Account Director

FREEMAN; Virginia; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

FREEMAN is seeking an Account Director to serve as the primary day-to-day contact for clients, providing leadership and strategic guidance to ensure profitability and campaign success.

The role supports our Client Services group under the Sales team and offers a hybrid work schedule requiring in-office/show-site presence 2–3 days per week. Location options include Alexandria, VA, Chicago, IL, and San Diego, CA.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 3 years of marketing experience required.
• 5+ years marketing experience strongly preferred. Master’s degree in related field may be used in lieu of one year of required experience.
• Marketing agency, B2B event and/or association experience preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in related field (marketing, public relations, communications, psychology or general business) preferred.

Responsibilities

• Act as primary liaison between agency and client. Manage accounts autonomously and proactively address client needs.
• Lead strategic marketing meetings and client presentations.
• Lead all other client meetings.
• Draft recommended scopes of work and budgets for account strategist approval before going to the client.
• Attend client events and perform research, press management, social media posting, photo/video art direction, etc. as needed.
• Collaborate with account and creative teams, as well as specialists, to execute results-driven campaigns.
• Develop campaign performance benchmarking/tracking.
• Monitor campaigns to ensure processes followed and deliverables are on time and within budget.

Skills

Marketing experience

Client management

Strategic planning

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in marketing

Master's degree (related field)

Job description

About Us

For five decades, mdg has been a leader in the association and event marketing space. And while we've been leading, we've also been learning - learning what motivates audiences now, how to build loyalty and which performance tools actually impact registration numbers. We don't copy and paste strategies or use technology for show. We dig deep into your unique situation and apply what makes sense, instead of what's expected.

Summary

The Account Director serves as the primary day-to-day contact for his/her clients. More than a project manager, this position is responsible for providing leadership and strategic guidance as well as ensuring the profitability and success of multiple clients' campaigns. The Marketing director is responsible for the development and execution of highly creative and effective marketing solutions for the client. This person will work with his/her Account Director and agency specialists to ensure that the clients' needs are met by monitoring and guiding his/her internal team's activities and by maintaining proactive, direct contact with his/her clients. The Account Director will work closely with the account strategist to inform the client's strategic marketing direction and ensure the campaign's success.

This position will support our Client Services group under our Sales team. It is eligible to work a hybrid schedule, generally requiring work in-office and/or show-site 2-3 days per week. The ideal candidate will be based out of any of the following locations:

• Alexandria, VA
• Chicago, IL
• San Diego, CA

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Act as primary liaison between agency and client. Manage accounts autonomously and proactively address client needs.
• Participate in initial campaign kick-off meeting with new client.
• Lead strategic marketing meetings and client presentations.
• Lead all other client meetings.
• Draft recommended scopes of work and budgets for account strategist approval before going to the client.
• Attend client events and perform research, press management, social media posting, photo/video art direction, etc. as needed.
• Collaborate with account and creative teams, as well as specialists, to execute results- driven campaigns.
• Conduct primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative research and work with account strategist to create strategic analyses and develop personas as well as strategic and tactical plans.
• Lead creative team in brand identity, concept and message platform development.
• Participate in new campaign on-boarding process.
• Participate in internal campaign kick-off meetings and set internal account team roles/expectations.
• Lead the initial creation and weekly updates of the production schedule as well as lead the implementation of campaign tactics and timelines.
• Provide client and account strategist with weekly update emails including status of jobs in progress, updated production schedule and performance stats (as necessary).
• Write project briefs and lead project kick-off meetings.
• Review all internal and client proofs to ensure brand and messaging consistency throughout campaign deliverables and evaluate copy and design to ensure they're strategically on track.
• Develop campaign performance benchmarking/tracking.
• Monitor campaigns to ensure all mdg processes and procedures are followed by account team and all deliverables are high-quality, on target, consistent, develop the campaign concept and are delivered on time and within budget.
• Monitor and report overall campaign performance (external) to ensure client goals are achieved and make recommendations to account strategist for any course corrections.
• Monitor and report overall budget/billing reconciliation and resource allocation (internal) and make recommendations to account strategist for any course corrections.
• Approve project estimates in WMJ.
• Create and submit invoices and POs.
• Open new projects and close completed projects in WMJ.
• Provide weekly client reports to the circle leaders except for the first Friday of each month, send to ownership (with a cc to the circle leaders).
• May manage direct reports and participate in the hiring process.
• Mentor junior account team members.

Education & Experience

• Minimum of 3 years of marketing experience required.
• 5+ years marketing experience strongly preferred. Master's degree in related field (business or marketing) may be used in lieu of one year of required experience.
• Marketing agency, B2B event and/or association experience preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in related field (in marketing, public relations, communications, psychology or general business) preferred.

Travel up to 25%

What We Offer

The Freeman Company provides benefits that aim to empower our people and their families to thrive mentally, physically, and fina