Account Director

Agency:
BBDO

Job Function:
Account Management and Growth

Job Subfunction:
Account Management

Job Description:
The Role

The successful Account Director (AD) at BBDO New York is responsible for leading the business of marketing for assigned clients, bringing together the agency's capabilities across creative, strategy, performance, content, social, PR, media, experience, and technology.

The AD is a senior day-to-day client partner who understands the client's business objectives, marketing priorities, and competitive environment and translates them into clear direction for integrated agency teams. They are responsible for the quality of the agency's work, strength of the client relationship, operational and financial health of the business, and development of the account team.

The AD works closely with senior account leadership while independently leading significant areas of the client business. They anticipate needs, identify opportunities, solve problems, and ensure the right agency resources are engaged at the right time.

In sum, the standard of performance for the AD is excellence in client leadership, strategic thinking, creative stewardship, integrated execution, financial management, and team leadership.

Key Activities

• Lead the day-to-day business and marketing relationship across assigned client workstreams.
• Develop a deep understanding of the client's business, objectives, category, audience, and competitive environment.
• Orchestrate integrated agency capabilities across creative, strategy, performance, content, social, PR, media, experience, technology, and production.
• Own the quality and integrity of the agency's creative product across assigned business.
• Contribute to and, where appropriate, lead strategic discussions with clients and internal teams.
• Maintain a clear view of upcoming client priorities, projects, risks, and opportunities.
• Lead integrated teams through the development and delivery of complex marketing initiatives.
• Evaluate campaign performance and translate results into recommendations for optimization and future work.
• Manage the financial health and profitability of assigned client business.
• Lead, develop, and strengthen the account management team.

Responsibilities

Client & Business Leadership

• Serve as a senior day-to-day client partner and build trusted relationships with key client stakeholders.
• Develop fluency in the client's business objectives, marketing priorities, organizational dynamics, and competitive challenges.
• Help clients solve complex marketing challenges by connecting business needs to the appropriate agency capabilities.
• Provide proactive counsel and bring forward ideas and opportunities beyond immediate assignments.
• Maintain a clear view of the client's business horizon and anticipate upcoming needs, projects, challenges, and opportunities.
• Build collaborative relationships with client partner agencies, including media, PR, social, and other external partners.
• Lead client meetings and presentations with confidence and influence.
• Know when to elevate significant business, strategic, relationship, or delivery issues to senior account leadership.

Creative & Strategic Leadership

• Own the orchestration and overall quality of how agency ideas come to life across channels and in culture.
• Partner closely with Creative and Strategy to ensure work is grounded in strong strategic thinking and delivers against client objectives.
• Contribute to and, when appropriate, lead strategic discussions and recommendations with clients.
• Develop clear points of view that help clients move beyond one-off campaigns toward ideas and platforms that build the brand over time.
• Evaluate creative work against the brief, business objectives, and brand strategy before it reaches the client.
• Provide clear, actionable client and business direction to creative and strategic teams.
• Partner with Connections and Strategy teams to develop holistic consumer journey and communications plans.
• Evaluate campaign performance and use insights and results to inform optimization and future recommendations.

Integrated Account Leadership

• Bring together the right agency capabilities and talent to develop strategically strong, integrated marketing initiatives.
• Lead teams across multiple disciplines and ensure all partners understand the client objectives, strategic direction, deliverables, and expectations.
• Maintain operational excellence across projects and workstreams within the assigned business.
• Partner closely with Project Management and discipline leads to ensure work progresses according to agreed timelines, budgets, and client expectations.
• Identify potential risks to strategic integrity, creative quality, timing, scope, or delivery and address them proactively.
• Create clear communication and accountability across internal teams, clients, and external agency partners.
• Ensure teams remain focused on both immediate deliverables and the broader client business.

Financial & Commercial Management

• Own the financial health of assigned client business and ensure work is managed profitably.
• Demonstrate strong understanding of scopes of work, staffing plans, project estimates, production budgets, billing, and financial reporting.
• Partner with Project Management, Finance, and senior account leadership to manage resources effectively.
• Identify scope changes, budget pressures, or resource needs early and address them with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Ensure teams understand the scope and financial parameters of the work they are delivering.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships and bring additional agency capabilities forward where appropriate.

Team Leadership

• Lead and manage the account team across assigned business.
• Manage, coach, and develop Management Supervisors and other account team members.
• Establish clear expectations, responsibilities, and accountability across the team.
• Provide ongoing feedback, training, and development to strengthen account management capabilities.
• Create a clear vision for the team and ensure individuals understand how their work contributes to broader client and agency objectives.
• Partner with senior leadership on staffing, hiring, retention, and team structure.

What Sets You Apart

• Storyteller: You understand how to tell a story, possess exceptional presentation skills, and have the ability to influence outcomes.
• Builder Mindset: For both BBDO and our clients, we're building and improving new processes as we go. We need someone who will be proactive in identifying paths to be better.
• Collaborative: BBDO and our clients are team-oriented. Bringing out the best ideas requires everyone to work together.
• Patient Teacher: Whether encouraging and educating our internal teams or leading our clients.
• Curious and Independent Learner: While this role requires marketing expertise, we expect everyone to seek ongoing learning in new methodologies, brand strategy, and platforms.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of relevant advertising, marketing, or integrated communications experience.
• Significant account management experience leading complex client business within an agency environment.
• Demonstrated ability to build strong relationships with senior client stakeholders.
• Strong strategic marketing instincts and a solutions-oriented approach to client and business challenges.
• Experience leading integrated marketing programs across multiple disciplines and channels.
• Strong understanding of scope development, financial management, project setup, staffing, and profitability.
• Thorough understanding of production management and the development and implementation of scopes with creative and production teams.
• Proven ability to lead, manage, and develop account teams.
• Excellent presentation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to lead multiple priorities and workstreams simultaneously.

The Office Requirements

BBDO has adopted a hybrid working environment. Employees are required to be in the office Tuesday through Thursday and work from home Monday and Friday.

$150,000

Omnicom's policy requires employees to work in the office for a minimum of three days a week, unless additional in-office days are directed by their agency or manager. Our objective is to increase this requirement over time, and many of our agencies as well as Omnicom's corporate group already require five days of in-office attendance.

Omnicom is committed to hiring and developing exceptional talent. We agree that talent is uniquely distributed, and we're focused on developing inclusive teams that can bring the best solutions to everything we do. We strongly believe that celebrating what makes us different makes us better together. Join us-we look forward to getting to know you. We will process your personal data in accordance with our Recruitment Privacy Notice.

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