OUR COMPANY  

We are dynamic, empowered and entrepreneurial. 

We pride ourselves in being an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion is at the heart of what we believe in. IPG Mediabrands are committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce and welcome applications regardless of gender identity, race, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion or belief. 

Initiative is different to other media agencies.  

We are not trapped by a legacy structure primarily centred on paid advertising. Instead, we are liberated by a new world structure designed to deliver highly differentiated and highly effective communications strategies for our clients. 

We’re not the biggest agency in town. So rather than outsize our competitors we must outsmart them. That’s why we’ve built the strongest strategic capability of any agency in the market. Core to this strategic capability is an obsession with culture and how brands can pivot from brand advertising (which is forgettable) to cultural branding (which is highly memorable).  

Our new world model is comprised of four central “craft centres” – Client Advice and Management, Strategy, Communications Design and Partnerships. 

Here is a brief description of each centre. 

Client Advice & Management 

Client Advice acts as both business partner to the client and internal leader to brief, inspire, motivate and drive our teams to deliver the highest quality integrated solutions across a full spectrum of communication disciplines – Strategy, Communications Design, Partnerships and Mediabrands Specialty Business Units in areas like Social, Programmatic, Mobile, Search and Innovation. 

The authority on all Initiative and IPG Mediabrands services, Client Advice is responsible for regularly identifying unmet client needs and challenges, for bringing forth specialised services and solutions to meet those needs, and for growing Initiative’s client relationships in both revenue and profitability.  Importantly, Client Advice must also ensure that reasonable, achievable and business appropriate KPI’s are in place to ensure a positive and mutually beneficial relationship between agency and client. 

Strategy 

Strategy create the opportunities for brands to lead in culture, designing and defining how a brand will live, play and thrive in the world.  They are the voice of the people, using deep and intuitive cultural understanding of consumers and communications to develop the strategic direction a brand must take. They translate business goals into actionable communications tasks, first identifying and then designing the most profitable audience, space or place for the brand to occupy. The Strategists believe that everything communicates and that ‘media’ can and should mean more in today’s world - that there is a ‘better way’ - and that propels them to constantly challenge convention to add value, unlock untapped market potential and generate unfair share of hearts and minds. 

Communications Design 

Communications Design are the architects of how a brand idea will be delivered across a communications ecosystem in order to unlock the behaviour change that drives brand growth. Communications Design are experts in creating connected communications experiences that spread.  They work with strategy and creative partners to translate the client’s cultural opportunity into the idea that shapes the experience someone will have with the brand across paid, owned and earned encounters. Communications Design define the right audiences of value, and how you will engage them within the experience and they work with our analytics partners to quantify the business impact that the holistic experience will have on the brand over time. 

Partnerships 

The Partnerships team is the next generation marketplace team of experts that identify, broker and manage the relationship between media, partners and culture vehicles for a given brand.  This team leads partner evaluations, makes strategic investment recommendations and manages in-market KPIs.  Partnerships works closely with Strategy and Communications Design to bring communications experiences to life and drive innovation.  This team ensures we are supporting and executing against the overall corporate initiatives as well as drive maximum value for our clients. 

Each craft centre is as important as the other, because only when they are effectively combined can we produce a truly creative and integrated product for our clients. 

We strive for world-class work on every client, every time. 

We believe that good enough is not good enough. We hope you do too. 

We are excited to have you and your unique talent helping us to realize our ambition to be the best media agency in the world. 

OUR BEHAVIOURS  

Everyone at the company are encouraged to Take The Initiative in their day to day work. Key behaviours we adhere to are: 

1. The ability to assess and initiate things independently 
2. The power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do 

Initiative respects that everyone has something unique to contribute to the agency. 

We are a bunch of eclectic and brilliant misfits with diverse backgrounds that represent the unique fabric of consumers and culture. 

We want you to be yourself. We want to hear your opinions. We want to see your passion and energy. 

If you disagree with something you see or hear then speak up. We will never punish or penalize you for bringing something important to our attention. 

If you believe you can improve something in the agency then speak up. We will always listen to your ideas and suggestions. 

We will not tolerate harassment, bullying or corporate politics. We will not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We expect you to be responsible on social media and remember that you represent the agency and should not bring us into disrepute. 

We are committed to your learning and development. The agency will organize regular L&D to enhance and accelerate your career – we expect you to prioritize training and actively participate. 

We sell solutions not services. Always “stitch” together the various services of Initiative and IPG Mediabrands in a way that is seamless for clients. We operate as one united IPG Mediabrands and never in siloes. We will not tolerate “turf wars” across business units and expect you to play nicely in the sandpit as you collaborate with others. 

DISCIPLINE OVERVIEW: CLIENT ADVICE AND MANAGEMENT 

At Initiative, our promise is to build our clients’ brands, and that promise is led, and driven, by our Client Advice leaders.  Responsible for cultivating deep client relationships from the highest levels to day to day execution, we seek strong leaders with a point of view, who can clearly articulate our clients’ needs and drive our teams to deliver on those needs seamlessly and with excellence. 

In short, Client Advice and Management is accountable for the full client relationship and business held across both Initiative and IPG Mediabrands. 

As such, the Client Advice and Management team exemplifies our core behaviours and delivers on the following: 

• Maintains expert knowledge of and point of view on the client’s business and industry 

• Understands client needs and motivations, earning the role of trusted partner 

• Clearly communicates the agency’s positioning and SBU offerings 

• Seeks out innovative ways to meet complex and challenging needs of the client 

• Drives our overall product and process, ensuring comprehensive solutions, delivered on deadline and above expectations 

• Challenges and pushes both the client and our internal agency teams to innovate, test and learn in new and emerging areas of discipline 

• Motivates by creating a positive and collaborative team environment, effectively manages through difficult situations, acts as an agent for change when necessary 

• Builds and drives cross functional team success, fostering collaborative relationships with all client agency and marketing partners 

• Exhibits excellent commercial acumen skills and full understanding of the contractual relationship 
• Meets or exceeds all Initiative and Mediabrands SBU budget, revenue, spending and P&L goals for your client, or group of clients 

ROLE OVERVIEW: DIRECTOR, CLIENT ADVICE AND MANAGEMENT 

This role is scoped 100% on to our leading UK client, NatWest. The Director, Client Advice and Management, supports the Managing Partner in their mission to deliver business-appropriate, best-in-class solutions for Initiative clients.  You partner with the integrated Initiative team and across Mediabrands SBUs to ensure brilliant strategy, design, flawless execution, and most importantly, delivery on KPIs and business results for your client. 

You support the Managing Partner in day-to-day management of the client and the internal team. Your daily insights will keep your leader ahead of the game with your category expertise, status updates and proactive guidance. You have excellent knowledge of your clients’ business and are an authority on Initiative and the SBUs to your clients, colleagues and staff. You identify challenges and opportunities, both internally and externally, and seek solutions that achieve the client’s goals. The Director “makes the trains go” – and is accountable for ensuring everything is operating smoothly, accurately, and on deadline. 

NatWest is a big, complex client and this role is critical for ensuring that we deliver world class work to NatWest, whilst keeping the team motivated to deliver excellence. 

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES:  

Client 

• Day to day driver and quality manager of the team 

• Manages all communications in a timely manner, with no request going unnoticed. 

• Leads, issues and conducts weekly client meetings 

• Contribute to and author client proposals, recommendations and points of view 

• Build relationships with day to day leads on the client side, as well as with clients’ partner agencies 

• Ensures communication of creative needs and coordinates with partner agency teams on timely delivery of assets for campaigns 
• Responsible for ensuring all client financial stewardship, reporting, budget management, authorization and billing needs are met in a timely an accurate fashion 

Internal 

• Participate in all client briefings, and articulate client needs and objectives to the integrated Strategy, Communications Design and Partnership leads 

• Apply a client lens to all areas of Initiative product, ensuring solutions developed are business- appropriate and meet agreed-upon KPIs 

• Regularly educate your team, your Managing Partner and Discipline leadership on your clients’ business, culture and industry 

• Keep all leadership and team members informed and aware of new developments internally and externally 

• Develop your team through performance management and giving consistent feedback 

• Actively drive and support the efforts of leadership and the integrated client team, including SBUs, to deliver brilliant work, best in class, integrated solutions, and flawless execution, contributing to positive client satisfaction scores 
• Support SD/GD in leading key projects and internal timelines 

Commercial 

• Ensure over delivery of all agreed-upon performance KPI’s 

• Support the managing Partner in tracking and managing team staffing and resource allocation, and monitoring scope of work 

• Seek out opportunities to grow existing business and drive organic growth across group of accounts, through Initiative’s services as well as those of Mediabrands’ and IPG partner agencies 
• Regularly track and report progress against financial goals / targets across Initiative and Mediabands SBU’s 

New Business 

• Participate and project manage in new business when required – either on prospective clients or organically from your own group of clients 

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s): 

Client 

• Consistent, positive feedback on responsiveness, work product and management of day-to- day from clients 

• Client work regularly demonstrates and understanding and addressing of client KPIs 

• Give examples of how you have led Strategy, Client Advice, and Partnership to new thinking that resulted in incremental growth for client (beyond media planning). How have you challenged the client’s thinking about their business (again from a marketing, not a media perspective)? 

• Explain how you have challenged/managed the client in terms of deliverables, timing and keeping within scope. 
• Give examples of break-through/award winning work which you helped lead. 

Internal 

• Give examples where you have fostered collaboration among disciplines and SBUs or how you have contributed to a more effective/efficient workflow or product.  How have you mentored junior members of the team? 

• Demonstrate usage of agency tools and work process 

• Give examples of how you have taken initiative in making Initiative a better place to work (support office events, Diversity Council, streamline workflow). 
• Have positive recommendations on promotion from Client Advice and Management Group Director, Strategy Group Director and Partnerships Group Director, as well as at least one SBU Group Director 

Commercial 

• Demonstrate support of Group Director in managing P&L for client accounts (can articulate how P&L is calculated, what influences margins, how Group Director actively manages P&L). Help Group Director track hours by discipline to ensure they are in-line with best practices and scope. 

• Collaborate with Group Director to develop recommendations on understanding and improving billings, revenue, margins on managed clients 
• Describe efforts to manage to scope across disciplines. 

New Business 

• Give examples of recommendations to Group Director on appropriate, incremental application of SBUS to client business (i.e., develop a business case for at least three SBU units across clients) 
• Seek out opportunities to support at least one significant new business pitch over the assessment period 

QUALIFICATIONS:  

• Proven ability to develop and maintain strong professional relationships with clients, colleagues and vendors 

• Experience in Marketing, Advertising or Media 

• Experience in leading, managing and developing a team 

• Ability to drive projects from conception to completion; project management experience 

• Background in consulting, marketing, advertising or integrated communications 

• Strong leader, presenter and packager of opportunities 
• Strong commercial acumen 

Employee Transparency 

At IPG Mediabrands, we celebrate differences and believe this makes us stronger. IPG Mediabrands are equal-opportunity employers committed to championing an inclusive culture that provides a sense of belonging for all our employees. We do not discriminate against any applicant based on age, disability, race, colour, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, belief, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law. 

Please reach out to our Talent Inclusion Specialist Jess at [email protected] if you would like to have a confidential conversation regarding any adjustments that would ensure our recruitment process is accessible for you. Please note requesting a reasonable adjustment will not affect your application. 

The Perks 

We aim to provide all our people with a supportive and fun work environment where you can develop your full potential and benefit from the broad range of opportunities within the agency. When you join us, we want to make sure you feel valued – and that you are rewarded for your fantastic work. So, we also offer a range of benefits:

• Flexi–leave, with 25 days annual leave to be taken as minimum. In addition to your holiday entitlement, the office usually closes between Christmas & New Year 
• Free breakfast and free lunch
• Early finish Fridays
• Core Hours (Mon-Thurs, flexible start/finish times)
• Retail discounts
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice car scheme 
• Wellbeing programme, including Headspace & flu jabs 
• Interest free season ticket loan
• Paid time off for Volunteering
• Group Income Protection
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance or Health Cash Plan (dependent on level)
• Group Personal Pension Plan with matched contributions from 3-6%
• Generous Parental Leave & Pay
• Independent mortgage advice
• Financial education
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free eye tests
• Flexible benefits including Dental, Travel insurance, Cycle to Work, Gym Discounts and many more!