Mx Associate Director

Hybrid

Agency : Havas Media

Job Description Summary : The Media Development Expert is responsible for developing and deploying best practices for media experiences specifically for global clients. The role sits between Strategy and Activation and is the point where Strategy is translated into Media Experiences for global clients.

Job Description :

MX Associate Director

Reporting To: Melissa Urlich - Borland & Ollie Stringer

Office Location: HKX Building, 3 Pancras Square, Kings Cross

About Havas Media Group

Havas Media Group is part of the sixth largest advertising network in the world, Havas Group, which is owned by French mass media holding company, Vivendi. We are headquartered out of St Pancras, London, and along with offices in Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh, we operate globally. Our CEO is Patrick (‘Paddy’) Affleck. Our overarching mission is to make a meaningful difference to the brands, businesses, and lives of the people we work with.

Our solution is simple: we identify and create meaningful media experiences to deliver meaningful growth for our clients. In the last two years, we’ve undergone a transformation that’s seen us bind together nine agencies into three core agency brands and propositions:

Havas Media - through which we deliver meaningful outcomes through meaningful media

Havas Market - through which we help clients build meaningful retail experiences

Havas Entertainment - through which we help clients create meaningful moments in culture

Over the last few years, we’ve strengthened group-wide capabilities and expertise to match clients’ needs to unlock emerging growth opportunities in the ‘new economy’. Our acquisitions of leading agencies Search Laboratory, additive+ and Expert Edge are helping turbocharge our capabilities in search, DCO and ecommerce – with more to come. We also launched a dedicated B2B division, enhanced by our most recent acquisition, Ledger Bennett, to help clients seize on the huge opportunity of B2B marketing for clients.

We successfully won 16 new clients and retained a further 7, including BBC, Matalan, Homebase, Sega, Bumble, Bethesda and Dr Marten, with our most recent win of Ocado. We have also recently won a number of industry awards, including Beer and Pub Association IPA Effectiveness Silver, BBC Outdoor Media awards Brand Building (Gold), Domino’s Outdoor Media awards Cross Format (Gold), Maersk Grand Prix for Effectiveness with WARC and Kia, Best Use of Search in the UK Search awards. Above are some of the reasons why we’re on Campaign’s ‘Best Place to Work’ list each year, and our Talent team has been awarded the IPA Gold CPD Accreditation. But we’re more than just great work and awards. Havas Media Group is a place where you can make things happen by pursuing your professional and personal dreams. As such, we’ve also launched the ‘Meaningfully Daring Side Hustle’ programme, while Havas Boost announced its first investment into STEM educational toys business, Ambessa Play.

The Role

Mx Associate Director: Mx stands for Media Experience and Mx roles are core to taking us back to the craft of media. Focusing on client problems and uncovering the appropriate media solutions and strategies. As an Mx Director, you are the guardians of our work, and responsible for leading best-in-class planning, fuelled by our Mx Planning System and its subsequent delivery to clients.

This role is to work on/across JDE & BBC (TV Licensing, BBC Proms and BBC Orchestras)

Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) is a leading pure-play coffee and tea company, selling their products in more than 100 countries globally. In the UK, Havas Media supports 3 of their well-known coffee brands; Kenco, L’OR and Tassimo. Kenco reached its 100-year anniversary last year and remains in a strong category position across the instant range. LOR also launched their first ever coffee machine (L’OR Barista) and is going from strength to strength while challenging the more established Nespresso. We expect 2025 to bring lots of opportunity and challenge. We are looking for someone who wants to build on their planning skills and help further grow the strong client relationships we’ve built over the past 4 years.

BBC TV Licensing account is a key element of the overall BBC portfolio within Havas. Having recently retained the account for the 2nd time we implemented some fundamental, positive improvements in our media outcomes and ways of working. We are looking for someone who collaborates well within an integrated team relationship alongside the client and their creative and marketing agency. It’s a fast-paced, multi-faceted account which requires excellent account management and organisational skills to manage a number of stakeholders. We are looking for a team player who will be responsible for helping to continue to drive them forward and deliver operational excellence.

BBC Proms & Orchestras is a smaller account within the BBC, supporting a number of orchestras, choirs and other musical ensembles maintained by the BBC, as well as the BBC Proms events which span 8 weeks over the summer months.

What behaviours we need from you:

As Mx Associate Director, you are the heartbeat of the agency, your team and often your client’s gateway to Havas. You will be a positive, motivated individual with an attitude and mindset to convey real care, craft, and creativity.

For your team, you will be a leading figure, and someone that will play a pivotal role in motivating those around you, bridging the requirements of both the client and wider agency. You will:

• Effectively manage upwards; build positive cross-functional relationships, provide solutions when escalating issues, anticipate the needs of the wider team.
• Proactively develop more junior members of the team and draft clear objectives, including ownership of appropriate appraisals.
• Get the most out of your team, delegate authority to match their teams job level and hold them accountable.
• Work with specialist team leads to manage hours dedicated to the account to ensure profitability.
• Effectively communicate upwards account challenges and suggest structural changes to retainer/contract.

For your clients, you are representing the best of Havas. The face of our offering and someone that can build brilliant, trusted relationships based on exceptional work and genuine interest in their business. You will be someone who:

• Works with a partner to identify growth opportunities on the account, proactively pursuing these opportunities and making them a reality.
• Suggests well thought through, reasoned alternatives to identify better commercial opportunities.
• Presents to senior client stakeholders, clear and well thought out proposals and recommendations.
• Actively seeks out the opinions from others in the village to aid decision making.
• Independently engages in tasks which require a high degree of interpretation of complex information.
• Is a curious mind, takes a proactive approach to managing risk.

Role Competencies:

The successful candidate will be able to deliver upon the following:

• Uses experience and industry knowledge to identify planning, strategic and where appropriate, commercials improvements to client and Havas Group.
• Is able to employ best practice methodology from inside and outside the business.
• Identifies gaps in information and looks to close them, but is also able to make assumptions in order to act.
• Has a clear understanding of products and services within Havas and how they can help clients to meet their short- and long-term business objectives.
• Is able to develop project plans and justify their decision-making process based on established principles.
• Able to evaluate responses and proposals brought forth by more junior members and apply a more advanced lens based on knowledge of client’s business (sales, targets, broader business goals).
• Able to use and demonstrate the use of tools in appropriate circumstances. Can direct team in appropriate sources of information to test hypotheses or find information.
• Can create clear measurement frameworks and set out guidance for appropriate KPIs to assess the viability of plans.

What’s on offer from Havas:

We want you to do the best work of your career. To support you in managing your career, as well as your commitments and priorities in your life. We have created a modern, market-leading approach to personal benefits, wellbeing, and care:

• We have shown at Havas, that we can all work productively in a new Hybrid manner.
• To give you even more flexibility, and support a better balance between work and life, Havas employees are given the opportunity to work remotely from anywhere in the world for up to 4 weeks per calendar year.
• Alongside a generous holiday allocation and birthday off, we are all allocated one day per quarter as mental health days. These are simply days you can take off, guilt free and without eating into your holiday allowance.
• We have modernised and introduced a market-leading parental package for our employees. The Parental Life at Havas policy enhances, broadens, and encourages the uptake of parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, type of relationship, type of parentship or any other potentially defining characteristic. This means:
• Up to 6 months equal parenthood leave, paid at 100%*
• Parental Support & Fertility Support Loans
• Pregnancy Support, Coaching & Pregnancy Loss Leave
• Return to Work Support System
• We also haven’t forgotten about those benefits that make a meaningful difference, from a Havas pension scheme, season ticket loan and free mortgage advice to retail discounts with Havas Perks and Health Insurance, we have you covered and much more!

#LI-TA1

Contract Type : Permanent

Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job.

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Founded in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas, Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications groups, with more than 22,000 people in over 100 countries sharing one single mission: to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses, and people. Havas has developed a fully integrated model covering all communications activities. The teams of the three business units, Creative, Media and Health & You, work together with agility and in perfect synergy to offer clients tailor-made, meaningful, innovative and entertainment-oriented solutions that support them in their positive transformation.

Life at Havas

We take great pride in our Havas family. They bring many unique personalities, perspectives and passions to their work. Collaboration is at the core of how we operate, and Havas Villages are the homes we work in. We encourage our people to take advantage of our many opportunities to learn and grow. Through local agency training sessions, our unique global and development programs, we offer our people endless opportunities to explore.

Havas Media Network

We create the best media experience, capitalizing on the most meaningful media to build more meaningful brands. We know how to connect a client with their target audience – in the context of where they are, through the content they pay attention to. We deliver this expertise through the Mx System, our global operating methodology and strategic planning process, that creates value for our clients by turning consumer intelligence into clear growth targets, aligning stakeholders and KPIs, and measuring the impact of media experiences.

Havas Creative Network

At Havas, we believe creativity isn’t just a description of our business, it is part of our agencies’ DNA. We bring together some of the industry’s most creative and accomplished agencies. By combining creative expertise with the strategic and innovative power of our Villages, we can build seamless teams around the individual needs of each of our clients.

Havas Health & You

Driven by human purpose and focused on the betterment of humanity through health, Havas Health & You leverages a global collection of experts and individuals to help people everywhere live healthier lives. With a spirit rooted in innovation, creativity, and education, we are dedicated to delivering consistent excellence and groundbreaking work.