An Account Director serves as a brand champion on more than one account. Primary job functions are to supervise the management of account groups, providing strategic support, leadership and guidance to their groups and building business within current accounts. This involves mastering seven core competencies.
Marketing Savvy/Strategic Thinking
- Possesses an intimate knowledge of the category markets to which their brands belongs
- Thoroughly understands the brands, their strategic/relevant histories, and performance
- Develops or contributes to development of copy strategy/positioning
- Actively participates in strategic development and ensures that communications plans have alignment between issues, strategies and programming
- Identifies meaningful market research needs to support strategic decisions and guides its development
- Appropriately interprets market research data
- Provides clients with strategic insight
- Appropriately utilizes agency strategic tools
- Analyzes and extracts pertinent findings/issues from all available marketing data
- Understands the objectives and outcomes of common market research methodologies
- Supervises development of in-depth competitive analyses
- Knows market trends and emerging new drugs in the category
Brand Championing
- Ensure that all agency efforts and creative campaigns are in the best interest of building the brand
- Thoroughly understands the brand positioning and the long-term brand vision
- Challenges strategies, client direction, market research results, programs or ideas that are not aligned with the brand positioning or long-term vision
- Ensures all strategies, creative, and tactics developed support the brand positioning
- Continually seeks brand building opportunities/ways to overcome obstacles
- Demonstrates passion for the brand and commitment to maximizing its success
- Celebrates brand achievements with the team
Creative/Branding
- Leads creative and account teams in the development of breakthrough creative
- Ensures high quality agency output, reflective of consistently superior creative product
- Contributes to the development of the creative product/campaign
- Constructively reviews creative to enhance its impact on building the brand
- Recognizes world-class creative and sells it persuasively
- Ensures client creative comments are properly interpreted (and challenged if necessary)
- Understands the agency brand process and fosters/contributes to brand building among account groups
- Champions the creative product
Client Relations
- Develops and maintains harmonious client relations with all levels of client management as appropriate
- Identifies new ways/solutions to strengthen relationships
- Identifies and resolves client conflicts quickly and efficiently
- Continuously networks with clients and potential clients
- Provides proactive written recommendations to client a regular basis
- Effectively represents agency POV to clients
- Ensures client is kept up-to-date on competitive activity
- Identifies and cultivates new business opportunities for agency and its divisions
Management/Leadership
- Supervises the management of each account
- Understands client forecast/budget issues
- Is a mentor to the individuals in the account group
- Identifies and helps resolve people/departmental conflicts with practical solutions
- Identifies and proposes developmental plans for account team members
- Keeps management informed of client activity/issues/opportunities
- Promotes and contributes to agency culture and environment
Financial Acumen
- Provides accurate and realistic forecasts for the group
- Routinely monitors financial performance of accounts to maximize income generation
- Understands income sources and client compensation structures for group
- Assists with fee negotiations and ensures routine monitoring for accuracy and adjustments
- Review contracts/billing structure periodically to update or revise as needed
- Ensures financial control of all client work (estimates, jobs, fees, billing) throughout group
Fundamentals
- Continually maintains/strengthens understanding of brands and businesses
- Strong industry knowledge and advertising acumen
- Generates results through effective written and oral communications
- Good Supervisory skills
- Excellent interpersonal and listening skills
- Exercises good judgment
- Manages time effectively
- Demonstrates solid, professional work ethic
- Plays an active role in agency recruitment
- Demonstrates passion for the brand and creative product
