Overall Summary:

The Account Director supports directors, strategists, and the Sales team in developing and implementing direct response marketing strategies. They manage client communication and deliverables, as well as provide direct or indirect guidance of assigned Account Services team members.

Primary Duties/Responsibilities:

• Engage in strategic planning and leadership; indirectly and directly lead account service team members and projects; provide ongoing oversight, coaching and mentorship to team members.
• Delegate tasks to ensure team growth, learning and development opportunities.
• Possess and further acquire knowledge of assigned clients' company, including products, industry, offers, messaging, and brand guidelines.
• Build and maintain positive relationships with clients as a primary IWCO representative; frequently develop pitch and presentation materials; sell ideas and make recommendations to clients.
• Possess full understanding of client requirements and expectations; ensure client alignment on agency process, pricing, deliverables and agency limitations.
• Collaborate with the Director of Account Services, and Strategists in the development of strategic marketing communication plans.
• Manage campaign matrices development; compile key creative and production data points to accurately represent the various formats, testing strategies, and versioning required.
• Actively participate in development of campaigns from ideation through client approval and performance analysis in a leading role.
• Develop creative briefs and any reference materials needed to provide strong direction for the internal team to complete deliverables.
• Oversee development and routing of all deliverables as assigned.
• Ensure that all concepts meet creative brief requirements, strategy objectives, client brand requirements and graphic standards.
• Review creative materials; provide detailed proofing to ensure it matches the requirements outlined on estimate, matrix, or other reference documents.
• Oversee routing of deliverables to clients for approval as necessary.
• Create and oversee preparation of estimates, SOWs and project timelines.
• Deliver quality materials on-time, on-strategy and on-budget; continuously monitor project labor vs. budget; revise scope documents; escalate concerns as appropriate.
• Monitor project financials and ensure that projects are on track; manage Change Orders and close out time monthly; document in accounting program.
• Manage client/project communication and administration with urgency, focus and requisite attention to detail.
• Perform other (or other related) duties as applicable or assigned.

Required Skills/Abilities/Competencies:

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, skilled in aligning the expectations of team members and clients.
• Strong presentation skills.
• Excellent problem-solving, collaboration and negotiation skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities; balance changing client and company needs.
• Intermediate Microsoft Office Suite proficiency; Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• Ability to learn proprietary software.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree, Master's degree preferred in marketing, business, communications or related field.
• 8-10 years' experience as an Account Director, Account Supervisor, Account Executive/Account Manager in a marketing/advertising agency environment or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years managing direct response marketing campaigns; direct mail experience preferred with demonstrated understanding of print and direct mail production terminology and processes.
• Experience successfully presenting and "selling in" strategic recommendations (both conceptual and tactical) to clients at all organizational levels from Coordinator to CMO
• Experience managing key agency metrics such as revenue forecasting, revenue recovery, client retention and team utilization.
• Demonstrated success in supervising or leading agency teams in profitable engagements with highly satisfied clients.
• Experience managing data and understanding of targeting, modeling and segmentation approaches is preferred.

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to work 8 hours consecutively.
• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Ability and willingness to travel, up to 30%.

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