Client Lead

Publicis Groupe Africa Pty Ltd; Durban; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Starcom Africa in Durban seeks a seasoned Client Partner to lead key client relationships, shape the business context, and protect revenue while aligning cross‑functional teams. You will ensure every media assignment starts with a clear business problem, growth ambition, JTBD and success definitions.

Reporting to the Client Partner with a dotted line to Head of Media, you will translate client needs into briefs, manage scope and fees, monitor budgets and timelines, escalate risks, and drive

Qualifications

• 7-10 years with strong client leadership and integrated campaign exposure.
• Ability to translate client needs into briefs and success metrics.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the client relationship and senior client confidence.
• Understand client business, category and growth ambitions.
• Translate needs into clear briefs and JTBD concepts.
• Ensure all assignments have defined success criteria.
• Manage scope, fees and revenue within compliance.
• Align internal teams around the brief and drive delivery.

Skills

Client leadership

Integrated campaign exposure

Business understanding

Briefing discipline

Commercial awareness

Stakeholder management

Communication

Escalation management

Job description

Company Description

We are the Human Experience Agency. We believe the growth opportunity lies in people. We understand and anticipate human desires to deliver media experiences of value. We call this PeoplePoweredGrowth! Focusing on both business outcomes and human outcomes is proven to deliver stronger growth for clients. PeoplePoweredGrowth identifies the intersection between what people want and what brands need, to create media experiences of value. PeoplePoweredGrowth orchestrates the right talent and capability to solve for clients’ unique business challenges through interconnected capability. PeoplePoweredGrowth embodies a way of thinking, working, and learning; challenging the status quo and always reaching for a better. It is a culture of never standing still. Starcom is a full service, global media agency with a presence in multiple markets around the world. We believe in the power of our network and work closely with our global colleagues to ensure that we are providing our clients with global best practice, localized for the South African market. Our clients include Mondelez, Haleon (GSK), Samsung, Stellantis, Sandoz, Kellogg’s to name a few. We are part of the Publicis network - the fastest growing global network.

Company Description

We are the Human Experience Agency. We believe the growth opportunity lies in people. We understand and anticipate human desires to deliver media experiences of value. We call this PeoplePoweredGrowth! Focusing on both business outcomes and human outcomes is proven to deliver stronger growth for clients. PeoplePoweredGrowth identifies the intersection between what people want and what brands need, to create media experiences of value. PeoplePoweredGrowth orchestrates the right talent and capability to solve for clients’ unique business challenges through interconnected capability. PeoplePoweredGrowth embodies a way of thinking, working, and learning; challenging the status quo and always reaching for a better. It is a culture of never standing still. Starcom is a full service, global media agency with a presence in multiple markets around the world. We believe in the power of our network and work closely with our global colleagues to ensure that we are providing our clients with global best practice, localized for the South African market. Our clients include Mondelez, Haleon (GSK), Samsung, Stellantis, Sandoz, Kellogg’s to name a few. We are part of the Publicis network - the fastest growing global network.

Overview

Reports to

Client Partner

Dotted line

Head of Media

Role purpose

Owns the client relationship, business context, commercial priorities, scope, revenue protection and senior stakeholder alignment. Ensures every media assignment starts with a clear business problem, growth ambition, JTBD and success definition - so the agency responds to the client’s business challenge, not only a media brief.

Responsibilities

Scope of role

• Client business understanding
• Stakeholder management
• Business brief quality
• Scope & fee protection
• Commercial risk escalation
• Internal team alignment
• Client-facing narrative
• Returning learnings into the next brief

Core Accountabilities

• Own the client relationship and senior client confidence.
• Understand the client’s business, category, competitors and growth ambition.
• Translate client needs into a clear business brief and JTBD.
• Ensure all assignments have success criteria before strategy and planning begin.
• Confirm budget, timelines, stakeholders, approvals and commercial constraints.
• Align internal teams around the same brief.
• Protect agency scope, fees and revenue.
• Escalate client-facing delivery, billing or commercial risks.
• Ensure PCA learnings influence future briefs.

Mandatory artifacts owned

• Business Brief

Defines the business problem, objective, market context and required response.

JTBD Definition

• Defines the job media must do for the brand or business.
• Success Definition Confirms business, brand, media and commercial KPIs.
• Stakeholder Alignment Note Confirms decision-makers, approvers and timelines.
• Scope & Fee Check Confirms whether work is covered by scope or needs additional fee.
• Client Escalation Note Used when material delivery, billing or commercial risks need client discussion.
• Next Brief Input Ensures PCA learnings feed the next campaign brief.

Decision rights

• Is the brief complete enough to begin strategy In scope or additional fee
• Whether client escalation is required
• Whether the response answers the business problem
• Whether PCA needs formal client discussion

Qualifications

• 7-10 years with strong client leadership and integrated campaign exposure.
• Manage senior client relationships.
• Business understanding Grasp commercial, category and brand challenges.
• Briefing discipline Convert client needs into clear briefs.
• Commercial awareness Manage scope, fee, risk and revenue.
• Stakeholder management Align client, agency and partner teams.
• Communication Present clearly and influence decision-makers.
• Escalation management Handle sensitive delivery or billing issues

Additional Information

How performance is measured

• Brief quality

Percentage of briefs accepted without major rework.

• Client satisfaction

Relationship health and senior stakeholder confidence.

• Scope control

Reduction in unscoped work and fee leakage.

• Revenue protection

Retention, growth and commercial risk management.

• Approval discipline

On-time client approvals.

• PCA adoption

Evidence learnings are used in future briefs.