Senior Account Director

Tokyo, Japan

Hogarth is the Global Content Experience Company. Part of WPP, Hogarth partners with one in every two of the world’s top 100 brands including Coca-Cola, Ford, Rolex, Nestlé, Mondelez and Dyson. With a breadth of experience across an extensive range of sectors, Hogarth offers the unrivaled ability to deliver relevant, engaging, and measurable content across all channels and media - both established and emerging. The number of channels at our fingertips; the need for speed; and the drive for mass personalisation, all mean that brands need different solutions. Our global team of over 7,500 craft and technology experts brings together creative, production and innovation to help clients navigate this exciting and ever-changing world of today’s content experience.

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 100,000 talented people dedicated to doing extraordinary work for our clients. We operate in over 100 countries, with corporate headquarters in New York, London and Singapore. WPP is a world leader in marketing services, with deep AI, data and technology capabilities, global presence and unrivalled creative talent. Our clients include many of the biggest companies and advertisers in the world, including approximately 300 of the Fortune Global 500. Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.

The Role:

The Senior Account Director plays an active role in leading and running the agency operations to support his/her team in the execution of world-class marketing communications. As the Client’s central point-of-contact, the SAD holds overall responsibility for the relationship with the Client and key stakeholders while ensuring Hogarth teams are engaged and motivated to perform.

This position requires the incumbent to have proven experience in a similar capacity with exceptional operations and stakeholder management skills. Possessing strong problem-solving skills and a keen eye for detail are critical factors for success in the role.

The successful candidate will report into the Regional Director at Hogarth Singapore, with a dotted line report into the General Manager at Hogarth Japan.

Key Responsibilities:

Client and Key Stakeholder Management

• Possess a strong understanding of and consistently deliver against all contractual obligations, commercial arrangements, KPIs and SLAs with the Client

• Build strong, trusting relationships with key stakeholders, manage perceptions and expectations

• Conflict resolution

• Operational planning and reviews

The Work

• Possess a solid understanding of production processes and the environment and infrastructure in which production professionals succeed

• Immerse into client’s business and proactively look for opportunities to enhance service levels

• Able to interpret insights into a persuasive point of view using agency data relating to planning and tracking deliverables, budgets and resourcing

Resource Management

• Ensure teams are engaged and motivated to perform

• Recruiting and staffing

• Plan and coordinate training/onboarding for incoming and existing teams

• Conduct and manage performance appraisal

• Team and one-on-one management/mentoring

• Ongoing engagement with key bench staff

• Point of escalation for Hogarth internal teams

Finance Management

• Quarterly budget planning, re-forecast, reconciliation and analysis

• Monitor budget utilization across teams and flag issues to Client

• Monitor P&L to ensure a healthy and sustainable account

• Manage resourcing across teams by monitoring utilization and productivity

• Ensure full compliance with all financial procedures and policies

• Manage and maintain a continual focus on cost and revenue

• Contribute to budgeting and forecasting process

• Meet/exceed financial and KPI targets

General Administration

• Security and contract compliance

• Logistics

• Office and systems setup

Requirements:

• Extensive client servicing experience, managing accounts/teams for a multinational creative agency

• Good understanding of Japanese business culture and ways of working; and being able to integrate that with a worldwide MNC culture – such as to drive Hogarth’s agenda
- Thus creating the ability to work well with either local Japanese stakeholders, international stakeholders across markets, and global leadership team
- Able to work with global counterparts in the business (eg. Operations Director, Managing Director, SMEs)

• Strategic thinker who can proactively and consistently provide various scenarios to achieve our ambitions and needs

• Flexible leader who can operate at various levels of leadership – from a higher vantage point to being hands on

• Excellent clients management skills, including direct clients and partner agencies

• Highly organized, meticulous, client-focused and proactive

• A collaborative, empathetic and visionary leader
- Able to lead a team of 20 people (FTE/FTC) and up to an additional 10-15 freelancers at any given time
- People person, able to build rapport with clients, colleagues and partner agencies

• Strong commercial acumen and numeracy skills

• Demonstrable agency management and high level problem-solving skills, very often under the challenging circumstances

• An excellent networker with exceptional people management skills

• Language skills: Japanese proficiency – native level & Strong English speaking and writing skills are essential

• Tenacious, have a go-getter attitude as one of the key KPIs is a business development

• Resilience and ability to work under pressure

• The ideal candidate is self-motivated, flexible and process-driven but able to deal with rapid change in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment

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Inclusion and Impact

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

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