent and the London offices each week
• May require some travel to meet with clients or attend industry events on an ad‑hoc basis

Benefits

We provide an exciting, fast‑paced, people‑first environment that allows everyone to grow, learn and thrive.

We work a 9‑day fortnight, meaning staff have every other Friday off!

We’ve built a benefits package that invests in our employees’ long‑term personal and professional growth and wellbeing.

Our Values

• Passion: You share your excitement about what drives you
• Inquisitiveness: Ask “what’s possible?”. Ask “why not?”
• Caring: Be a good professional, a good colleague and a good human
• Knowledge: Know plenty. Share it. Learn more

And we live them every day #IamPICK

Social and Environmental Commitment

At What’s Possible Group, our mission is to build a group our people are proud of. Proud of what we deliver to clients. Proud of how we treat each other. Proud of our commitment to people, planet and profit.

Having rolled out a What’s Possible University with learning modules & policies, including anti‑bribery & corruption, DE&I and code of ethics, our people have continuous personal development, and the group is continuously improving.

We are dedicated to embedding social and environmental responsibility into every aspect of our business. You’ll contribute to initiatives that promote social equity, diversity, and inclusion within our workplace and in the content we create, whilst actively supporting and promoting sustainable best practice by continuously working to minimise waste (for example, water & cardboard recycling), prioritise eco‑friendly suppliers (for example, renewable energy switch), and promote remote work to reduce carbon emissions.

Your role will include supporting these efforts by helping to implement green office practices, coordinating initiatives that enhance our corporate social responsibility, and ensuring our operations align with our values of sustainability and social responsibility.

Sound good to you? Then get in touch.

At The What’s Possible Group our culture, our creativity and our passion are powered by people. People just like you. Diversity and difference drive innovation, not only for us but also for our clients and is at the heart of everything that we do.