Account Directors at BBDO New York are brilliant brand and business leaders who can inspire their teams and clients to create powerful, brand-building ideas. The Account Director (AD) is to be seen as the leader of the account by all members of both the client and agency teams. The AD should be the hub for all activities, the source of knowledge, help, insight, passion, inspiration, collaboration and direction about a specific client engagement for all agency departments, individuals and the client.
The AD should have complete mastery of her/his client business, the challenges they face and the goals they (and we) are being measured against. Core to being a strong Account Director is being able to lead the integrated team in developing compelling work and helping to sell “4 5 6 work” to the client. The AD is responsible for marshaling, integrating and inspiring the client and other members of their integrated marketing team and partner agencies. This person will provide them with the assets (with assistance from other team members), insights and information so that their work can consistently support, deliver and integrate the overall communications strategies and in-market initiatives. This includes integration from both a conceptual, strategic and implementation perspective.
Also, the AD plays an important role in mentoring and inspiring his/her agency team. Mentoring means providing advice and counsel, direction and supervision, problem-solving and quality standards as well as opportunities for growth that allow their team members to stretch, be courageous and even make mistakes.
The Account Director reports into an executive-level account leader (Group Account Director)
Scope of Responsibility:
- Responsible for the overall service, delivery and profitability of the assigned account.
- Builds and maintains strong trusted relationship with the client as a business partner.
- Ambassador of the BBDO NY Brand to the client.
- Inspires, motivates, and directs the integrated team to optimize value contribution, and to ensure excellence in delivery.
Critical Skill Sets to Demonstrate:
Communication:
- Demonstrates ability to craft a high-level persuasive POV incorporating business insights, data, and critical analysis of the client’s business and its growth path.
- Possesses communication delivery competency at the CMO level.
- Demonstrates ability to direct and redirect conversation and questions confidently with clients.
Business Acumen:
- Understands the marketing echo system and identifies strategic, creative and media implications.
- Sets specific program objectives and KPIs from knowledge of the brand’s truth and business realities.
- Has deep knowledge of the category and leads development of business strategy to enhance brand’s performance.
- Filters and deciphers client feedback for internal team to help refine ideas better.
- Asks the right questions both internally and externally to make great work.
- Is comfortable with data and is able to tell a story in a number of ways.
Leadership:
- Acts as a daily catalyst to energize the internal teams and motivate the team through challenges and obstacles should they arise.
- Acknowledges successes and recognizes the value of each discipline.
- Understands the dynamics of the agency and how to garner the best outcomes from a diverse group of people.
- Possesses the ability to resolve internal conflicts while respecting emotions.
- Establishes the clear expectations for the direct reporting team and manages each individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Develops growth plans, monitors progress and provides timely feedback.
Creative Advocacy:
- Takes an active role in actively nurturing the development of great creative ideas.
- Guides development of the best strategy in partnership with Strategy and Creative teams.
- Understands the importance of pre-conditioning the clients with information that will open the door for strategy and creativity and know how to protect the big idea once sold.
Operational Excellence:
- Must be able to pull together the right people to solve the problem.
- Understands how profitability starts at the scoping process and discusses all subject matter experts’ recommendations.
- Be able to persuasively set client timeline expectations by understanding the resource capacity at hand. Don’t overpromise and under-deliver.
- Has the ability to negotiate and persuade the client of their own priorities in order to protect the operational strength of the integrated team.
- Constantly monitors burn reports and financials to maintain balance of output to burn rate.
The Office Requirements:
- BBDO has adopted a hybrid working environment. It is required for employees to be in office Tuesday-Thursday and can work from home Monday and Friday.