Senior Digital Account Director

What we’re looking for:

We’re looking for a proactive, friendly and experienced Senior Account Director to join the Supercell client services team. The team work across the full spectrum of Supercell titles for games that are globally launched and games in their BETA period.

With at least 4 years experience as an Account Director, the Senior Account Director is responsible for running Waste’s largest account and managing the ongoing progress towards the account’s goals. They’ll work closely with the Client Services Director in setting the direction for their clients, as well as help identify opportunities to establish agency-wide best practice client servicing.

With a focus on social and video, but plenty of room to grow into other areas of digital and beyond, we’re looking for someone who loves autonomy, ownership and opportunity, to partner with our clients to make exceptional work.

We’re also looking for someone who is a passionate gamer if you don’t regularly play games on your mobile, console, PC or another gaming device this role is not for you.

The successful applicant will have:

• A minimum of 4 years hands-on agency experience as an Account Director with a strong focus on digital content production, social, 2D & 3D video
• Experience working with entertainment or gaming clients is required
• Demonstrable experience in generating new business leads from within an existing account. As part of this the ability to develop relationships over zoom, email, slack etc. is crucial. Our clients are not based in the UK.
• Line Management experience is required. You will be used to, and enjoy, managing and developing a team
• Meticulous attention to detail and ability to problem solve challenging projects at any phase, at lightning speed with enthusiasm
• The ability to switch project priorities at speed whilst asking the right questions to the client to ensure requests are completely understood and possible knock-on effects are communicated, all the while ensuring that the rest of the team are abreast of latest updates
• Be an instantly likeable, approachable and friendly person, keen to collaborate, share knowledge and help others within the team.
• Focusing on helping the team find solutions rather than problems
• An ability to independently influence and manage senior stakeholders including client, internal teams and third parties
• A confident communicator ensuring both our clients and our internal teams are all well informed about their responsibilities, deadlines and deliverables from kick-off
• Demonstrable experience delivering high-quality projects on time and budget, ensuring both the client and agency are proud and happy with the result
• Problem-solving skills to be able to assist with project blockers escalated to you
• A thorough understanding of design standards, practices and technical knowledge.
• Experience in the gaming sector
• Experience working with clients in different time zones

Your duties will be to:

General:

• Ensure the account team client plans are updated weekly and discussed with the Client Services Director.
• Play the games, learn them back to front and be prepared to be asked very specific questions about game intricacies
• Part of a team of approvers ensuring all content released to the client is on brand, fit for purpose and correctly follows the detailed intricacies of the games and the brand standards. Usually as a last check before work is delivered to the client
• Be the first client point of contact for senior client relationships.
• Ensure that all clients understand that you are point of escalation, if Account Managers are not available for example
• Update finance reports weekly and ensure that financial targets are met
• Point of escalation where budget decisions need to be made bearing in mind profitability of the entire account and entire account finances
• Approval of all account costs before sharing with the clients.
• Suggesting workflows to ensure projects are managed efficiently, foreseeing problems and suggesting mitigation plans along the way.
• Attend project brainstorms/kick-offs ensuring that Account and Project Managers are prepared to accurately brief the team on requirements and flagging watchouts
• Staying up to date with current social trends, competitors and the Supercell community to understand how they work, think and what will and won’t resonate with them. Using this understanding to ensure that work will be effective.
• Where required, own, lead and facilitate client status calls, keep clients on their toes, asking the right questions
• Interrogate higher value client and internal briefs, ensuring they are fit for purpose before project kick off
• Lead the accounts teams on developing the client account plan for each account with support from the CSD.

Line Management responsibilities:

• You will act as a sounding board/critical friend/decision maker for the Supercell team where necessary
• This includes managing a team of 3 direct reports (3 mid weight AMs)
• You will manage 121s, personal development plans, objective setting and will regularly check in with each team member on their progress in these areas
• You will lead annual reviews, with support from the Client Services Director

Working with the Client Services Director:

• Work collaboratively on future planning and content road map
• Have regular communication with HODs to ensure the smooth-running of the account
• Work collaboratively with the Strategy and Creative Directors to convert insights/opportunities into sellable ideas
• Work with the CSD to establish and champion the CS Standard of Excellence and Best Practice Ways of Working.
• Feed into and help prepare documentation as the CS SoE and WoWs are established
• As leader on the biggest account/s, help ensure learnings are communicated with the wider CS team on quarterly CS sessions.

Work with the Production team:

• To support the Head of Production with the growth and capacity management of the dedicated Supercell project managers
• To ensure that projects are resourced and prioritised properly
• To ensure projects managed by the team are on track in terms of costing, scope and deadlines
• Ensure SoWs are delivered on time and contain accurate budgets, cross-checking against recorded resource hours accordingly
• Budgets are kept to up to date and are approved by clients prior to work beginning
• To monitor profitability

In return, you’ll get:

• A monthly game budget to spend on in-app purchases
• Competitive salary
• The opportunity to develop your own skills in a fun, supportive environment.
• To work on big game titles in a fast-paced, exciting and ever-growing agency
• To work alongside extremely passionate digital natives, producing world-class work
• Early-finish Fridays in August & February
• Christmas and summer parties you'll want to post about
• Cycle to work scheme
• Birthdays off
• Volunteer days
• Access to Employee Assistant Programme (EAP)
• Flexible start times
• Group Life Assurance
• Group Income Protection

About Waste

Waste is a fan-first creative agency founded in 2006. We connect entertainment brands with their fans, to drive creativity, culture and commercial success. A virtuous circle we call ‘Brands powering fans, powering brands’.

Our clients include the mobile gaming giant, Supercell (Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars) for whom we oversee player acquisition and retention, built around community listening and high-speed, high-quality content creation. We also work with the mighty Nintendo, creating TV, OOH and integrated marketing campaigns, for both hardware and software. Other notable clients include Riot Games (League of Legends), Warner Brothers Games, Sega, Verizon Media and Zynga.We recently became part of the Keywords family, an international technical and creative services provider to the entertainment industry. We employ 75+ wasters globally, covering strategy, creative, social, content, experiential, OOH, and TV. Our HQ is in London, and we work with brands around the world.

Our approach to everything is shaped by The Waste Way (our company values), and an entrepreneurial spirit. It’s seen us win 100+ awards, including being named Content Marketing Agency and Digital Industries (DADI) Agency of the Year by The Drum, and we now rank 10th in The Drum’s World Creative Rankings of the UK’s most awarded agencies. We’re one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work 2021 and one of the UK’s 100 Best Small Companies to Work For, as accredited by Best Companies. Our work has won us awards from shows including Art Directors Club, BIMA, D&AD, Clio, Design Week, The Drum, Marketing Week Masters, and The Webby Awards.

We brew our own craft beer, the Waste Pale Ale, a favourite with clients and fans. A couple of years ago, we started our own animation production company, This Thing of Ours, which has since won a D&AD Graphite Pencil and Motionographer Award amongst others. We also support the UK based gaming charity, SpecialEffect.

The Waste Way

At Waste, we live by 4 key cultural pillars and expect ALL Wasters to live up to these principles. This is what Waste was founded on:

Be Brave – We look for fresh ways to solve problems and encourage diversity of thought.

Own Your Shit - We value actions over words and empower Wasters to make things happen.

Make it Better – We’re always looking for ways to improve our work, agency and ourselves.

Be Kind – We’re a team. Win together, lose together, learn together.

How Wasters embrace Diversity & Equal Opportunity

Us Wasters are committed to diversity, equality and inclusion. For us diversity and inclusion are not just a tick-boxing activity, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change. A diverse workforce means that we’re able to unlock our ability to innovate, be creative, be better problem solvers and provide an inclusive environment for everyone and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.