Account Manager | PR | Ogilvy Africa

 

JOB PURPOSE – SUMMARY

Account Managers in Ogilvy Africa’s PR&I team are responsible both for executing excellent communication and for creating a stimulating environment within which others can do great work. This means you are in touch with more than just the media, so that our work lands most effectively in the world. Account Managers are also responsible for the effective operationalizing of client projects and the smooth week-by week running of the account. As an Account Manager it is critical that you are proactive and positive in your management of our client relationships.

---

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

Knowledge Areas

• Providing strategic counsel to clients and developing their communications plans.
• Developing and executing media relations strategies, including identifying and developing outreach opportunities, drafting media materials and pitching to the media.
• Developing messaging and drafting stakeholder communications, including press releases, speeches, presentations and more.
• Developing and executing executive visibility and thought leadership campaigns.
• Understanding the role for, developing strategies for, and being active in the development of social, digital and audio-visual content.
• Actively managing partner and client relations where we work as part of a group on product launches, events and other program initiatives.
• Participating in the execution of pitches, from being an active member of strategy and creative development, to taking ownership of project management and quality standards.
• Delivering essential administrative and organizational support to senior colleagues in the team.
• Being active in developing high-performing teams that regularly exceed client and agency expectations.

Client Management:

• Understanding the clients’ business, it’s communication goals and the strategic plans to meet those goals.
• Effectively defining client challenges, agreeing the right comms brief to solve those challenges and being able to work as part of a team both within the PR&I team and across the agency to ensure we solve them in the most effective ways.
• Working with your senior team to develop the right overarching strategies and annual plans for clients to achieve their objectives.
• Working independently and managing the day-to-day implementation of client activities from our office and onsite with our clients, including responding appropriately and immediately to client requests and concerns, and keeping clients informed of the status of projects.
• Identifying opportunities for deeper, more valuable contributions to the client and collaborating with senior colleagues to realise these opportunities.

Earned Comms Expertise

• The ability to co-ordinate and process basic research that enables us to understand our client’s landscape and the cultural insights that lead to better work.
• Demonstrated curiosity to understand new areas of culture and new ways of thinking about audiences so that our work and collective expertise is continuously progressing.
• Comfortable working across more than media relations, including thought leadership and experiential activations across both consumer and business audiences.

Talent Management, Internal Relationships and Effective Collaboration:

• Taking responsibility for effective, high quality team communication, both written and verbal, ensuring all team members and clients receive contact reports, briefs, market information, timing schedules, minutes etc.
• Beginning to develop people management skills by coaching and developing direct reports.
• Effectively managing work and relationships both up and down the team, working efficiently and effectively with the senior leaders and stakeholders right across the business.
• Forming strong and enduring relationships with team members, both within PR&I and across the wider business.
• Helping to create a positive working culture whilst ensuring that we continue to deliver for clients and the business.
• Strong written communications skills, both long-hand and in PowerPoint. The ability to convey an argument in a compelling and concise way. Presentation skills, articulating smart solutions in a straightforward way.
• Personal energy and determination, along with organisational and interpersonal skills.

Commercial Management:

• Managing the accounts billing system and contribution to financial process.
• Ensuring that all work in progress can be reconciled, that projects are in time and to within budget, that they are billed in a timely manner and that we fulfil our financial commitments to third parties.
• Ensuring the agency responds to any financial queries within 48 hours.

---

PROFESSION, TECHNICAL SKILL AND PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• Must have an understanding of the digital ecosystem.
• Great project management and attention to detail.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Great team player with strong leadership qualities.
• Management and coaching of direct reports.
• Proactively demonstrates added value – bringing solutions to problems and delivering more than just what is asked for.
• Outgoing, confident and flexible.
• Natural communicator – good with people.
• Enjoys challenges – and great at juggling projects/multitasker.
• Quick learners and receptive to client’s and supervisor’s feedback.
• Shows enthusiasm, passion, pride, and commitment.
• 3-5 Years of relevant experience.

---

OGILVY AFRICA – COMPANY OVERVIEW

Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency on the continent catering to 40 countries with a team of ~900 people across Central, East and West Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi - Kenya, Ogilvy Africa manages a portfolio of over 100 brands for clients such as AB InBev, Airtel, Africa CDC, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Distell, Equity Bank, Exxon Mobil, Kenya Airways, Mondelez, NCBA, Nestle, Philips, PWC, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Total, UNICEF, Unilever, and WWF amongst others.

Ogilvy has a distinctive positioning and proposition that is key for current times, when clients desire a partner to help them realize their growth ambitions or to get back to growth. Simply put our ambition is to be, “The Best Platform and Partner for Growth on the Planet.”

This proposition is anchored on true shared value, what our world needs now, creating human (societal) value; employee value and commercial value. This proposition cuts across our key mega-businesses ABC (Advertising, Branding and Content), Experience (including CRM and e-commerce), PR & Influence and Media (focussed on performance marketing).

In addition, we’ve created proprietary marketing products in areas such as real-time marketing, social intelligence, performance marketing, e-commerce enablement and content hubs. Our unique operating model, One Ogilvy, allows clients and brands to cut the complexity of agency structures and create seamless omni-channel experiences for their consumers, across touchpoints. Fuelled by the holy trinity of content, data, and technology; Ogilvy Africa strives to be the best-practice agency model, for Developing & Emerging markets.

In our 20+ years in Africa, we have won the highest number of regional and global awards for the region including Cannes Lions, Clio awards, Dubai Lynx Festival, SABRE Awards (Global and Africa), WARC Effectiveness; to name a few.

Ogilvy is a leading global network of WPP. Launched by David Ogilvy over 70 years ago, it is referred-to as the Agency of Giants, by several industry experts. 2021 WARC rankings named Ogilvy, the #1 creative network in the world.

---

BELIEFS AT OGILVY

• People need regular OS upgrades: Even the best OS will be obsolete tomorrow unless its constantly upgrades. Same is true for people.
• We need more cows than milk men: We are a culture of practitioners, not manager. We contribute before we comment.
• Creative about creativity: Creativity is, and will always be, our differentiator. Creativity now includes holy trinity of Data -Content -Tech.
• Diversity is a competitive advantage: New profiles, new skills, new styles of leadership make us a stronger company.
• Collaborative advantage > Competitive advantage: Find partners who are on top of their game at the skillset we need. It’s the only way to scale at the speed without pretending to have all the answers.
• Team Individual: You get a lot more done when everyone stops worrying about who gets credit at the end. Teams Succeed, individuals fail.
• Fail often, fail fast: We see intrapreneur in all our people and encourage a culture of pilots. Test, succeed and scale; or fail-fast learn, learn from the failure and start something new.