Senior Account Manager, Hospitality Communications

Karla Otto is a globally recognized public relations and communications agency, founded in 1982, with offices in 15 key cities across the UK, EMEA, US, and Asia. With a strong presence in fashion capitals such as Milan, London, Paris, and New York, the agency has built a reputation for representing some of the most prestigious names in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle.

In 2017, Karla Otto merged with K2 to form THE INDEPENDENTS—a global marketing, design, and communications group. This collective brings together industry leaders who share a commitment to innovation, excellence, and thoughtful collaboration across the luxury and lifestyle sectors.

At Karla Otto, our team of expert strategists, designers, planners and publicists are dedicated to delivering exceptional results and establishing long-term partnerships with our clients. We are passionate about the world of fashion, beauty, and luxury, with everyone bringing their unique expertise and insights to the table. We are driven by a shared commitment to excellence and a deep understanding of the ever-evolving industry landscape.

To help support our future growth as an agency, we are looking for a Account Manager, Hospitality to join our team based in our London office.

This role is a unique opportunity to join a cross-functional team; the successful candidate will work across restaurants, hospitality and consumer lifestyle. The ideal candidate is someone with a wide-ranging interest in luxury lifestyle & culture and an adaptability to work across different verticals.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead day to day client liaison including direct client contact, demonstrating maturity, professionalism and client awareness, leading on client calls and meetings.

• Work with senior team on strategy and understand how to effectively implement a strategy with the wider team and ongoing client liaison.

• Be confident in putting together a deck with ideas and strategies designed to meet clients’ objectives.

• Provide direct line-management, mentoring and sign off for work generated by all juniors on the team, including reporting and press collateral creation; booking processes for media and KOL visits to hotel and restaurant clients, tracking of product send outs across relevant clients and escalating challenges and potential solutions to the senior team

• Forge links with global offices and other divisions that support client uptake of other services and the use of other Karla Otto offices – think globally and horizontally to improve results for the brand and clients

• Come with a strong black book of relationships at relevant media outlets. Have the ability to utilize these relationships to secure results

• Support client pitches with confidence, market insight and a strong representation of the Karla Otto brand

• Identify opportunities to integrate other Karla Otto services into existing client scope of work and coordinate with the senior team to pitch add-ons appropriately

• Be a leader within the team in identifying trends and developments that could be included in future client strategies or new business proposals

• Keep up to date with social media developments and identify opportunities to suggest suitable talent and influencers for KO clients

• Utilise data and analytics tools (e.g. Google analytics) to monitor the return on investment digital initiatives are providing and make suggestions to improve results where required

• Takes an active interest in trends on social media and is able to talk about these with clients i.e. changes to Instagram and TikTok

Key Attributes

• Proven previous experience in a PR/Communications role – ideally with a background in hotels, restaurants, drinks brands or consumer products

• Strong communication skills (both written and oral), research, and organisation skills

• Strong top-tier relationships with press and industry peers and developed stakeholder management skills

• Great understanding and experience with KOL and influencer relations

• Enthusiasm and motivation to attend industry events

• Understanding of wider business environment and activities

• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines and priorities in a fast-paced environment

• Outgoing with the confidence to make suggestions, bring ideas to the wider team that focuses on client experience and work alone or as part of a team

• High level of attention to detail and the ability to present and interpret quantitative and qualitative data

• Positive attitude to challenging situations and a willingness to go above and beyond in the call of duty in order to complete a project accurately and on time

• Proven negotiation and influencing skills

• Must be efficient in Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint

At Karla Otto, we are always looking for personalities with positive charisma who are enthusiastic, self-motivated, and have a keen sense of aesthetics.
Karla Otto embraces and celebrates diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Karla Otto provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, colour, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join our team!