Company Profile
Elmwood Design Consultancy is a leading global design agency renowned for creating impactful and innovative brand experiences. With a rich history of design excellence, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of creativity and design to deliver outstanding results for our clients.
As an agency, our goal is to be an invaluable agency partner to our clients and help them grow their brands based on evidence based marketing principles. With access to MSQ’s broader capability set, particularly in digital and tech, we bring greater insight and channel specific expertise to meet the needs of today’s leading brands.
As a Group Account Director, you are dedicated to building long lasting relationships, strategic and profitable client relationships. You have insights, can ‘talk the talk’ with clients, show commercial leadership and define what is right for Elmwood through effective strategies. Clients need you in the room to have a quality conversation, and you’re comfortable negotiating. You’re a leader in a fast-paced environment who takes control, spending a fair amount of time directing those around you. You are self-motivated with an entrepreneurial mindset to embrace company spirit of growth and progress.
To be a truly great Group Account Director at Elmwood your focus will be on:
Relationships: You understand what great client service looks, delivering it everyday through leadership of your team. You immerse yourself into the client’s business. You develop a profitable industry network around you.
Creativity: You are a reservoir of knowledge, and constantly come up with new and interesting ways to delight your clients. You use the talent around you to provide strategic delivery.
Effectiveness: You resource projects well, ensuring you hit all financial and custodial targets. You have grown great client relationships and can now leverage these to unearth new opportunities.
The Role in Detail
- Strategic Account Management
- Long term and day to day hands- on project management of one large account and/or multiple accounts
- Lead 4-5 key clients (brands) relationships
- Strong strategic development and recommendations on branding and project related initiatives (actual projects/briefs) and pitches
- Support in research, planning and new business activities
- Drive new business and farming, strategic planning and brand consulting related projects
- Observe regular industry trends and best practices to fulfill your role as the client’s brand guardian
Client Relationship Management
- Primary relationship owner with an eye towards developing long term relationships, developing new relationships and increasing revenue significantly beyond initial engagements
- Develop strategies and processes/approaches to increase client satisfaction
- Manage client expectations/communications, expand client relationships as well as effective comprehension and delivery of expectations
- Effectively manage all aspects of client and internal/external communications and end-to-end deliverables to ensure that projects and delivered on- time, on –budget and exceeding expectations
Project Management
- Ability to manage multiple, highly complex projects simultaneously across multiple clients
- Holistic understanding of client/projects’ impact across all departments - not just your own projects
- Lead the implementation of 4D and 4C, ensuring client management team understands the process and can explain its value to Clients
- Manage Client relationships in line with the company’s philosophy, tools and process
- Effective resource planning that is optimal across functions
Commercial Management
- Prepare proposals, estimating costs (including costing strategy), timelines and case studies
- Translate and/or write strategic/effective Creative and Production Briefs to ensure the successful delivery of assignments
- Clarity and persuasion of proposals
- Effectively manage implementation end of the projects as well as 3rd party suppliers/vendors (supported by Production team)
- Gather, monitor and manage project status and billing information
- Support the development of internal processes to improve efficiency
- Group level P/L responsibility – achieving targets whilst maintaining optimum cost ratios for profitability
- Ensure healthy cashflow and on time payment
People Management
- Participate in hiring new client services employees and work with CSD/MD to assess and compose client teams
- Provide direction and development to team members ensuring performance is managed in line with the performance review process (junior, peer and senior)
- Strong mentoring and leadership skills
Desired Skills and Expertise
- Prior experience in CPG is a must
- Strong written and presentation skills especially in English
- Strategic thinker and do-er
- An amazing networker, talking the talk and delighting clients
- Deep packaging experience- 2D graphics and 3D structural design
- Ability to manage multiple projects and project team across disciplines simultaneously
- Plenty of curiosity, rigour, initiative and passion to excel
- Attention to detail and accuracy
- Problem solver
- Excellent prioritisation and negotiation skills
- Team-player
- Strong sense of responsibility and commitment
- Fully proficient in MS Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) and Keynote application
- Minimum an undergraduate degree, ideally in Business, Marketing or Communications