Positions: Account Manager, Communications Design - Volvo

Account Manager, Communications Design - Volvo Location: London, England, United Kingdom Agency: Initiative - United Kingdom Ref#: 15368 Job Function: Planning Type of Contract: Regular

About Us

Initiative unlocks business growth for the world's most ambitious brands. We believe in the power of media to reshape our industry and orchestrate a brand's entire consumer experience, by balancing both what unites people and what makes them different.

When brands unite people in culture, they build Fame, and when brands connect individuals to their unique journeys, they build customer Flow.

Media responsibility is at the forefront of everything we do, whether it's creating media plans that reflect the diversity of our communities, promote brand safety, and foster sustainability.

Our agency celebrates diversity in an inclusive environment where all of our 6,000+ strong talent across 90+ markets feel seen, heard, and valued. Our vision is to create not only a better media company, but also a better media industry, and maybe even a better world.

CLIENT OVERVIEW:

Volvo Cars - Driving Change Together

Many brands talk about purpose, but Volvo embodies it. Its values, deeply ingrained in its identity, drive its success.

Volvo places its brand and purpose at the core of its business. The guiding principle, For Life, reflects its mission to provide freedom of movement in a personal, sustainable, and safe way.

Personal - For Life
Life is precious and so is living. Volvo helps people embrace life, celebrating individuality and the freedom to be themselves. The company strives to simplify life, reduce stress, and enable joy and peace of mind. Rooted in Swedish values, Volvo prioritizes quality of life as much as life itself.

Sustainable - For Life
Volvo protects people and the planet, aiming for net-zero emissions and a circular economy. Its commitment to sustainability improves lives globally.

Safe - For Life
Since 1927, when co-founder Gustaf Larsson declared, "Cars are driven by people. The guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo, therefore, is and must remain, safety," Volvo has been synonymous with safety. It continues to pioneer the safest, smartest mobility technologies to protect lives.

Missions
Volvo's five missions drive its business:

1. People: Empower employees to live the company's values, positively impacting customers, partners, and society.
2. Product: Deliver people-centred, fully electric products by 2030.
3. Technology: Develop innovations benefiting people and the planet.
4. Customers: Foster growth through strong consumer relationships and omni-channel approaches.
5. Digital: Build secure digital infrastructure to enable scalability and efficiency.

Volvo Cars is advancing toward full electrification. Electric and hybrid models now make up nearly 50% of sales, making this a pivotal time to help shape the future of mobility with Volvo's inspiring teams. Our job as Volvo's global media agency partner is to help them hit their ambitious sales and electrification goals in 31 countries worldwide.

Department Overview

Communications design is the discipline and practice of crafting how a brand idea will be delivered through communications across an owned, earned and paid ecosystem in order to achieve a desired behavioral outcome.

Initiative's Communications Design team is creating the future of planning. Borrowing skills from User Experience, Digital, Public Relations and Content, these media professionals are responsible for curating how people connect and participate with brands through culturally rich ideas. Instead of considering the experience of a brand in components (media / channel planning), Communications Designers think about brand experience in totality (ecosystem planning) ensuring every encounter is useful and impactful.

The Communications Design team dynamically brings brands to life through their actions. They:

• Are experts in consumer and communications behavior, and how changes in behaviors are creating new opportunities for connection.
• Lead the creation of the dynamic ecosystem approach to deliver a strategy.
• Work with partners (media, creative, technology, platforms, Specialty Business Units) to curate how a brand should connect within culture.
• Lead the identification of the right audiences to address how to meet business goals, and guide the quantification of connection encounters holistically.
• Champion innovative, forward-thinking activities that help brands create value with their audience.

Role Description

As Manager, you are responsible for managing the production and application of accurate and insightful consumer, cultural, media and market intelligence to contribute to an impactful communications ecosystem for your client. You will be supporting the team's efforts to ensure brilliant strategy, design, flawless execution, and most importantly, delivery on KPIs and business results for your client.

You are the day-to-day contact for the client and the internal team. You are supporting the Associate Director manage planning across disciplines to ensure everything is operating smoothly, accurately, and on deadline. You are learning to be an authority on your client's business to the agency and an authority on Initiative and the SBUs to the clients.

In this role, you are responsible for the preparation of the communications flowchart, and ensuring the communications plan is built on solid, data rich fundamentals that help brands grow. Working with partnerships, media vendors, and your communications design team, you ensure the accuracy of the inputs required for the development of the flowchart, and are responsible for ensuring any changes made to the approach are reflected in the plan.

As Manager, you are an expert in the Initiative design process, tools and techniques, and how to best apply and adapt these for a given scenario. You are a gifted planner who is able to synergize multiple data points into cohesive story around the communications idea. You are a strong and nurturing manager, able to ensure your support design talent are able to produce high quality planning inputs that result in an effective, culturally resonant, highly connected communications solution. You will also continuously improve media plans to meet and exceed benchmarks and targets. Update stakeholders on actions, live status, and pacing against the plan. Report outputs per the agreed schedule and media metrics. Ensure transparency and alignment in performance tracking and updates.

Key Responsibilities

Client

• Responsible for the delivery of accurate, impactful inputs that power the client's communications plan and grow their business.
• Responsible for the timely, accurate delivery of day to day requests from the client and team.
• Responsible for regular trend identification, culture and competitive analysis for client.
• Begins to build relationships with day to day leads on the client side, as well as with clients' partner agencies.
• Project manages all client proposals, recommendations and points of view.
• Manages and is accountable for ensuring best in class financial stewardship (PO process, media budget management, client billing, billing discrepancies).

Internal

• Day to day project management support across the full integrated client team.
• Work with the Associate Director and Partnerships team to develop the RFP to develop the best possible plan for the communications idea.
• Attend client briefings, summarize all client needs and objectives to Client Advice senior leaders and to the integrated Strategy, Communications Design and Partnership leads.
• Build relationships and support the needs of all discipline team members that work with your client(s).
• Support your Associate Director in leading key projects and internal timelines.

Commercial

• Contribute to the profitability of primary accounts, and involvement of SBU.

Desired Skills & Experience

• Experience in integrated planning role in media, publisher / vendor, or communications discipline (digital, content).
• Media planning skills must be polished or able to be developed.
• Category or audience experience as relevant per assignment.
• Experience in managing or developing staff.
• Ability to delegate and oversee direct reports.
• Excellent written, verbal communication and presentation skills.
• Strong time-management and organizational skills.
• Required PC proficiency and solid working knowledge of Microsoft Office (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
• Proven problem-solving ability.
• Ability to work successfully within a team, handling multiple projects and meeting tight deadlines under pressure.

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.
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