Account Director (Experiential)

About the Opportunity

We’re hiring! We are currently looking for an Account Director to join our team.  This role will focus on a top automotive experiential client. While primarily focusing on Experiential activation development and execution, an understanding of the wide variety of integrated marketing needs is essential. Building and managing relationships with external client stakeholders is essential for success and critical to the ongoing success of our growing agency.

The Account Director will work closely with our experienced Account, Strategy, Creative & Production teams to lead efforts towards helping our clients deliver elevated and luxury experiences. This is a client-facing leadership role responsible for coordinating all aspects of client interaction both virtually and on-site at events. Uniquely for this role, an automotive experiential production background is required, and a true love of the automotive industry is key.

We are looking for someone who thrives in a fast-moving environment where you can jump in, quickly figure things out, roll up your sleeves, and actively push the boundaries.

Why come work for us, you ask? 

We are an award-winning multinational, integrated agency network with deep expertise in all aspects of marketing, including Brand Strategy, Experiential, Social & Content, Customer Experience and Data Science. We offer competitive benefits, a dynamic work environment and opportunities for career growth and satisfaction.

Location: Atlanta, GA

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• You will lead a luxury automotive client, which is a long-retained relationship and a tight knit team. This includes owning client satisfaction as well as finding new opportunities for our team to deliver value.
• Become and remain knowledgeable about assigned clients’ business, including marketing/communication objectives, KPIs, category, competition, etc.
• Cultivate strategic business opportunities, building key relationships, team leadership and serving as a catalyst for growth among assigned accounts. Seek out opportunities to bring additional value to clients through our capabilities and our extended network.
• Qualify client requests and develop agreed priorities by balancing level of effort and impact.
• Manage client expectations with respect to scope of work and campaign status.
• Lead the brief development process. Lead client briefing sessions and the development of Iris solution proposition. Then take part in the written and verbal creative brief in partnership with strategy counterparts. Lead client presentations, creative feedback, project implementation and scoping/budgeting, and evaluation.
• Build trusted relationships with clients and colleagues, as a strategic advisor. This role requires regular interaction with C-level clients, so professionalism is essential.
• Represent the client internally; echoing client goals and business objectives in all deliverables and communication; ensuring that all deliverables exceed client expectations and enhance our reputation.
• Schedule and lead regular and ad hoc meetings/calls/business reviews with clients.
• Communicate account successes and issues/challenges/risks in a timely manner both internally and externally. This includes ongoing needs, as well as both internal and external business reviews.
• Build and maintain trusting client relationships – be an integral part of the project delivery team and transform internal & external challenges into opportunities for growth.
• Fiscal responsibility for the client as well as for Iris.
• Proactively pursue opportunities to improve the agency beyond your day-to-day responsibilities. Be energetic about what you do, take pride in your work, and be the one bringing new ideas to the team every week.

Required Skills/Experience:

• Automotive experiential experience – this spans ideation to execution
• 12 + years’ work experience and deep experience leading a team
• Keen discernment. You will be representing the company at events and making decisions on its behalf. Professionalism, insightfulness, and remaining calm under pressure are crucial
• Evidence of effective client management and growth skillset
• Strong leadership skills and attention to detail 
• Strong relationship management skills and ability to work collaboratively across multiple groups, both internally and externally 
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced dynamic environment 
• Ability to travel for events
• A hybrid model. 3x/week in office (T-Thursday) minimum for non-event weeks

Education: Bachelor’s Degree (required)

About Iris

Participate or perish. It’s not just our rallying cry – it’s a creative imperative. Iris is the global creative micro-network built for brands that refuse to blend in. With 650 people across 11 offices, we help clients like Samsung, adidas, Barclays, Bentley, California Pizza Kitchen, Beiersdorf and Samsonite show up in culture with work that stands apart. Powered by Participation, and brought to life across paid, earned and owned media, our agency model is big enough to be dangerous, small enough to stay agile. Founded outside the ad establishment in 1999, Iris has always been defined by its outsider mindset – one that still drives our mission today.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and recruit on talent alone, regardless of age, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, education, class, sexual orientation or disability. We champion diversity and believe it not only benefits, but enhances our creativity, our company and the wider society at large.