Associate Business Director – Communications Consultancy

Company Description

Creativity has the power to transform human behavior This is the core belief of what we call HumanKind. It’s not about advertising or brand propositions or selling products. It’s about people and purpose. It’s an approach to marketing that serves true human needs, not the other way around. That’s why everything we do for brands at Leo Burnett MEA is designed with a human purpose in mind. A brand without purpose is one that will never be understood or embraced by people. A brand with purpose can be a true agent of change and transform the way people think, feel or act. A brand with a true HumanKind purpose can change the world. Our dream is to be the best creator of ideas that truly move people – bar none. Leo Burnett Worldwide, part of Publicis Groupe, is one of the world’s largest agency networks with 96 offices and nearly 10,000 employees. In 2012, the global network was awarded a record-breaking 55 Lions at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and was also named “Network of the Year” by YoungGuns, Dubai Lynx and MENA Cristal Awards. Leo Burnett works with some of the world’s most valuable brands including The Coca-Cola Company, Fiat, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, Nintendo, P&G, Samsung and Allstate among others. To learn more about Leo Burnett Middle East and North Africa visit leoburnettmea.com, facebook.com/leoburnettmea and follow us via @LeoBurnettMEA on Twitter and Instagram.

Job Description

Responsibility and Focus

Responsible for both building client relationship and monitoring a team, while collaborating with senior leadership (Business Lead / CEO), the various departments of the agency (creative, strategy, production) and other potential partners from Publicis Group (media, Vertical, epsilon, sapient)

Be able to ensure the smooth development of the brands’ strategies and integrated communication, translating business needs to creative challenges and ensuring a timely delivery milestone.

Identifying and developing opportunities to drive new business proposals involving the group capabilities

Inspire, mentor, and guide the career development of junior team members 

Main Tasks

Technical & Product

Leading the entire development of end-to-end campaigns in collaboration with the agency ‘s departments (strategy, creative services, creative, production) and when required, with other Publicis Group ‘s team such as media, Publicis Content, Data & Sciences, e-commerce, Sapient or Epsilon etc.

Responsible for developing, leading, and owning the agreed SOW per clients

Manage the day-to-day relationship with clients and having the ability to work with wide spectrum of clients

Business Acumen & Operational Efficiency

Build trusted relationships with clients to transform the traditional work/exchanges into an advisor/consulting conversation: understanding business needs and requirements to proactively support your clients’ business growth.

Understand and be curious about client business, the industry, the competition, trends and innovations

Demonstrate strong project management skills and ability to prioritize, and work under pressure

Ensuring campaigns or projects are delivered on time and brief, with a keen sense of attention to detail and high standard of work

Constantly exceed client expectations and ensure KPI’s are met

Confidently manages multiple projects, multiple clients on multiple markets as well as internal stakeholders

Strong understanding of budgeting, forecasting and P&L and be able to do periodically reviews with the finance department

Lead the full operational side of projects and support coordination tasks, managed by the account managers /executive who need to be supported and guided around key campaigns and deliverables.

Set clear roles and responsibilities at the start of each project for your team, allowing for their constant development and learning

Innovative & Analytical Mindset

Ability to think strategically, creatively, and analytically to challenge the clients’ partners and propose innovative solutions to briefs 

Identify growth opportunities and solutions within the assigned clients for Publicis group’s vertical or services (media, CRM…)

Proactively share ideas and innovations supporting current products and services or with new partnerships 

Proven strong communication and negotiation skills with a sharp problem-solving mindset

Produces insightful, innovative, and clearly articulated presentations

People & Leadership

• Takes initiative to challenge an established point of view with respect and openness.
• Able to use storytelling to connect with internal and external stakeholders in a compelling manner to influence and inspire.
• Able to handle complex issues and make decisions even when missing information.
• Capable of proactively developing meaningful relationships with key decision makers. 
• Accepts responsibility for client problems, manages conflict and actively works to solve issues internally and externally.
• Able to build succession plans and grow and mentor future talent.
• Able to provide constructive feedback to others in a timely manner.
• Demonstrates a collaborative and positive spirit and showcases inclusivity towards all people.
• Listens and proactively seeks views from others to create an environment that is transparent and comfortable for others to share.
• Able to motivate their team to pursue goals and deliver beyond their beliefs.
• Able to assess ideas and people on merit alone, without bias or favoritism and gives recognition when due.
• Empowers individuals to solve problems with full support when needed.
• Capable of coaching and supporting others by aligning career expectations providing actionable, open and constructive feedback.
• Capable of persuading others with integrity by understanding their motivations and identifying their concerns and work toward solving them.
• Proactively and continuously work towards improving effective team working and collaboration.
• Able to handle complex messages and is able to convey issues to facilitate others’ understanding. 
• Able to initiate and lead open conversations with internal and external stakeholders to build a culture of trust.
• Capable of creating opportunities for others to grow and demonstrate their learning agility.
• Drives a culture of trust with peers, clients and other stakeholders.

Self

• Able to adjust performance based on experiences and feedback and showcases agility and flexibility.
• Displays openness to the ideas of others and leverages them when beneficial for the business.
• Demonstrates the growth mindset and proactively adapts behavior and performance for sustained success.
• Able to set high impact objectives and goes above and beyond to exceed performance.
• Able to demonstrate agility and flexibility to respond and reprioritize based on different situations.
• Able to constructively challenge the status quo and take risks to challenge internal and external perspectives.
• Approaches situations and individuals with honesty, integrity, transparency and humbleness.
• Showcases resilience and maintains drive and a positive outlook when faced with challenges.
• Actively listens and is receptive to others’ feedback on performance.
• Able to take justified risks when appropriate and take accountability and responsibility when things don’t go as planned.
• An early identifier of change, able to proactively develop and share plans to seize opportunities.
• Acts ethically and makes ethical decisions in line with local regulations and contracts, even in the face of ethical challenges.
• Able to listen to other people in a way that they feel understood, and is respectful of others.
• Able to make timely decision that take into account different factors in ambiguous circumstances, considering impacts internally and externally.
• Able to build initiatives despite doubts or resistance from others to deliver strategic impact.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 8 years+ experience with a track record in brand, digital, social and data-driven marketing projects in a communication, media or marketing industry
• Experience in being client facing in a leading role
• Excellent understanding of end-to-end communication eco-system, with a deep -understanding of digital, data usages and technology 
• Experience in planning, strategy, managing and activating multichannel campaigns.
• BSc degree (or similar) in Marketing, Digital Technologies, Business Management, Business Administration, or relevant field.

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