Campaign Director

CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR

THE DETAILS:

Job Title: Campaign Director (2 positions available)

Department: Client Delivery

Reports to: Head of Campaign Delivery, Managing Partner for Client Delivery

Responsible for: Potential for line management responsibilities in future

Hours: Full time

Location: Manchester, Northern Quarter. We operate a Hybrid working policy of ideally minimum 3 days in office per week.

THE AGENCY

Ear to the Ground is a global sport, gaming, and entertainment creative agency with a unique model that sets us apart. We are driven by Fan Intelligence®, our global network of 11,000 influential tastemakers and fans. Our real time insight into what fans truly want, enables us to create compelling work that consistently pushes the boundaries of culture.

We pride ourselves on being the agency that listens better than anyone to solve our clients' challenges, maximise their sport, gaming and entertainment partnerships, and ultimately build brands that lead culture. We have long term partnerships with the likes of PlayStation, New Balance and Coca-Cola.

You can learn more about the agency with a short film here.

THE ROLE:

As a Campaign Director, you are a visionary account leader, a master of consistently exceptional agency execution, and a leader capable of making us famous for groundbreaking work. You will lead the end-to-end delivery of high profile client campaigns, ensuring they are executed with precision, within budget, and to the absolute highest creative standards. This role demands not just exceptional project management, but also a strategic mindset for stakeholder coordination and an innate ability to navigate the intricate complexities of multi-channel campaign execution. 

You will be at the forefront of driving social first, innovative approaches, leveraging deep expertise in earned media and influencer strategies, and consistently contributing to award winning work that captures the industry's attention (e.g. Cannes, Effies and others). You'll have a strong track record and proven capability of delivering award-winning, effective campaigns and client growth and be able to demonstrate this in the interview process.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Campaign Leadership & Delivery:

• Oversee the strategic planning, flawless execution, and impactful delivery of integrated campaigns, ensuring every element is meticulously aligned with the client’s objectives, overarching brand strategy and agency best practices.
• Masterfully manage timelines, budgets, and resources, proactively solving complex challenges to ensure campaigns consistently hit their marks and exceed expectations.
• Drive seamless collaboration across creative, production, strategy, and media teams, fostering a "one team" mentality where all members are working towards a collective, ambitious goal.
• Champion and celebrate team and project wins, fostering a culture of recognition and high performance.
• Directly lead work that shatters client and industry expectations, consistently aiming for award-winning recognition.

Client & Stakeholder Management:

• Serve as the pivotal key point of contact for our clients, consulting with strategic guidance and creating robust, lasting relationships that drive repeat business and referrals.
• Collaborate deeply with brand partners, talent, external agencies, and internal teams, ensuring absolute alignment on campaign vision and execution to deliver maximum impact.
• Rigorous weekly tracking of client health updates alongside Campaign Managers, meticulously logging project risks and client experience actions to guide internal strategic adjustments.
• Deliver compelling campaign updates, insightful reports, and impactful post campaign analyses to all stakeholders, effectively communicating value and success.
• Empower and strategically develop any direct reports assigned, nurturing their growth and fostering a high-performing team.

Operational & Financial Management:

• Take overall responsibility for campaign commercial performance, constantly seeking opportunities to drive growth in margin, repeat business, and recommendation, providing our clients value-add through your leadership and consultancy.
• Strategically manage campaign budgets, ensuring exceptional cost efficiencies whilst upholding creative integrity.
• Ensure comprehensive weekly reporting on projects, maintaining a clear oversight of performance and progress across your portfolio, as well as advice on risk controls.
• Conduct regular capacity planning and forecasting with the Head of Campaign Delivery, optimising team resource allocation for maximum effectiveness.
• Proactively identify potential risks and implement solutions to mitigate project roadblocks, ensuring smooth and successful campaign delivery.

Creative & Strategic Collaboration:

• Effectively partner with Creative and Strategy to bring together commercial focus with strategic and creative ambition. Active designing-out and prevention of overservicing through conscious and effective project design, while ensuring campaign concepts translate into effective, social first executions that resonate deeply with audiences and lead culture and optimise agency profitability.
• Work hand in hand with strategy teams, integrating cutting edge insights and data into campaign planning, demonstrating deep expertise in earned media and influencer strategies.
• Ensure all campaign outputs not only align with the brand’s creative vision and market positioning but consistently push boundaries and embrace new tech.
• Collaborate with the client growth team, identifying and capitalising on opportunities for agency expansion and new business.
• Consistently think beyond conventional media, embracing new technologies and demonstrating how they can fuel proactivity and campaign innovation (creative use of AI in campaigns is a bonus).

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Our ideal successful candidate will have: 

• 7+ years of extensive experience in campaign/project management within a industry leading creative, advertising, or marketing agency, with a proven track record of contributing to award-winning work - Cannes, Effies, or others.
• A sophisticated understanding of integrated marketing campaigns, with deep expertise in social first strategies, earned media, influencer marketing, digital, experiential, and content production, consistently thinking beyond traditional ATL.
• Exceptional leadership and stakeholder management skills, with significant experience handling high profile clients and partners, able to hold ground with the best marketeers in the industry.
• A proven ability to strategically manage multiple complex, high stakes projects simultaneously in a fast paced environment, demonstrating consistently exceptional agency execution.
• Superior financial acumen, with extensive experience overseeing large campaign budgets and strategic resource planning, with a clear focus on driving growth in margin, repeat business, and recommendation.
• A passion for staying ahead of industry trends and embracing new technologies, fuelling proactivity; demonstrable experience with AI in campaigns is highly desired.
• A deep passion for sport, culture, and compelling storytelling is a significant plus.
• The ability to commute to central Manchester.

OUR CULTURE

We are dedicated to making Ear to the Ground an amazing place to work where people grow, develop and thrive. We pride ourselves on our dynamic and exciting culture, excellent support of staff and fantastic benefits package. We have made it our mission to lead the way in being an inspiring, future-thinking, creative agency and are invested in our people because they are the ones that will make that happen.

Some of our benefits include:

• 🕒 Flexible & hybrid working
• 🎉 Birthday off
• 👶 Workplace nursery benefit
• 👩‍👧‍👦 Enhanced maternity & paternity
• 🏥 Private health insurance
• 🤒 Enhanced sick leave
• 🚴‍♂️ Cycle to Work scheme
• 📈 Personal development coaching
• + more!