Account Director

The Retail Account Director is responsible for the management of a large retail account and team within the agency and functions as a key client relationship owner on the Retail account with a direct line manager in either the Managing Partner (MP) or Business Director (BD).

A Retail account comprises of a single client brand, with multiple stakeholders, locally and regionally. This retail portfolio contributes to Revenue of R8 -12 million per annum. You will be required to utilise your exceptional project management, communication, and business development skills to drive client satisfaction, growth, and profitability. This is a fast paced account, and will demand attention to retail, speed and a results driven personality.

The Retail Account Director will be expected to deliver on complex brand and retail projects that span markets, audiences, and creative mediums specifically large format print production. Acting as the senior point of contact for the client, you will build trusted relationships while ensuring work is strategically impactful, creatively bold, and commercially effective. Youll collaborate closely with teams across creative, strategy, and production, making sure projects run seamlessly from concept to delivery.

You will be expected to champion client relationships and ensure seamless collaboration between the agency and the client. This role requires a deep understanding of the Retail and Banking landscape, strong communication and presentation skills, and a proven ability to manage complex projects and timelines.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Serve as a key point of contact for the Standard Bank Retail team, building and nurturing strong relationships at all levels.
• Develop a deep understanding of the client's business, products, services, target audience, challenges, and opportunities to foster a true partnership.
• Effectively manage all client communications, ensuring timely responses to queries and proactive updates on project progress
• Cultivate strong relationships with key stakeholders within the client organization, agency teams, and the wider Ogilvy network.
• Foster a culture of creativity and innovation within the agency and client teams, pushing boundaries and encouraging agile thinking.
• Oversee all aspects of project management, from initiation to completion, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards.
• Collaborate with the Operations Manager to effectively plan and allocate resources for projects.
• Lead, motivate, and manage project teams, fostering a collaborative and productive work environment.
• Develop and manage project timelines, ensuring adherence to deadlines and proactive communication of any potential delays.
• Monitor project budgets and ensure cost-effectiveness.
• Identify and mitigate potential project risks.
• Contribute to accurate and timely financial reporting for the Retail account.
• Meeting overall profit margins, targets and new business targets assigned to the account
• Growing the account by at least 10% annually
• Report quarterly report and forecast on relationship, finances, people and new business
• Incorporates and manages the application of agency standards, directives and process into the account
• Develop a holistic view of the account and category (business, client and brands) through training, research and attending key information sessions
• Drive the development of case studies and PR material for the account, driving agency equity and credentials for the agency and within the category
• Develop and execute strategic account plans aligned with client objectives, cultivate a deep understanding of the client's business and category, and drive the creation of case studies and awards entries.
• Collaborate effectively with internal teams (creative, strategy, production, back of house services) and support the Managing Partner and Business Director in the overall contribution to revenue, operations and team culture.

Role-specific professional and technical skills

• Strong mentoring and management skills
• Strong project management skills, including planning, execution, and monitoring.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for internal and external audiences.
• Compelling presentation skills, specifically tailored for Merchandising Leadership team level presentations.
• Proven ability to manage large, complex client accounts with multiple projects.
• Superior time management and organizational skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills to effectively manage client, agency, and network relationships.
• Excellent negotiation skills, particularly in determining project scope and fees.
• Ability to interpret client feedback and debriefs to improve future performance.
• Strong business writing skills for proposals, reports, and other documentation.
• Solid understanding of retail strategy and retail creative development.
• Good understanding of local business operations and agency reporting procedures.
• Extensive experience in retail design, strategy, and production processes for large format.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Level of experience

• 5+ years of experience in account management within a retail agency environment.
• Proven track record of successfully managing large retail clients.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams.
• Strong understanding of the financial services industry.
• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, or a related field

Job Behaviors

These are the behaviors expected for this role:

• Leading from the front: Champion positive change by creating a sense of direction and purpose for your team. Encouraging a sense of mutual responsibility and encouraging high performance.
• Being a mentor: Continually looking to improve, monitor and plan around individual performance within the Retail account by building their skills and strengths, and teaching the team how to overcome their weaknesses for optimum career development.
• Showing interest: Express interest in your teams well being from a career and personal perspective ensuring that you understand personal diversity which influences their opinions, circumstances and emotional well being.
• Always being agile: Being able to adapt your approach and leadership style to best suit the situation at hand, and ensuring a timely response.
• Continually learning: Encourage Retail account and personal learning. Retail account and category knowledge is essential in this role with regards to the business strategy and imperatives. Keep learning and developing new skills and trends by participate in professional seminars, reading relevant research and insights, doing own desktop research.
• Effective communication: Persuade and influence others using logic and reason. Negotiation your way to find and express solutions for broad and complex issues.
• Client centric views: Ensuring that all decisions and executions are based around building a lasting partnership with the client and taking personal responsibility for improving and correcting customer service problems and eliminate underlying problems. Take extraordinary steps to retain and grow these relationships.
• Collaborating: Develop a relationship with key stakeholders (Client Service Director and Exco) to achieve common goals for the agency (policy, process, methodology, targets).
• Being resilient: Prevail in all circumstances and being able to make difficult decisions and the confidence to see these through.
• Fair in response: In all you do, be fair and honest with regards to appraisals, assessments and making team members accountable for their performance. Encourage others ideas and views