Account Director - Havas Play UK
Reports To: Business Director
Role Summary: The Account Director (AD) role sits within the Client Services/Activation Team at Havas Play, delivering multi‑channel campaigns. An integrated role spanning partnerships, rights management and activation/events, with an understanding of social and comms. Account Director on HSBC, leading partnership‑led campaigns across Culture, Community and Financial Education.
Key Responsibilities
Multiple Account Management
* Ability to oversee multiple accounts and increased workloads through proof of delegation (both upwards and downwards) of other tasks and responsibilities.
* Work across multiple clients and projects at one time whilst maintaining a high work standard, remaining calm and displaying a positive attitude under pressure, and successfully delegating to keep work manageable.
* Proactively drive projects forward, bringing in wider agency expertise & personnel; ensure all steps & stakeholders are factored into project timelines.
* Connect teams within the business to deliver on client work.
* Support managing the capacity of the account teams, keeping work to scope and having a handle on any over or under delivery.
Writing and Presentation Skills
* Strong creative and corporate writing skills for external documents such as client proposals and reports, and internal documents such as toolkits and case studies.
* Adapt communications based on the needs of clients & team.
* Communicate clearly and concisely in client‑facing comms and when briefing suppliers and the internal team.
* Attention to detail, ensuring all written work meets a high standard of quality.
* Demonstrate confidence in talking clients through a document or pitching an idea, outlining the process taken to answer the brief.
* Instill confidence by showcasing understanding of the client’s brand/business when selling the idea to them.
* Review and reinforce a high standard of comms and presentation amongst the teams going out to clients and businesses.
Approach, Initiative & Problem Solving
* Be positive, proactive and solutions‑driven – always think one step ahead.
* Fully accountable for day‑to‑day operations while empowering the team (particularly AM, SAM) to be in control and accountable themselves.
* Stay close to day‑to‑day work coming and going of the accounts, anticipating potential problems and issues.
* Always think ahead – leave enough time for planning, scope and budgets to be created before work begins.
Relationships
* Strong working relationship with clients; be seen as a trusted counsel and an active listener to understand their world.
* Comfortable and confident challenging & pressing the agency view, always with a solution‑based mindset.
* Approachable and accessible to every team member.
* Work fluidly with different departments such as strategy, insights and creative, following their processes.
* Manage line reports while staying close to their development, ambitions and objectives.
* Set the standard for the team to learn and develop from.
Strategic Skills & Answering Briefs
* Champion the agency’s processes – have a strong POV on interrogating and answering a brief creatively, and how to position and articulate ideas to the client.
* Confident in the brief process from interrogation, through insight, strategy and creative briefing, delegating to your team and drawing on other business team leads where necessary.
* Demonstrate clear strategic thinking in day‑to‑day work across accounts, framing the client’s campaign against their business objectives.
* Understand how to structure a brief response.
Campaign Execution & Administration
* Oversee all plans and activations, including rights activation, live events, content generation, influencer engagement and coordinating suppliers.
* Understand time to execute projects; write scopes and negotiate with client where necessary (with BD/MP support).
* Ensure the right team is in place, with appropriate capacity and skillset.
* Align the team on objectives for the client and for the agency.
* Maintain team motivation, ensuring no one is overwhelmed or falling behind on deliverables.
* Oversee the AM/SAM administrative processes (status reports, campaign reporting, budget trackers) and ensure they are updated and delivered on time.
Client Services & Industry Knowledge
* Understand the client’s business to advise, challenge and upsell effectively.
* Stay abreast of new industry innovations to contribute in brainstorms and be proactive about new ideas for current or prospective clients.
Growth – Organic & New Business
* Identify ways to grow clients organically, capitalising on moments and taking initiative, aiming to drive 10% YOY organic growth on client accounts.
* Instrumental in delivering agency RFPs and pitches outside of D2D client accounts, understanding briefs, galvanising teams and delivering on time.
* Nurture industry contacts to bring in new opportunities for the business.
People Management
* Manage day‑to‑day team running; keep all members up‑to‑date with account work and arrange regular internal status meetings and check‑ins.
* Continuously assess teams and distribute work.
* Line manage one AM initially.
Time Management
* Good logical planning, strong communication and the ability to manage expectations internally and externally.
* Efficient time management: ensure team delivering on time, stay conscientious with deadlines and anticipate pinch points that may affect capacity and workloads.
Process Management
* Lead and champion internal agency processes, adept with Monday.com to track and manage scopes, workflow and revenue.
* Create scopes, load them into Monday.com, update as needed, track and report utilisation based on scoped hours.
* Track and report on time, creating reconciliation reports for Management and Clients.
* Understand agency Creative & Studio resourcing processes, ensuring teams adhere to them.
Finance
* Competent with finance processes; monitor team setting up new job numbers, processing POs and invoices efficiently.
* Understand driving client account profitability, scoping and negotiating fees for projects and feasibility.
Seniority level: Director
Employment type: Full‑time
Job function: Advertising and Other
Industries: Advertising Services
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