Account Director, Social & Influencer Strategy

Senior Manager, Influencer Strategy

Weber Shandwick is looking for a Senior Manager, Influencer Strategy to join our team in Chicago. We are looking for a star candidate (5+ years of experience).

Candidate must have a deep understanding of the influencer landscape, but also have unique experience developing and executing both integrated and and influencer-led campaigns. The following is a general outline of primary responsibilities.

 

The Essentials

• Thinking: Intellectual curiosity and creativity is a must.
• Storytelling: Understand the elements that make a story exciting, what brands are doing in the press and on social platforms, and what they should do next.
• Communication: Speak, write and edit succinctly and compellingly.
• Management: Meet deadlines, put out fires and multi-task. Work fast, and work well.
• Interpersonal: Play nice, whether it’s in a team, with a team or independently.
• Technical: Know Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook. Influencer databases/management systems/vendor networks and social listening/tracking tools is a plus.
• Detail-Oriented: Whether it’s an influencer recommendation or a recap report, attention to detail and a commitment to delivering clear and precise work is essential.
• Spark: Understand what sets you apart.

 

Responsibilities

Brand Strategy & Execution

• Own responsibilities for executional leadership of multiple client programs, budgets, plans
• Maintain daily client contact, serving as a trusted resource and advisor
• Facilitate cross-functional team integration (strategy, creative, integrated media specialists, influencer)
• Translate strategies into tactical plans; ensure team deliverables align with strategies
• Develop messaging for clients and oversee the creation of influencer strategies that take an integrated approach to driving awareness with target audiences
• Proactively support and suggest improvements and new ideas to exceed client expectations by leveraging industry knowledge and experience
• Anticipate executional issues specific to assigned programs and proactively offer solutions to senior team leadership
• Partner with CX and Project Managers to help manage program and project budgets
• Demonstrate financial acumen in the areas of budgeting, billing and staffing

 

Influencer Strategy & Execution

• Play a lead role in the agency’s Influencer center of excellence, which develops and manages key relationships with talent agencies and content creators, and institutionalizes a set of best-in-class tools and processes for identification, contract negotiation, content planning, measurement and ROI analysis
• Demonstrated passion for influencer marketing both personally and professionally; balanced interest in both healthcare and consumer brands
• Craft influencer strategies for yearlong plans and product launches
• Research, vet, contract and manage relationships with influencer talent
• Develop influencer briefing materials
• Oversee influencer briefings and content creation, monitor influencer content performance, track against KPIs and prepare detailed recaps
• Take responsibility to execute influencer strategies
• Manage and build relationships with influencers and third-party agents
• Mine current news cycle for ad-hoc influencer opportunities
• Demonstrated expertise in social platforms, user behaviors and emerging trends

 

Client & Team Engagement

• Communicate with clients on daily basis
• Provide basic client counsel
• Serve as a key participant in client meetings and presentations
• Proof and edit client related documents as needed
• Manage client and team resources and deliverables around major campaigns and product launches
• Lead a high-performing team; coach and develop junior team members

 

The Weber Shandwick Collective recognizes that your health and wellbeing are a priority. This is why we offer a full suite of benefits including:

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• 401k (with employer match)
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Juice Money – $60 monthly reimbursement to be used towards purchases that nourish your health, mind, body, and soul
• MyDays – Flexible holiday schedules
• Short-Term Disability
• Paid Employee Family Leave
• Family Building Benefit

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status.

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Account Director, Influencer Strategy 

Responsibilities: 

• Spearhead high profile activations and campaigns for some of our top lifestyle and CPG clients. 

• Develop a deep understanding of our clients’ businesses and target audiences, and working in close collaboration with our Creative, Insights and Client Experience teams, lead the creation and execution of integrated multi-platform campaigns that drive meaningful results 

• Build social influencer strategies cross-functionally to align strategic efforts and priorities, and able to develop strategic outputs with little to no oversight. Collaborate closely with strategy, creative, paid and larger integrated agency teams to deliver program initiatives. 

• Closely partner with social platform and digital SMEs to stay at the forefront of technology trends and emerging platforms to champion social and digital innovations and continuously further our offerings to break through social clutter and break through in earned media 

• Provide expert counsel to clients and colleagues on social/digital/influencer best practices 

• Serve as trusted voice on pop-culture, social trends and other cultural nuances for clients  

• Lead end-to-end influencer procurement process from influencer recommendations to negotiations to servicing the partnerships. 

• Play a lead role in the agency’s Influencer center of excellence, which develops and manages key relationships with talent agencies and content creators, and institutionalizes a set of best-in-class tools and processes for identification, contract negotiation, content planning, measurement and ROI analysis 

• Collaborate effectively with inter-agency teams to develop holistic plans and fully integrated strategies for our clients 

• Lead a high-performing team; mentor and develop junior team members 

Qualifications: 

• 8+ years of experience, preferably within an agency environment 

• Strong understanding of the overall media and social landscape, with an emphasis on digital  experience 

• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with ability to develop relationships with influencers, creators, agencies, and other partners. 

• Passion for tracking and understanding new trends in culture  

• Deep expertise in managing influencer programs 

• Strong knowledge of social platforms, including paid amplification and campaign optimization 

• Strong understanding of marketing funnel analytics & KPIs 

• Familiarity with a broad set of social, media and influencer analytics tools 

• Detail-oriented, multi-tasker with excellent time-management skills 

• Strong written, verbal communication, negotiation and presentation skills 

• Experience leading a team is an asset 

Is this you? 

Be a driver of culture: Must have true passion and understanding of pop culture and are part of the community (be it music, gaming, fashion, food, internet culture, etc) This job is the intersection of creative, strategy, marketing, technology, content creation and production; your energy must be driven by your lifestyle. You must influence creative ideations: from the ideas presented, to the influencers selected, to the content created, all the way down to the language used in post copy. 

Have high cultural competencies: Understand the role and importance of diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) You must be culturally vigilant with the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures.  

Have “Gravitas” in the influencer space and skin-in-the-game:  Deep understanding of the influencer landscape is required. Proven ability to build, speak and grow relationships with change agents and cultural makers (celebrities, influencers, artists, thought leaders) directly or via their agents. You must be open to a public-facing role; willingness to speak publicly about influencer trends when opportunities present itself to the WS Influencer Team. 

Know how to identify and manage diverse vendors and partners: in an industry where technologies (saas platforms, AI, managed services, etc) are popping on the daily, at high volume, no less, you must have experience working with RFPs and meeting with leading tech companies to understand their services and identify their uniqueness (and keep up with their ongoing changes in our WS influencer database) 

Be ready to lead at any moment: working with your leads, you will learn to “step up to the plate” and lead effectively in the client’s and agency’s best interests while also helping to cultivate, mentor and coach mid to junior staff members on the influencer team. 

Hustle: identify influencer opportunities (organic or new) to ensure influencer marketing continues to be a strong marketing discipline and revenue driver on your assigned account or at Weber Shandwick. 

Think like a lawyer: you understand how important it is to be in compliance with best practices (FTC updates, platform requirements), continuously build our excellence by partnering with DXTRA legal and finance to ensure risk and liabilities are reduced and tamed for every campaign you touch. 

Have experience building engaged audiences: on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Clubhouse and other distribution platforms. 

Know how to build a story: you will build client presentations that tell smart, compelling stories, never “rinse and repeat” which requires you to be highly motivated, energetically-charged and inspired at all times. 

Be curious, always: You are willing to learn a little bit of everything, and open to take on anything. 

The Weber Shandwick Collective recognizes that your health and wellbeing are a priority. This is why we offer a full suite of benefits including:

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• 401k (with employer match)
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Juice Money – $60 monthly reimbursement to be used towards purchases that nourish your health, mind, body, and soul
• MyDays – Flexible holiday schedules
• Short-Term Disability
• Paid Employee Family Leave
• Family Building Benefit

NYC Salary range: $100,000 – $130,000

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s background, pertinent experience, and qualifications.

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status.

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