Associate Director, Client Leadership - Croud

ABOUT CROUD

We are not a digital agency. We are a fast paced, instantly reacting, performance driving, boundary pushing, long term partnership forming, knowledge sharing, data crunching, audience connecting, brand building, app promoting, technology developing, complex global business navigating, connected collection of minds from across the world. We are part of something far, far bigger.

A genuinely different marketing agency. We do PPC, SEO, Social, Programmatic, Amazon, Content, Analytics and Strategy & Planning. We're in New York, London & Shrewsbury and work with independent digital specialists in nearly 100 international markets to complete projects for our diverse client portfolio.

We are looking for a highly intelligent, charismatic and creative thinking individual who is passionate about innovating to join our team in New York City.

Located in the heart of SoHo, our brand new New York office is home to a group of highly-skilled digital experts, passionate about driving innovation and delivering great work for clients. With a rapidly expanding team and client portfolio, Croud New York offers hands-on experience working with some of the world's leading brands across every industry sector.

Find out more about Croud NY here!

We are investing in Client Leadership discipline as a priority arm of the business, and we want to add to our quickly growing US team with additional leads.

ROLE OVERVIEW

Croud is recruiting an Associate Director, Client Leadership to lead a client portfolio and Croud offering in New York. Together we want to create a best in class client experience for the brands we work with and ensure the best agency and client relationship.

• Build trusted partnerships and experiences with our clients as the senior POC on the day to day account management.

• Lead with agility on cross-functional teams to achieve client visions and ambitions, aligning internal goals and solutions with client objectives.

• Shape media planning and presentations with cross-functional teams, including strategy, planning, media activation, reporting, measurement, SEO, and influencer marketing.

• Develop and innovate product solutions for clients, navigating client needs, cross-functional teams, the agency, and industry standards to deliver desired outcomes.

• Participate in the US Management team, with potential international collaboration on a case-by-case basis.

• Contribute to the Croud leadership team and community, driving business growth and enhancing our proposition.

RESPONSIBILITIES

As Associate Director, there is no such thing as a typical day as you will constantly be challenged to build brands, push partnerships & bring new thinking. You responsibilities will be broken in to 8 parts.        

• Client Leadership and Management:

  • Be a lead POC on day to day delivery and account management on your client(s).

  • Lead key meetings and status alongside the cross-functional teams; supporting any junior members of the team to deliver with quality.

  • Crystallize and communicate objectives and brief internal teams on how that translates into day to day account management

• Client Engagement and Workflow:

  • Identify smarter ways to work and provide impactful value to clients.

  • Challenge clients to focus on proactive, strategic actions when their priorities or expectations do not meet standards.

  • Manage client expectations alongside the scope commitments and hours

  • Build trusted relationships with client stakeholders and work with a cross-functional team to drive stakeholder mapping and engagement.

• Media Delivery and Development:

  • Lead and shape integrated media planning and campaign planning for growth or performance objectives, alongside planning and media activation team.

  • Work closely with media measurement and reporting functions to ensure media performance is delivering and reporting against key KPIs and driving actionable insights.

  • Work closely with cross-functional leads across S&P, Media Activation, and Analytics to drive integrated campaign and media activity, performance, optimization and reporting.

  • If required, work with an integrated agency team, SEO, Influencer and/or in-house client teams to deliver.

• Team Leadership:

  • Influence and guide internal cross-functional teams, navigating challenges and opportunities.

  • Initiate client team specific systems to improve performance and deliver growth seamlessly.

  • Provide direct feedback and solutions to improve client relationships and work.

  • Drive cross-functional team workflow solutions to meet KPIs and deliver outcomes; alongside project management.

• Growth Development:

  • Identify and develop growth opportunities internally and with external partners.

  • Collaborate with partners (including but not limited to Google and Meta) for commercial growth and product development.

  • Propose new and innovative solutions across the media and marketing landscape to continuously deliver scalable and repeatable solutions for our clients.

• Quality Assurance:

  • Maintain a strong focus on the quality assurance of outputs and deliverables to ensure they meet or exceed client expectations, thereby consistently delivering value to our clients

  • Collaborate with department leads for quality assurance on high-profile workstreams and they are data-evidenced or logic-backed rationale.

  • Lead and contribute to strategic meetings, status and high-profile client deliverables ensuring they meet the quality and standards of the client meeting purpose

• Issue and Health Management:

  • Maintain strong relationships through rapport and relationship building with clients.

  • Identify and address internal capacity, client margins, and health issues.

  • Keep track of client health through regular 1:1, internal health trackers and formalized surveys with our clients.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE

• • Essential:
    

  • Proven experience in client leadership, media planning, and cross-functional team management.

  • Strong understanding of media activation or media planning, SEO, influencer marketing, analytics, and industry trends.

  • Excellent communication and leadership skills to drive client success and business growth.

  • Experience establishing & overseeing team’s planning process including research, strategy, evaluations and recommendations of media vehicles and tactics, through plan development, presentation, execution and follow-up
    

  • Experience defining high level strategy and holistic management of the media plan development, implementation, and execution

  • Experience Leading strategic planning initiatives including deck writing, budget and channel allocation, and audience development

  • Experience supporting development of strategic approach by delivering channel ideas and providing the link to reality of historical performance and in-market opportunities

  • Experience Identifying key target insights based on client brief necessary for formulating strategic recommendations, and ensuring alignment into broader long-term goals
    

  • Experience maintaining an in-depth knowledge of the client business and competitive landscape

  • Experience ensuring teams adopt best in class tools, techniques, and systems to deliver plan recommendations aligned to client’s objectives and expected business outcomes

  • Demonstrating an intimate, and strategic, understanding of how consumers interact with channels and technology, while championing across internal agency teams

  Desirable:
  

• Demonstrable in-depth & deep experience as a strategic leader specifically in digital planning backgrounds.

• Experience of elevating over campaign planning and having to drive demonstrable results for c-suite executives.

• Expected to be an expert across all media, including digital, social and traditional, demonstrating advanced knowledge in all areas.

• Extensive experience of presenting to clients and ’selling-in’ ideas, and of working closely with senior stakeholders to understand their business objectives.

• Great communication and presentation skills, with good attention to detail.

• Experience managing a team.

• Hands-on experience of industry planning & insight tools is a nice-to-have. These include (but are not limited to) TGI, GlobalWebIndex, SimilarWeb.

• Experience in managing multiple brands from both brand marketing & performance marketing is a bonus, but not a requirement

COMPANY BENEFITS

Every employee is eligible for the benefits listed on our careers site which include:

• 20 days vacation a year + 12 public holidays 
• Annual Performance Based Bonus
• Sales commission (If involved in a pitch)
• 401K Plan after 3 Months (Match up to 2% of your contributions at 100%)
• Full Paid Medical Insurance (including dental and vision) 
• Home office chair and monitor 
• Free Citi Bike membership
• Recruitment referrals bonus
• Classpass membership contributions
• Fruit, breakfast cereals, snacks, soft drinks and tea & coffee all provided
• Quarterly team offsites / Regular socials
• Agile working policy
  

COMPENSATION

Salary Range for this position is $120,000 - $140,000 per year. (DOE)

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position, market considerations, budgetary considerations, tenure and standing with the Company (applicable to current employees), as well as the employee’s/applicant’s skill set, level of experience, and qualifications.

Standard hours are from 9.00am to 5.30pm, there’s flexibility if agreed in advance with your line managers (it may also be necessary on occasions to work outside of these hours).

Croud operates a hybrid working model with a minimum of 2 days a week based in our New York office and the remaining days from home if you wish.

Croud is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the grounds of a person's gender, marital status, race, religion, ethnicity, age, disability or sexual orientation. All candidates will be assessed based on merit, qualifications and their ability to perform the requirements of the role.