Senior Account Director - International

Company Overview:

Reinventing out-of-home planning and placement for the performance age.

billups is the leading independent out-of-home (OOH) specialist in North America and is continuing to grow in the EMEA region (with personnel across NL, UK, BE, DE, IT, ES…) plus APAC.

Delivering OOH managed services globally, helping advertisers and agencies strengthen media performance through our patented analytics and measurement platform.

Our mission is to transform the power of places to connect brands with their consumers.

Role Overview:

The Client Team (comprising Client Services and Client Development functions) undertakes a wide range of responsibilities in driving billups’ business forward, developing and nurturing client and partner relationships. As part of our Client Services function, the Senior Account Director role collaborates closely with reports, peers and Business Directors in:

• Leading key clients and directing the whole Client Services function.

• Advocacy and implementation of billups’ regional mission / vision / purpose, strategies, platform and services, across the team.

• Promoting OOH and billups’ offering to clients and agencies, being a senior point of servicing contact across key clients, with responsibility for ensuring requests and expectations are managed proactively, and that our strategic and executional delivery against KPIs exceeds expectations.

• Helping your Business Director(s) identify ways of delivering organic and diversified revenue growth; helping convert these.

• Helping your Business Director(s) develop and convert new business opportunities. Establishing target plans against key accounts and categories. Identifying, securing and executing meetings with prospects and leads, collaborating closely with the Client Development function in doing so.

• Directing supplier relationships, regarding the development and execution of industry-leading OOH planning.

• Senior-level oversight and collaboration with the Investment Team regarding trade deal alignment and optimisation across markets and vendors.

• Complying with all company and departmental policies and procedures and with responsibility for ensuring the same across your team. Playing a leading role in the development of policies and procedures. Responsibility for ensuring process is followed, and enhancing this as needed, to ensure quality consistency.

• Driving tool and system adoption across the whole Client Team; actively contributing to tool and system development and deployment, including participating in requirement definition and testing periods.

• Executing day-to-day administrative tasks and projects internally.

• Actively engaging wider Billups’ centralised resources within existing or new conversations - for example Marketing, PlatSol and Design Teams.

• Supervisory responsibilities including: (i) interviewing, hiring, and training high-performing talent, (ii) planning, assigning, and directing work, (iii) appraising performance, (iv) rewarding and disciplining employees, and (v) addressing complaints and resolving problems.

• Compiling accurate, updated business planning and forecasting across your clients. Working with your Business Director(s) and the Managing Director to identify potential challenges and develop solutions.

• Responsibility for ensuring annual budget delivery for your clients, linking closely into your Business Director(s) and Finance Team to maintain tracking and oversight.

• Involvement with business acquisition strategy, planning and onboarding.

• Partnering with Business Directors(s) to push the boundaries of current and future function goals and strategies.

Required Media Experience:

• 10+ years of experience

• An expert knowledge of the OOH media landscape, demonstrating a knowledgeable opinion on client and supplier news and activity.

• Expansive UK or EMEA or International OOH and/or comms planning experience.

• The desire and ability to learn new international markets and work with local teams across multiple regions.

• Growing experience of successfully leading teams. Delivering the highest standards of client service levels. The ability to manage diverse work groups and functions across timezones, cultures and geographic locations.

• A commercial mindset, with the confidence to engage the team to deliver strong commercial upside in challenging conditions, through organic and diversified means.

• Experience prospecting, researching and data mining for business leads and opportunities.

• Wide experience at negotiating pricing and booking campaigns.

• Some experience conducting analyses and developing financial models to identify critical trends, support strategic decision-making and create forward visibility.

• Strong reasoning: the ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. The ability to analyse and synthesise large amounts of data in order to identify and present meaningful observations and recommendations.

• The ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, percentages, area, circumference and volume. Being able to apply concepts of basic algebra and geometry.

• Adept at using various applications including database, spreadsheet, report writing, project management, graphics, word processing, presentation creation/editing, email communication and CRM software.

• The desire to grow yourself, Client Team members and billups’ business.

Core Role Duties:

• Senior responsibility for the day-to-day management of key clients’ teams to ensure they are effectively servicing clients and are proactively contributing to growing client and agency business. Ensuring a thorough understanding of all clients’ strategies and objectives, and the KPIs Billups must deliver for them.

• Developing strong long-term relationships with the whole Client Team’s day-to-day and senior agency, client and media vendor contacts, building trust and collaboration. Driving the same across the wider team, putting relationship mapping in place.

• Engaging and directing internal teams in responding to enquiries.

• Directing billups’ delivery in responding to all clients’ servicing needs, including the production of media planning.

• Directing billups’ delivery in ensuring the smooth booking of media campaigns for all clients.

• Directing billups’ delivery in ensuring the timely activation of media campaigns for all clients - ensuring campaign start dates are tracked and that everything is ready to go live on time; ensuring liaison with relevant vendors for management of artwork delivery and approval processes.

• Directing campaign reporting for all clients - overseeing access to ‘Proof of Posting (POP)’ and Campaign Attribution, ensuring this is received by clients and / or their agencies in a timely fashion.

• Driving the Client Team’s contribution to, and the engagement of the Billups’ Marketing Team in, the compilation of case studies and other relevant best practice and market intelligence materials.

• Driving consistency in our work through self and team adoption of the appropriate templates and guidelines; relentlessly pursuing operational efficiencies. Providing proposals for expanded / evolved team structuring as required. Delivering operational excellence as an individual and with the whole Client Team.

• Responsibility for shared file drive management, ensuring documents and content are saved in the relevant folders. Ensuring client and media vendor documents and folders are regularly updated within our directory.

• Directing the resolution of any campaign issues or discrepancies across all clients, drawing upon wider internal and external support as needed. Coaching the Client Team in resolving issues.

• Control of your team’s diaries regarding the arrangement of team meetings or presentations.

• Driving Client Development function support through the Client Services function’s creation of, or access to, materials or content.

• Developing and growing your industry knowledge plus that of the whole Client Team through: (i) meeting and event attendance, (ii) accessing company training, (iii) conducting site visits, (iv) engaging with billups’ communication platforms. Ensuring knowledge and best practice is shared across the wider team and business. Responsibility for the Client Services function’s overall calendar for elements (i) - (iii) above, and adherence to the budgets associated. Managing and hosting internal training sessions.

• Attending and leading wider company initiatives including new business pitches, social events, town halls etc. Ensuring the same across the Client Services function.

• Frequent travel both in-market and overseas, as required. Attendance of relevant client / partner / industry events.

• Other duties as assigned by the Business Director(s).

Required Interpersonal Skills:

• Expressing ideas and thoughts clearly, both orally and in written form.

• Excellent organisational skills.

• Exhibiting strong listening, comprehension and engagement.

• Experience in taking initiative, exercising sound judgement in decision-making.

• Strong relationship management skills with the ability to communicate across all levels - both internally and externally. Establishing and maintaining excellent rapport.

• Demonstrating tact and diplomacy in communicating to clients/agencies and media suppliers, as well as with colleagues internally. Eliciting this across the whole Client Team.

• Bringing creativity and passion to the team and its services, embracing change and innovation.

• Skill in developing people and building a team. Demonstrated ability to lead a complex team.

• Being viewed as a credible, approachable, thoughtful and purposeful senior team member; exhibiting billups’ values (particularly under pressure) and inspiring others to do the same.

• Driving and contributing to the establishment of a positive team spirit. Being pro-active and a team player, with the ability to engage others and motivate them.

• Wide experience in resolving challenging client issues and team issues.