PR Account Director (Corporate) at Accenture

Job Description

Overview

• We are seeking a Cape Town-based Account Director to work on a portfolio of leading corporate and financial services clients.
• The successful candidate must have extensive experience working on corporate Earned Media clients and campaigns, with specific experience in corporate communications and ideally, financial services.
• It is imperative that the successful candidate keeps abreast of all Earned Media, PR and Influencer trends, within industry best practices.

Responsibilities (include but are not limited to):

• Senior client lead and team lead, interprets, develops, and manages strategy for clients and ensures that all plans are delivered and are in line with scope of work.
• Manage client expectations and service delivery by being a focal point for day-to-day interaction and take responsibility for the delivery of exceptional work.
• Build and manage client business and relationships, taking ultimate responsibility for client relationships with senior client contacts as well as senior business contacts and be a strategic business partner.
• Develops the PR strategy aligned with client’s business imperatives and ensures efficient execution to deliver to the highest quality.
• Ensures all work produced by team is of the highest standard and demonstrates creativity, attention-to-detail, contemporary thinking, use of new approaches and links to overall strategy and supports clients' business objectives.
• Actively ensures that team members grow and develop into strong Earned Media professionals, through growth opportunities, upskilling, delegation, accountability, and mentoring.
• Responsible for overall ‘health’ and happiness of client team. Expert at delivering content and solutions that speak to full PESO model (Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned).
• Expert in at least one communication area (e.g. media relations, influencer relations, content).
• Handles all contractual and financial aspects of client relationship including scope of work, client KPIs, team resourcing and hour allocation, budget tracking and management.
• Including renegotiating annual retainer increase.
• Manages profitability of team, over- and under-servicing trends in team and proactively manages to correct.
• Ensures financial admin (Workbook) is running smoothly and accurately.
• Actively looks for opportunities to sell-in new projects, services or organically grow clients in other ways.
• Leads and participates in new business pitches.
• Supports Practice Lead in driving and growing Earned Media through new business, new products and new thinking.
• Ability to manage different personalities and always strive to get the best out of each individual.
• Keep abreast of industry (Earned Media) trends to add additional value to your client’s business.

Requirements / Experience / Skill:

• Relevant tertiary qualification in PR and/or Business Communications.
• Minimum 8 years working experience in PR Agency (or in a similar environment).
• Proficient in MS Office (i.e. Word / Excel / PowerPoint etc).
• Traditional and Digital Earned Media experience is essential (well versed in Digital).
• Strong command of the English language (both verbal and written).
• Strong presentation skills.
• Strong administrative and organisational skills.
• Strong numerical skills (financial & budget management experience).
• Strong multitasking skills (ability to work on more than one client at any given time).

Personal Attributes:

• Team player with the ability to work independently.
• Ability to remain calm in a fast-paced environment.
• Creative “out of the box” thinker.
• People focused including being approachable, emotionally intelligent, empathetic and compassionate.
• Proactive. Resilient.
• Curious and analytical.
• Deadline-driven.
• Solution-driven.
• Meticulous with attention to detail.
• Other: Able to work on-site/ in office and visit clients.