Account Director (PR)

Company description

A three-time SABRE Canadian Agency of the Year winner North has achieved unprecedented success since launching in 2011. North's fresh approach to PR, influencer, social and digital has helped cement it as a Canadian agency leader.
North has found the sweet spot between boutique and large agency: this 'twelve-year-old start-up' is running on fresh momentum.

What's the secret? While a slew of major new clients are tapping the team for their unique blend of expertise, many of North's "OG" clients are expanding their work with the agency, fuelling organic growth.

We're an agency all about taking risks, thinking big and a true belief that good ideas can come from anywhere.

Overview

As an Account Director, PR, you will be working as part of a collaborative account team that partners with internal and external stakeholders, as well as other client agency partners, to drive smart, disruptive and unique earned PR ideas. With a focus on executing flawlessly and developing client relationships, an essential ingredient of your success is to critically think, under tight timelines to mitigate brand risk, while also standing out. From developing corporate reputation plans, to identifying key target and brand narratives, you are passionate about storytelling and committed to shaping some of Canada's most admired brands.

We're looking for a team player with an entrepreneurial spirit who can pair strong creative, strategic thinking and organizational abilities. As a senior lead you can work in a collaborative, fast-paced environment and consistently contribute to North's inclusive culture and high-performing team as a manager, coach and mentor.

You're skilled at client service, owning key relationships and building trust quickly with key senior client stakeholders that helps you always unlock new organic opportunities and positions North as our client's favourite agency.

Responsibilities

• Big picture strategist but able to keep a pulse on the details to ensure executional excellence from the team and self
• Mentor, coach and guide agency team members taking on direct reports after onboarding successfully
• Influential communicator, demonstrating excellent written and verbal presentation mastery
• Contribute to agency new business, leading and supporting with influencer strategies and related RFP processes
• Drive excellence in senior client CRM, communications and account management and growth
• Inspire, excite, challenge and motivate through coaching, career development and mentoring of agency team members, both direct reports and beyond. Ability to manage up and down with ease.
• Rigorous in forecasting, managing budgets and team resources for a specific set of client accounts
• Proficiency in data and insight gathering to enhance and sell in bold ideas
• Ability to foster strong relationships with Integrated Agency Team partners, but not afraid to disagree or change course if the collective strategies aren't aligned with meeting client outcomes
• Play a key role in planning, strategy and guiding teams to execute exceptional PR programming.

Qualifications

• 8-10 years of experience in PR space, developing integrated strategies
• Agency or client service experience
• Client and Project Management - Working as part of an account team on a fast-paced clients, developing and supporting PR to meet client objectives, across all media mediums. Includes strong client management, trend watching and sharing across teams and clients, budget development and management, event planning and management where appropriate.
• Superior writing and editing capabilities - Drafting and editing media materials including editorial pieces, media advisories, press releases, fact sheets and briefing books. Strong writing skills are required.
• Media Savvy - Written and verbal outreach with media contacts; strong relationships with retail and business media is required
• Critical and Strategic Thinking - To support the development of innovative campaigns you'll consistently bring to the table common sense, critical thinking and insights for your client which maximize the ROI of any campaign - big or small.
• Integrated Campaign Leadership - Oversee fully integrated communications including social media and digital programs for existing and new clients, as well as working with and managing multiple agency integrated teams.
• Industry knowledge and Curiosity - Demonstrate an understanding of how social/digital and online community engagement integrates into a complete communications program, as well as a curiosity for sharing emerging trends and their impact on Communication programs. Recognize key client industry issues relating to products, product categories, primary and potential competition and general issues facing the industry.
• Coaching, Mentorship and Contributing to Agency Culture - As a senior lead you will have the ability to work in a collaborative, fast-paced environment and consistently contribute to North's inclusive culture and high-performing team as a coach and mentor.
• Commitment to Organizational Goals - Identify organic growth opportunities within existing accounts and successfully grow current accounts, as well as collaboration with the with senior executive team to appropriately forecast (on-going and quarterly), meet profitability and revenue
• Excellent cross-functional leadership, presentation and communication skills
• Agility, speed and flexibility to manage workflow within a changing work environment
• Inter-agency experience working with creative, media, sponsorship, research and media buying companies to ensure all campaigns are fully integrated and agency relationships are nurtured
• Our successful candidate will possess some of the following attributes below. This is just a starting point - if you feel you don't meet the suggested experience and/or skills, we still encourage you to apply!

Who you are:

• Proactive leader, moving strategies and programs forward with confidence
• Strong media relationships across business, retail and consumer lifestyle
• Exceptional client management skills
• Excellent communication skills, dynamic, team player, excellent time management and organizational skills and is detail-oriented
• Proven track record of building high performance teams and adding value to company culture in a meaningful way
• Inter-agency experience working with advertising, digital, sponsorship, research and media buying companies to ensure all campaigns are fully integrated and agency relationships are nurtured
• Crisis communications experience including media training of key spokespeople
• An entrepreneurial thinker who takes independent actions and calculated risks
• Superior finance, project management, team resourcing and organizational abilities
• Strong interpersonal abilities to effectively manage internal and external relationships, vendors and agency partners
• Calm under pressure

Additional information

• Meaningful work where you can have a direct impact working on some of the biggest brands out there!
• A culture of entrepreneurship, creativity, growth and collaboration
• Work with top talent at an award-winning agency on a serious growth trajectory
• A focused commitment to career development and personal success - let us help you
• Highly competitive compensation and benefits package including substantial time off policies (like really. It's a big deal)
• All staff meetings so you're always in the know

Thank you very much for your interest in working with us. We look forward to meeting you!
NORTH STRATEGIC, MSL CANADA, NOTCH VIDEO, and MSL STUDIOS are committed to workplace diversity and will provide reasonable accommodation upon request to applicants with disabilities throughout the hiring process.