PR Senior Account Manager

ABOUT HALPERN

If you want to future proof your career in PR, Comms and Influencer Marketing then Halpern is the agency for you. We are an entrepreneurial, mid-size agency with a tenacious start-up approach, which is coupled with having the stability of being minority owned by WPP, the worlds largest network of global advertisers. We are also partners in T&Pm – a global group of ambitious agencies designed to help comms move at the speed of life. From creative, to strategy, experiential, production, social and paid media, joining the Halpern team will give you unrivalled access to our partner agencies and unlimited learning opportunities across the full marketing mix.

But that’s not all. Our enviable client portfolio spans global innovators, culturally relevant trendsetters and purpose-led brands which demand change and action. We are proud to be partners with Google, Co-op and Five Guys to name just a few.

And it doesn’t end there. We know now more than ever the importance of looking after our people and building an agency which the team are proud of and enjoy. Our ever-expanding employee benefits package includes multiple work/life balance perks, private medical care and a generous family policy care package too. We also have an in-house Learning & Development Coach on permanent staff who oversees our extensive bespoke staff training plan. Covering all levels from entry level practitioner skills to advanced senior team members, our curriculum covers resilience, building high performance teams, writing skills, presentation workshops, time management, creativity, line management and more.

We are committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through our recruitment process and welcome applicants of all backgrounds. We have set up a number of DE&I initiatives across the network over the last decade which include:

• Unite! – aiming to improve the representation and experience of LGBTQ+ people across our business and WPP’s global network, build better futures for our people and our clients and take responsibility for our industry and its influence
• #AdlandCommits – we have committed to promoting true racial equality across our business, signing up to the #AdlandCommits pledge and building these commitments into our diversity, equality and inclusion strategy; as well as into our business planning and performance metrics
• The Collective – promoting smart ways of working that enable everyone to be successful whoever they are and wherever they’re from. The Collective currently represents the following pillars: ethnic diversity, gender, LGBTQ+ and neurodiversity
• Girls On Tour – a team of our creatives who tour universities and schools across the UK to inspire young creatives to start a career in advertising - and promote access to the industry to young female creative talent
• Ambitious About Autism – we’ve partnered with Ambitious About Autism for their intern programme, diversifying our intake of employees and creating an inclusive environment for neurodiverse people. Alongside this, we also have a number of Neurodiversity champions, who have completed neurodiversity training and work with our recruitment and management teams to improve hiring and development processes

ABOUT THE ROLE

Key Personal Attributes:

• Ambition
• Creativity
• Strong interpersonal and networking skills
• The desire to understand business and build strong commercial awareness
• A keen interest in current affairs and able to take an educated point of view on news stories that relevant to your clients
• The ability to inspire and lead a team
• A proactive, positive and confident approach to problem solving
• Excellent listening skills and organisational skills
• A positive and ‘can-do’ attitude

Client Services:

• Produce optimal client plans by analysis and solid understanding of your client’s business and marketplace
• Provide regular, accurate and concise progress reports back to your client ensuring that we are delivering on all KPIs and consistently working in a reactive and proactive way
• Plan, coordinate and execute assigned elements of your clients PR plan (e.g. launches, press trip) to a high standard, adhering to deadlines and budgets. Manage your team and resources accordingly
• Ensure you are the client’s day-to-day point of contact to cement a strong relationship enables you to offer professional consultative advice and realistically manage expectations of results within budget and time constraints
• Meet all client requests and aim to exceed expectations in terms of turnaround cycle and quality
• Attend all client meetings and conference calls; offer up ideas and insight; present elements of the progress report in client meetings
• Oversee all events, including all planning, team management, budgeting, execution, follow up and analysis
• Keep your team updated on the progress of your work, supporting you manager when able and providing assistance to your junior team to make sure that all deadlines are hit
• Ensure all written copy from junior staff is consistently high quality as a result of practice, guidance and excellent editing

Team Management:

• Supervise your team and their workflow to deliver all results on time and within budget
• Use project management skills to allocate tasks, coordinate your team, manage budgets, anticipate problems, develop workable solutions and ultimately meet your goals
• Manage account workflows effectively with clear communication of set performance goals, adequate explanation of tasks, regular updates and realistic expectations
• If appropriate, promptly escalate any performance issues to a member of the senior team in a professional way and take advice from your manager to rectify any client issues
• In case of absenteeism, ensure that your junior team’s responsibilities have been accomplished

Media Results:

• Continue to book and attend media appointments on a weekly basis; aim for three to five per week
• Ensure you have solid media contacts across a variety of titles and build a clear understanding of every title’s requirements, developing rapport with key influencers and mid level press contacts
• Increase and sustain your levels of coverage in daily/weekly/monthly titles, new desks and online (trade and consumer) through understanding of key client issues and effective research
• Input creative ideas into feature plans, continue to achieve appropriate feature coverage and learn to place case studies in the media
• Drive your team to ensure that you are consistently meeting, or exceeding, coverage KPIs for all your clients
• Monitor and track all media results accurately with your junior team, deliver comprehensive reports to your manager and clients with analysis of coverage
• Add to, track and grow all your leads and record updates in the press tracker each month
• Through reading a range of magazines and newspapers, identify trends and topical news stories to share with your team or with the wider agency

Financial Results:

• Proactively highlight areas for potential incremental growth within your clients.
• Contribute to the preparation of client budgets (annual and project) with a strong understanding of the client’s goals, realistic expectations, staff costs, expenses, fee, timescales and measurement of results
• Accurately forecast client revenue stream for specific projects
• Select accurate suppliers, review terms and make contractual recommendations
• Ensure all relevant costs have a PO associated to it in Adserve prior to invoices being issued
• First approval of invoices before passing to your director and first update of billing schedule
• Work closely with your director to understand new business goals and make appropriate suggestions
• Assist in the creation of new business leads and ideas – create/update the tracker on a weekly basis
• Be involved with, and contribute to, new business research and the pitch process

Leadership Development:

• Maintain a high level of effective team communication through regular team meetings and on-to-one contact
• Motivate all team members through constructive feedback, appropriate praise and recognition
• Monitor team relationships and interactions, flagging any concerns to the senior team in a professional and timely manner, to maintain a positive team work environment

Self Development:

• Contribute relevant, varied and valuable ideas in creative brainstorms and team meetings – offer your insight and ideas to the wider team/agency
• Ensure your workload is prioritised to effectively work to short term and long term goals, meeting all deadlines with high quality work
• Manage your time and learn to multitask to increase you personal effectiveness and reduce pressure of multiple deadlines
• Ask for new and different tasks in order to develop your skills and further your learning and experience