Account Director

Account Director Job Description

At Hot Dish Advertising, our Account Directors are:

• Passionate about our clients, our team and the work we produce.
• Curious to test new marketing ideas to help our clients achieve their goals and teach team members how to be critical thinkers in the agency to make our work better.
• Smartypants as part of the leading franchise marketing agency.
• Playing to win to do what it takes to support the client. Lead, Follow or Get out of the way.
• Respectful of
• Fun and thrive off partnering with other high-energy team members and clients!

Job Overview:

Our Account Directors are account and agency leaders and expected to be marketing experts well-versed in the franchise industry. One of their key responsibilities at Hot Dish Advertising is mentoring Account Executives and Account Coordinators. They oversee the communications and strategy on each of their accounts by supporting their Account Executives, Project Managers, and Account Coordinators to ensure they are correctly and effectively delivering on our client goals, projects and agency work. Along with the leadership team, Account Directors are a face to the agency core values that make us stand out from other agencies.

• Excellent communication skills and give respectful, clear and direct feedback to team members to help them grow in their agency careers.
• They are highly skilled in marketing strategy, plan execution and communications.
• Have an active role in both pitching business to clients and client onboarding.
• Comfortable and confident leading discussions with clients and new business opportunities.

Primary Job Responsibilities:

• Build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with clients and team members by:
  • Exhibiting our agency core values every day.
  • Being a strong, effective communicator in person, over the phone and in writing.
  • Pitching new ideas or projects to clients as warranted to help support their business goals.
  • Developing genuine connections with clients beyond agency work.
  • Fostering a strong, open environment for collaboration across departments and projects.
  • Recognizing great work/effort across the agency.
  • Oversee agency work across accounts by:
    • Ensuring clear and concise creative briefs, job tickets and blog tickets that tie back to the overall strategy per client.
    • Participating in internal and external meetings (project kick-offs, project presentations, internal meetings, client status calls, etc.) and supporting the AE and/or AM leading the meeting/strategic discussion.
    • Reviewing all account recommendations from the team to ensure they align with our Smartypants core value.
  • Provide strategic oversight on the clients you manage to all departments (account, creative, media) by:
    • Reviewing all projects and providing thoughtful and concise feedback with direction for next steps. Ensure the work is aligned between creative brief, media brief, job ticket, blog ticket or change ticket.
    • Noting feedback clearly and following the internal and client review process correctly.
    • Ensuring the media recommendations from the team deliver on the objective of the assignment and presenting clients with data to justify the recommendations.
    • Verifying content strategy for newsletters, blogs and social postings are strong and on strategy.
  • Manage the new client/new opportunity pitching and onboarding process by:
    • Presenting proposals, either in person or over the phone.
    • Answering follow-up questions or feedback in a timely manner via email or the phone.
    • Engaging with department team members as needed throughout the process.
    • Writing the Planning Meeting agenda.
    • Directing the team on the necessary access to brand social/digital accounts and brand guidelines/assets.
    • Leading Planning Meetings with clients to ensure all critical insights are gathered for the team to be successful.
  • Oversee the marketing and media plans for clients by:
    • Assigning tasks to your AE, AM and/or AC to develop the plan. Engage with cross functional team members to provide recommendations where needed.
    • Finalizing the plan to ensure the strategies and tactics align with the client’s goals and budget.
    • Providing final approval of the Project List or Scope of Work (SOW) and Flowchart to ensure the budget allocation is in line and the necessary projects are included to support the work.
    • Reviewing ongoing updates to the plan, Project List and Flowchart as approved by the client.
  • Administer all client contracts and financial documentation by:
    • Drafting the client Project Plan and present to the Director of Account Services for approval before sending to the client.
    • Approving estimates for each project, as well as S&Es for all client-approved media placements.
    • Tracking client and project profitability monthly by monitoring actualized Project Lists and media flowcharts.
  • Mentor Account Executives and Coordinators by:
    • Recognizing great work and giving constructive feedback when necessary.
    • Stating the objective of assignments and providing clarity on the end goal to set them up for success.
    • Helping to prioritize their work and timelines as needed.
    • Coaching them to be effective communicators both internally and externally.
    • Allowing them to lead certain aspects of client status calls or presentations.
  • Prioritize and deliver on your quarterly agency rocks by:
    • Setting milestones for your rocks and set internal touch bases with your cross functional team members as needed.
    • Sharing your rock with your supervisor.