Senior Account Manager Social & PR
17 hours ago
Royal Leamington Spa
We're looking for an experienced senior practitioner who genuinely invests in understanding our clients' businesses, their commercial objectives and the audiences they need to reach. Someone with serious creative ambition; who refuses to settle for safe, average work and pushes their teams and clients towards braver, sharper, more distinctive thinking. Someone who believes in progress over process, who knows when to follow a framework and when to break one to get to a better outcome. You'll be fluent in how AI is reshaping PR, social and content, and confident leading its integration into the way we work. You'll bring the confidence, credibility and gravitas to operate as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, media and influencers, and you'll thrive on building strategic, long-term client relationships and mentoring those around you. Accountabilities • Becoming a genuine expert in our clients' businesses, sectors and audiences, • Leading and growing strategic client relationships, • Driving the quality, ambition and impact of work delivered, • Owning the commercial health and growth of client accounts, • Leading the integration of AI into how we plan, create and deliver work, • Shaping and strengthening our agency culture Role responsibilities Becoming a genuine expert in our clients' businesses, sectors and audiences • Taking the time to learn how each client makes money, what success looks like for them and what keeps their leadership team awake at night, • Building a deep understanding of their audiences, the cultural context they sit within, and how that should shape PR and social activity, • Bringing sector insight, competitor intelligence and audience thinking into the room as a matter of course, • Using that understanding to challenge briefs constructively and recommend smarter, sharper solutions Leading and growing strategic client relationships • Acting as the senior day-to-day lead for clients, working closely with the Head of Department and Account Director to set strategic direction, • Managing and influencing senior client stakeholders, operating as a trusted partner and strategic counsel, • Identifying opportunities to grow accounts organically through new ideas, services and thinking Driving the quality, ambition and impact of work delivered • Setting a high creative bar; championing braver, sharper, more distinctive thinking and refusing to settle for safe defaults, • Selling ambitious work into clients with conviction and the strategic logic to back it up, • Championing progress over process; keeping work moving, making decisions, and protecting the team from unnecessary bureaucracy, • Leading the planning, development and delivery of integrated PR and social media campaigns, • Translating client briefs into smart, distinctive creative responses and challenging thinking where needed, • Setting measurement frameworks and interpreting performance data to demonstrate impact, ROI and inform future activity, • Spotting risks and opportunities ahead of time, and steering campaigns accordingly Owning the commercial health and growth of client accounts • Taking commercial ownership of accounts including forecasting, scoping, profitability and over-servicing, • Leading account and project management across multiple workstreams, balancing quality, time and budget, • Judging creative work on accuracy, strategic fit and effectiveness before it reaches the client, • Coordinating teams across the agency to deliver seamlessly Leading the integration of AI into how we plan, create and deliver work • Setting the standard for confident, considered AI use across PR, social and content workflows, • Identifying where AI can add genuine value to client work; research, insight, planning, content, reporting and measurement, • Coaching and upskilling junior team members in practical AI tools and techniques, • Bringing AI thinking into client conversations, recommendations and new business, • Applying sharp judgement on quality, accuracy, ethics and brand fit when AI is involved, • Staying ahead of the curve on emerging AI tools, platforms and techniques relevant to our clients Shaping and strengthening our agency culture • Collaborating with leads across the agency to deliver genuinely integrated solutions, • Playing a senior role in new business pitches, from insight through to presentation, • Line managing, coaching and developing junior team members, • Championing continuous learning, keeping the team ahead of emerging trends in PR, social, influencer and AI, • Sharing expertise across the agency through our internal learning programme, • Embodying and promoting our togetherness culture, vision, mission, values and behaviours Knowledge, experience and skills needed • Substantial agency-side experience in PR, social media and influencer marketing, with a track record of leading accounts, • Serious creative ambition and a track record of pushing for, selling in and delivering braver, more distinctive work, • Genuine curiosity about client businesses; able to talk fluently about commercial drivers, not just communications, • A progress-over-process mindset; bias for action, comfortable making calls and moving work forward, • Confident, hands-on experience integrating AI into PR, social and content workflows, with a clear point of view on where it adds value, • Hands-on AI content creation experience (copy, image, video, audio) a strong bonus, • Proven ability to manage and grow senior client relationships, • Strong commercial acumen with experience owning account profitability, • Excellent communication, writing and presentation skills, • Strategic and creative thinker, able to shape ideas as well as critique them, • Experience across both B2B and B2C clients, • Established media relations experience and a working network of contacts, • Confidence, credibility and presence with senior clients, media and influencers, • Experience mentoring or line managing junior team members, • Highly organised, with the judgement to prioritise across multiple competing demands, • Committed to ongoing professional development and raising the bar for those around you Poking beige in the eye. Cogent | Independent creative agency | Leamington Spa