International Account Director

Job description

About the role:

We are searching for an International MX (Account) Director to join an integrated, fast-paced, high-growth team of media experts. Your primary client will be a recently won global account that perfectly encapsulates Bicycle’s skillset and positioning, accelerates our agency’s already-impressive growth, and provides opportunities to create truly innovative work. The brand is a hugely ambitious European fintech, with very healthy budgets, built on groundbreaking technology that’s disrupting an entire category - and beyond.

The International Account Director will be a critical member of this multi-market client’s core team, with end to end campaign and project management responsibilities and constant UK and overseas client contact. This role brings the full suite of Bicycle’s services together to drive business growth for the advertiser. In addition, the role brings exceptional development opportunities for an ambitious, curious, well-rounded Account/Planning Director or Senior AM.


Key tasks include:

Be a lead day to day client contact for both the central marketing and local market teams. Build close relationships, become a credible, trusted advisor, and foster a learning, collaboration, and effectiveness culture.

Mediate between central and local client requirements and translate briefs into smooth, “win-win” communication solutions.

Develop in-depth knowledge of your clients’ business, category and audience. Keep clients, partners and internal teams abreast of opportunities and challenges, such as regulatory or competitive change.

Help cement this brand new account within the agency, and champion the brand amongst partners within the UK and abroad, developing close relationships with lead media owners in priority markets especially. Identify opportunities to leverage both internal and external capabilities, including local partnerships.

Work closely with our strategy, data and activation teams, as well as the advertiser’s creative, PR and production agencies, to jointly ensure our comms strategy delivers against brand and business objectives.

Devise and oversee best in class media experiences across traditional paid media and digital channels, aligning with owned and earned disciplines, alongside data and measurement projects. Know when a client problem can be solved with media and when it can’t.

Assist with setting budgets for markets, comms tasks and channels, using a variety of media, market, consumer and business factors. Help to continually refine our spend modelling and ensure investment is always appropriate to the latest brand and category context.

Oversee timely and accurate account billing and administration. Protect the commercial viability of your account, and work with management to accurately forecast spend.

Supervise campaigns from end to end, from briefing and strategy development, throughout planning, to delivery and measurement.

Oversee reporting, attribution projects and PCAs; ensure media tactics are constantly reviewed and refined.

Enthusiastically formulate and input into wider agency projects to continually enhance our productivity and culture. Act as an ambassador for Bicycle. Develop a happy, engaged team.


About you:

Essential:

5+ years’ agency experience, including significant time spent on international accounts. This should be at least partly a media background but could be other disciplines too

Robust, up to date knowledge of the European media landscape

Background in applying central strategies to global and local campaign activation

Powerful client relationships at all levels

A proven track record of identifying and leveraging opportunities across media and technology, in and out of scope

A skilled planner with an excellent grasp of the roles of all traditional and digital media channels and ability to align with owned and earned comms touchpoints

Ability to create and coordinate comprehensive measurement frameworks and methodologies

Able to produce and deliver engaging, insightful and articulate presentations

Proficient in industry research and planning tools

Proactive and entrepreneurial, with an informed point of view on industry developments

An excellent multi-tasker, exceptionally well-organised, with outstanding attention to detail

A fast-thinking problem-solver, undeterred by unexpected change

Strong written and verbal communication skills

A passion for creativity, media and communications

Able to empathetically line manage, coach and develop junior team members

Open to travel to client’s European offices


Desirable:

Multi-lingual. German would be particularly beneficial.

Contacts at major European media owners, particularly TV and OOH

Understanding of societal and cultural nuances across European markets, particularly in regards to technology and finance

Experience of highly regulated advertisers such as finance, betting or alcohol

Experience in working on fast-growth, tech-focused challenger accounts

Experience of negotiating and media buying/activation

Knowledge of creative approval and delivery processes by channel

Experience of budget and propensity modelling

Understanding of adtech and martech; experience of digital, data and measurement projects and integrations, e.g. writing SOWs

Experience of recruitment and coordinating training

The Package

£45,000 - £55,000, dependent on experience
Flexible, extensive benefits

The Agency

About Bicycle London:

Founded by five people in May 2021 who believed that a better type of media agency wasn’t just possible, but needed, from a standing start we are now 25 strong (and hiring!) and handling billings predicted to be well in excess of £100 million in 2022. We are lucky enough to count Livescore, Virgin, Duolingo, Branston Pickle, Movember, Pasta Evangelists, ANNA Money and Estrid amongst our clients.

We are the Media Experience (MX) agency. We believe that experience is the most important factor to lean into when considering communication for clients, and our unique 3X approach brings together MX, CX and UX to powerful effect in a way that other agencies simply aren’t built to deliver.

Bicycle is the fastest growing media agency in the UK, and quite possibly the world. Our headquarters are in Farringdon, London. We’re home to intelligent people who want to create incredible work on interesting brands. We are 100% independent, with no external investment whatsoever.

And now, we’re going global, baby.