Client Director

We’re looking for an ambitious and proven Client Director to help us take our UK business from strength to strength.

A bit about us and the role

We’re one of the world’s leading verbal branding and copywriting agencies, with offices in London, New York and (our newest) Singapore. We work for a huge range of well-known clients (think Google, Premier League, Dunelm and Bang & Olufsen), as well as partnering with top-class design agencies (including Design Bridge, Nomad, Snask, and Wolff Olins) on everything from naming to strategy, campaigns and voice.

Unlike many creative agencies, we rely almost entirely on our own, full-time team (we hardly ever use freelancers), and our writers have traditionally handled most of their own project management.

But this needs to change. Our projects are getting bigger, more complex and more exciting. The clients are often globally famous brands, with high expectations. Our brilliant writers and Creative Directors are spending too much time scoping projects, planning them out, and writing proposals – when they should be delivering the outstanding creative work that’s made our name. They’re also short of time to develop client relationships and maximise new opportunities.

That’s why we need you: a highly experienced Client Director or Account Director, with proven experience in a creative agency. We need you to support our Creative Directors in winning, scoping, planning and managing bigger projects, as well as building relationships (and business) with high-potential clients.

Your primary focus will be on three core areas:

1. Client service & project management

We are known for our exceptional work and for being delightful to work with. We consistently rate 9.5/10 or above in client satisfaction surveys across all areas of our business. But we’re feeling the strain of our success.

As the agency grows, and our projects expand in scale and complexity, we need someone we can trust to deliver clockwork-smooth, super-efficient and positive client service at the highest level.

This will mean taking the lead on bigger projects, demonstrating a deep strategic understanding of how to deliver a client’s objectives (as well as unpicking what their objectives truly are), and forensic attention to detail on all aspects of the project.

You’ll be the key day-to-day point of contact for all major clients. Clients should love and trust you. This is about building rapport, demonstrating insight, building respect, and exceptional project delivery.

You’ll lead briefing/scoping meetings, and work closely with the creative team to develop strategic recommendations/proposals in response to client requests. This means always looking for ways to solve the client’s problem (which isn’t always what they think it is), and suggesting different approaches.

Our clients sometimes have complex multi-channel, multi-audience, multi- product strategies, and multiple deliverables. So you’ll ideally have experience of managing similarly complex verbal branding/strategy projects.

You’ll then create formal proposals, scopes of work, fee proposals and timeplans with support from the Creative Directors and the wider team.

Once a project is underway, you’ll make sure all clients and stakeholders get the high level of service they have come to expect from us. From first contact to final sign-off, and beyond. You’ll create the space for our writers to deliver outstanding work, while making sure we meet all time, deliverables and financial targets, and keeping the client happy, informed and engaged throughout.

You may also lead and/or input into client presentations and meetings, including new business meetings, development workshops and creative presentations – (the latter usually led by a senior creative).

You’ll negotiate and resolve any issues clients have with our work or processes.

Where we have service level agreements and NDAs, you’ll make sure we stick to agreed protocols and meet all our responsibilities.

2. Client relationships and business development

We have big ambitions to grow in the UK – and internationally. Right now we’re working with some of the biggest brands in the world, but we’re conscious we may be missing opportunities to develop more projects and strategic alliances with them.

Currently our Creative Directors manage and develop their own portfolios of existing clients (supported by our Business Development manager), but they don’t have the bandwidth to maximise these opportunities. So we’ll need you to:

Build relationships and rapport with our key clients – demonstrating insight, suggesting ideas and building respect. Make sure they know the full scope of what we offer, to make sure they think of us for other projects and recommend us to colleagues.

Create, manage and deliver a strategic action plan to develop our highest potential clients. Look for opportunities to grow and deepen our relationships with key clients using a range of tools.

Our Creative Directors and Business Development Manager are already working on this area, but lack of capacity means this often gets dropped. We need a more robust, strategic and consistent process. Our Business Development Manager will continue to focus on cold new business and other smaller leads, but you’ll have plenty of opportunities to share ideas, collaborate

Follow up on projects, and manage regular client reviews and check-ins - always looking out for new opportunities.

3. Leading and developing RFPs and pitches

We rarely pitch – and if we do, it’s usually because another agency has invited us to collaborate. But we may be missing a trick here. So we’ll look to you to:

Take the lead if we’re invited to pitch – pulling together the costings and team, and leading the development of the pitch with the creatives

Work with our Business Development Manager to seek out appropriate tenders/RFPs from the business press, online portals, etc

Lead the team to pull together the materials and presentations to convert opportunities

All about you

We’re a happy, kind, tight-knit team. So we need someone who fits naturally into the group and shares our values. That way you’ll be happy, and so will we!

As you can see, we need someone with a strong strategic understanding of the branding world, and specifically verbal branding. You need a proven record of delivering complex projects and developing client relationships and business.

We need someone upbeat, organised, professional, collaborative and proactive. Someone with a can-do attitude and a strategic mindset, who is also happy to roll up their sleeves and get things done. You’ll be experienced in building strong relationships – with clients and internal teams alike, with a proven talent for managing many moving parts.

Also, as a world-class writing agency, we stand or fall by our words. We don’t expect you to be a copywriter, but you will need exceptional written and verbal communication skills. Attention to detail is non-negotiable.

In return we offer a great package (including 30 days holiday) and a lovely, talented team to work with.