Group Account Director

Established in 2004, OLIVER is the world’s first and only specialist in designing, building, and running bespoke in-house agencies and marketing ecosystems for brands. We partner with over 300 clients in 40+ countries and counting. Our unique model drives creativity and efficiency, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions that resonate deeply with audiences.

As a part of The Brandtech Group, we're at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to revolutionise how we create and deliver work. Our AI solutions enhance efficiency, spark creativity, and drive insightful decision-making, empowering our teams to produce innovative and impactful results.

Role: Group Account Director

Location: Hybrid / Dublin (onsite client facing in the client's office 2-3 days per week)

ROLE MISSION

Working in partnership with our client, the Account Director will act as a business partner to clients. You will be accountable for the client relationship across a small portfolio of brands up to £1-2 million in value, that cover consumer and B2B brands. You will work with the clients to forward plan their activity, help them make smart and informed decisions about how to spend budgets, and act as their brand guardian for briefs. You will lead and oversee projects briefed into the OLIVER team. Working with project managers to deliver work on time and partnering with the creative and strategy leads to develop world-class effective work that answers the client’s brief. You will be comfortable working in close partnership and collaboration with the client. This role will need to be onsite with the client in their stunning central London office. At least three days a week to build influential relationships, although you will be flexible and go onsite when required. You will be working in a global team, based in different regions and should be comfortable managing time zones and enjoy working with different cultures.

ABOUT THE TEAM YOU WILL BE JOINING

Report to the Managing Partner, who will work closely with you on your career development.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING IN YOUR ROLE

Client services:

- Develop influential and intimate client relationships (from mid to senior level) built on a foundation of trust and manage these via a client engagement strategy.
- Be the brand guardian by safeguarding the brand within the team and ensuring consistent brand representation.
- Actively seek opportunities that help the client meet their goals. Not being afraid to challenge the client in a constructive manner and propose value-added solutions that come from the OLIVER teams. This includes advising clients on how to spend their budget smartly.
- Develop sales presentations that package up strategic, creative and production work from the OLIVER team, and successfully positions them for clients.
- Skilfully negotiate win-win solutions on behalf of team members when necessary.
- Diplomatically manage and resolve conflict on the account.
- Share thought leadership with the client that will help them hit their objectives or positively influence the client’s learning and growth.
- Ensure Service Level Agreements are upheld and serve as an escalation point when these processes are not followed (by the OLIVER and client team). Identify opportunities to improve service levels, and work with the OLIVER team to implement these.
- Demonstrate the value of our service to brands by reporting to brands how we are helping to achieve agreed objectives.
- Identify risk in client relationships and escalate this to the Managing Partner, with a proposed plan to solve it.

Processes:

- You will have high levels of operational knowledge of agency live.
- Ensure adherence to OLIVER and client processes and procedures.
- Take responsibility for training clients on OLIVER ways of working and help them see the benefit in them.
- Identify where processes can be optimised to deliver more efficiency and speed to the client or create a better environment for creative to thrive. Brief these into the operations team members.
- Lead project pipeline planning with clients and brief the project management and operations team of incoming requirements to ensure we are set up to deliver them.
- Lead weekly client status meetings to discuss upcoming project requirements, status on live projects and opportunities.
- Take accountability for the timely delivery of projects for your accounts and serve as the escalation point for project leads in case of delays.
- Partner with clients to ensure they provide quality briefs on time and brief them in via our proprietary workflow management system.
- Ensure that our teams are briefed on the client ambitions, strategy, brand, and project brief.
- Partner with the Regional Project Lead to triage new briefs successfully and within our Service Level Agreements.
- Collaborate with the creative and strategy teams to ensure all work we deliver is on brief and on brand. Use your intimate knowledge of the client to elevate the work.
- Collaborate with account leads in other markets to drive efficiencies in campaigns and asset re-use.
- Accountable for timely invoicing on your accounts.
- Monitor project progress and client satisfaction on projects and participate in the weekly account/project management work-in-progress (WIP) meetings.
- Identify projects that are at risk of unsuccessful delivery and escalate the issue to the Managing Partner and the Global Programme Director with your view on a solution. Work together to mitigate the risk.
- Promote and coach excellent servicing levels on projects.

Commercial growth:

- Be accountable for the delivery of growth on your account, meeting the commercial targets that are set.
- Identify organic growth opportunities that complement client objectives, establish a plan to convert them, successfully collaborate with OLIVER team members and systematically pursue them.
- Report on the commercial position of your accounts on a weekly basis.
- Support the Managing Partner with the development of account strategies and plans for your account.

Team development and inspiration:

- Drive learning in the team by actively sharing relevant knowledge.
- Encourage a collaborative, motivated and inclusive team environment whilst keeping client centricity at the core of the team culture and values.
- Influence and inspire the team to deliver projects to a high standard.
- Contribute to the team’s development by providing constructive feedback.
- Monitor the performance of the team on your account, and work with the Managing Partner and Global Programme Director to elevate it.

WHAT SKILLS WILL HELP YOU BE SUCCESSFUL

- Minimum 8 years’ experience in client servicing and account management in relevant roles.
- Proven experience driving organic growth. A proven track record in leading and growing accounts assigned, demonstrate hands-on management of a large & complex client and developing/winning new business within existing clients.
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage and prioritise multiple clients and projects.
- You need to always operate with confidence and gravitas.
- Experience working on demanding global brands. The ideal candidate will have experience in the alcoholic beverage industry.
- A motivation to work in the alcoholic beverages industry.
- You should be totally comfortable in leading teams in integrated communications creative development and execution. Especially social & digital channels. Have a good creative eye. Able to work to success with Creative Director and Planning teams.
- You will have established collaborative relationships in a cross-agency team, including with media. You have experience influencing the client’s agency eco system to the agency and client advantage. Whether that be to deliver great work, work more effectively or win more work.
- The ability and desire to thrive in a high growth environment, you are adaptable, and you embrace change.
- Knowledge and a passion for new technologies, with an eagerness to integrate them into your day-to-day work and solutions for clients.
- You will be able to demonstrate your ability to develop client relationships based on trust and helping them achieve their goals. We’re looking for advisors and business partners.
- A focus and passion on producing stand out creative work that is effective. You will be able to evidence how you’ve contributed and influenced the outcome of great, effective work, and the ideal candidate will have worked on award winning work. You will have the ability to sell in creative, working with creative and strategy teams.
- Commercial prowess and a hustler attitude. You will be able to demonstrate the ability to forecast, and that you always hit or exceed your target and explain the strategies and steps you took to do so.
- You should have proven people and management skills. Ability to identify and retain talent. Experience in managing for success multiple teams, skill sets & stakeholders.
- You will be responsible for the guidance and development of your account so it is essential you are a great communicator, able to inspire your team and spot potential.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence client and agency stakeholders with your presentation skills.
- You will have buckets of initiative and be solution focused. You will know how to work autonomously and know when to bring in the right stakeholders and skillset to deliver the client and/or agency goals.
- The ability to manage a client’s annual budget and help them make smart decisions about where and how to spend to get the best return.
- Conflict resolution and negotiation skills. You can always mediate towards a successful solution.

ABOUT OUR COMPANY

Lots of agencies say they're different. OLIVER is.

OLIVER believes that agencies work better inside a brand's organisation; delivering more effective work at the speed required to drive modern businesses forward. Using our unique Inside Intelligence methodology, we build specialist, dedicated in-house agencies that collaborate with clients to form better marketing solutions.

Established in 2004, our model is now driven by over 4000 people, working across more than 200 in-house agencies globally. Clients include The Guardian, Unilever, Barclaycard, PepsiCo, AXA, The AA, Adidas, BMW, Post Office, and 3M. OLIVER is part of the Inside Ideas Group (IIG), which also includes a global content agency to Adjust your Set, design, experience, and engineering company DARE and property marketing specialists Aylesworth Fleming.

OUR VALUES

We are a company built on our values, we have given you a brief overview below but would love to tell you more.

Be Imaginative to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Be always learning and listening to understand.

Be actively pro-inclusive and anti-racist across our community, clients and creations.

OLIVER, a part of the Brandtech Group, is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive working environment where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential, and individual differences are valued and respected. All applicants shall be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by local laws.

OLIVER has set ambitious environmental goals around sustainability, with science-based emissions reduction targets. Collectively, we work towards our mission, embedding sustainability into every department and through every stage of the project lifecycle.

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