Account Director

M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment NA; New York (NY); On-site; USD 100,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental & vision benefits

401(k) with company match

Wellness programs and PTO

Job summary

M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment NA is seeking an Account Director in New York to drive and execute communications strategies for high-profile clients. You will lead a team, mentor junior staff, manage client relationships, and ensure campaigns are delivered to the highest standard.

A strong understanding of global culture, trends, and earned media is essential. The role requires strategic thinking, excellent writing, and the ability to manage budgets and client expectations across campaigns

Qualifications

• 6–9 years of agency experience leading teams and driving communications strategy.
• Consumer PR generalist with experience across major CPG, spirits/beverage and lifestyle brands.
• Spanish language skills are a plus.

Responsibilities

• Be a dedicated, positive and enthusiastic team player and maintain strong working relationships.
• Lead all junior and mid-level staff, mentoring, nurturing and delegating as needed.
• Provide strong support for senior leadership, acting as a reliable, proactive, solution-oriented team member.
• Lead strategic development for client campaigns from inception to execution.
• Oversee KPI creation for campaigns and ensure targets are met.

Skills

Team leadership

Strategic communications

Media relations

Spanish (nice to have)

Job description

M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment is a full-service, earned-first agency operating across Consumer PR, Creator & Influencer, Partnership Marketing, Social, Experiential, Sport, and Entertainment. We bring a deep bench of experience in lifestyle, sport, entertainment, fashion, technology, and CPG — with ambitions to expand into many other categories. Our approach blends always-on brand communications with big creative campaigns, from strategy and ideation through design, production, execution, and social amplification. Our PR, marketing, and influencer specialists work seamlessly with our in-house studio to deliver content across every medium, from film and photography to print, experiential, and beyond.

About The Role

The Account Director role requires an individual who is driven by the challenge of driving and executing communications ideas and strategies alongside your team. You are organized and passionate about your work. You demonstrate the ability to craft strategic communications campaigns and deliver innovative solutions for clients. You produce work of the highest possible standard while motivating a team and keeping clients satisfied. A passion for global culture, current trends, social and earned media is essential. We are looking for an individual who is tuned in and plugged in – in their professional and personal lives. As an Account Director, you play a key role in the wider business and should have commercial awareness and an understanding of our business and objectives.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Be a dedicated, positive and enthusiastic team player and maintain strong working relationships
• Ensure all accounts are being run impeccably by respective teams
• Lead all junior and mid-level staff, mentoring, nurturing and delegating as needed
• Provide a strong support for senior leadership, serving as a reliable, proactive, solution-oriented and valuable member of the team

Additional Responsibilities

• Lead strategic development for all client campaigns, from inception to implementation and execution
• Demonstrate the ability to construct a clear, insightful and succinct strategy and brief to put your team members on the path to successful ideation
• Display a very high-level of writing proficiency – this extends from succinct communication via email through to the creative capabilities of a press release and client plans
• Assume full responsibility for all accounts, managing high-level discussions (i.e. strategy, budget, etc.) with clients as required
• Cultivate strong relationships with clients and all client partners, serving as the day-to-day client lead across the account
• Clearly display an ability to pre-empt and understand the way your core client/s think and strategize about their brands, enabling you to establish your leadership and problem-solving skills
• Ensure the foundational requirements of account management are being followed by your team. This includes correct usage of budget trackers, status reports, briefing documents and other structural documentation that ensures account work is seamless, efficient, and organized
• Lead the team in delegation of roles and next steps across all projects, overseeing timelines and ensuring all work is on track
• As part of that delegation, display an ability to connect 1-1 with your junior team members, maintaining motivation and helping them to better development as problem solvers and creative thinkers
• Stay abreast of all trends across culture, industry, and more, actively monitoring across all platforms and attending relevant industry events to reinvigorate the creative process and inform work
• Demonstrate the importance to your team of sharing critical trend and market information, ensuring to synthesize information and deliver it to the client in a way that clearly shows the opportunity/benefit for their business
• Provide exemplary client management, offering sound strategic, creative, and operational advice while demonstrating expert skill to build and maintain close client relationships
• Be responsible for KPI creation for campaigns and ensuring the team reaches them
• Oversee event management and execution, as well as talent negotiation, management and contracting
• Manage staff press trips and experiences/activations
• Develop and execute effective digital campaigns (within context of broader integrated campaigns)
• Manage all client budgets including monitoring and reconciliation and fee negotiation, including a clear and efficient understanding of internal finance processes (I.E the timely completion of POs, tracking expenditure etc)
• Showcase strong relationships with top-tier, high-level media and be able to leverage these to convert to impactful brand coverage
• Pitch and securing consumer press coverage, and compile key messaging, media Q&A, and briefing docs for client spokespeople.
• Work with top tier media to land news exclusives, and navigate challenging corporate communications situations including providing information on background and off-the-record.
• Play a broader role within the agency, seeking and developing new business opportunities
• Showcase an ability to ‘manage up’; working closely with SAD/VP/SVP team members to collaborate effectively on the overall management of the account and understanding what requires escalation to ensure progress
• Experience working within an IAT setting and collaborating with agency partners across the marketing mix
• Have a finger-on-the-pulse of internet culture, and willingness to learn about new social media sites and ways of communicating.

Experience Required

• 6-9 years of experience at an agency demonstrating leading and motivating a team and driving communications strategy, planning and execution
• The ideal candidate will be a consumer PR generalist who has experience across major CPG, sprit/beverage and lifestyle brands

Great to Have

• Creator marketing, sports, and music experience is a plus
• Fluency in Spanish is a plus

Compensation

We offer a competitive salary, a comprehensive employer subsidized benefits package which includes group medical, dental and vision coverage, Health Savings Account, 401k retirement plan with annual company match, employee wellness, commuter benefits and cellular phone allowance, generous paid time off and employee volunteer day to encourage social responsibility giving time to the non-profit, community service or charity of your choice. Salary is dependent on experience but ranges from: $100,000– $110,000. All candidates must have the ability to work in the US; we are unable to sponsor any work visas for this role.

ABOUT M+C SAATCHI GROUP

M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, NA as part of M+C Saatchi Group has pledged its commitment to create a company that values difference, with an inclusive culture. As part of this M+C Saatchi Group continues to be an Equal Opportunity Employer which does not and shall not discriminate, celebrates diversity and bases all hiring and promotion decisions solely on merit, without regard for any personal characteristics.

#S&ENA

M+C Saatchi Group was founded in 1995 and is now the biggest Independent creative agency group in the World. Founded on one core principle, Brutal Simplicity.