Senior Account Executive

October 5, 2023

The Senior Account Executive is a highly motivated, energetic individual who is responsible for building relationships between the client and the agency while exhibiting core values of curiosity, warmth and perseverance. They contribute to the agency purpose of helping people make decisions that are in accordance with their values by managing the day-to-day execution of the client’s marketing activity.

This role will actively support the Client Services team in positioning Marriner as a leading marketing communications company in the food, beverage and hospitality space. Reports to Managing Supervisor.

This is a full-time, hybrid position with HQ based in Columbia, MD. Employees are required to be in the office Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
 
Responsibilities:
 
Client Relationships

• Build and nurture positive client relationships
• Actively participate in client meetings, leading calls on projects you are responsible for
• Meet regularly with clients’ team to plan and execute marketing activities that are in alignment with objectives
• Gather, consolidate, and communicate feedback from the client on campaign work to build satisfaction, recognition of agency value and secure client trust
• Utilize your experience to respond to situations where possible, but understand when to involve more senior members of the Client Services team

Strategy

• Plan and conduct secondary and field market research
• Analyze primary research and extract insights
• Develop an understanding of marketing strategies and tactics that will be appropriate and effective for your clients
• Develop an understanding of why creative work has been developed and its relevance to a client’s strategy

Business Development

• Spot opportunities for organic business growth and share them with your manager
• Work with account supervisor to maintain each client’s budget to achieve the agency’s revenue to margin ratio goals
• Work closely with senior members of the Client Services team during pitch work
• When needed, play a key role presenting at pitch presentations

Creative Support

• Develop strong creative briefs that are rooted in research and client and marketing knowledge
• Brief creative teams in a simple, concise, yet inspiring manner, ensuring that they are fully aware of the client’s requirements
• Compassionately critique creative work and provide evidence-based opinions
• Ensure that the creative output matches the client’s brief and passes Marriner’s QA standards
• Respectively challenge client thinking when appropriate in order to ensure we are delivering work that aligns with our target’s values and business goals

Account Management

• Demonstrate organizational and time management skills to effectively manage work requirements
• Ensure senior account team members are aware of all critical client deadlines to enable them to support you in prioritizing work
• Work with project management to brief appropriate cross-functional team members on assigned projects
• Manage and update client status sheets and project tasks on a daily basis
• Review project schedules from project management, monitor progress of projects and ensure deliverables are released in a timely manner
• Take client feedback throughout every project’s lifespan and act as an intermediary between client and agency
• Ensure that both internal and external stakeholders involved in projects are informed of all developments, including time, budget, delivery issues and legal matters, at every stage of the project
• Identify opportunities to improve agency process and increase project profitability

Cross-Functional Relationships

• Foster good relationships with all internal departments and cross-functional teams
• Encourage teamwork and practice empathetic communication
• Assist with the coaching and development of Account Executives
• Proactively support your manager, suggesting new ideas and questioning thinking where appropriate
• Refer to senior team members for advice and support

 
Required Knowledge/Skills/Experience:
 

• Bachelor’s degree or higher is required
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience
• Agency experience or a client service facing role is preferred
• Food, beverage or hospitality industry experience is preferred
• Strong written and verbal communication and relationship-building skills within all levels of an organization
• Ability to build relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Proactive self-starter who is strategically aware
• Able to execute a marketing campaign with close attention to detail, analyze results and identify optimizations based on learnings
• Solid understanding of both traditional and digital marketing channels and tactics, and the ability to articulate how they work together to support a client’s objectives
• Supreme organizational and project management skills
• Budding presentation skills with a knack for compelling storytelling
• Take great pride in your work by being committed to delivering on all activities with excellence
• May require overnight travel up to 10-15%

 
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
 

• Client relationship building and retention
• Agency fees (net revenue) growth at or above target
• Presenting organic growth opportunities to manager and assist in successfully selling the offering/initiative in

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