OVERALL OBJECTIVE
The VP, Account Director works in conjunction with Executive Vice President, McDonald’s Division in support of all advertising, marketing and business efforts for the McDonald’s Co-Op accounts. This role is responsible for collaborating, leading and inspiring teams in an effort to provide great work for clients across multiple marketing channels for our McDonald’s franchisee clients. The VP, Account Director manages and leads a team to bring creative and strategic thinking to every media experience. The VP, Account Director should be able to build strong teams and partnerships, establish the communication and responsibilities cadence across all internal teams and clients for which he/she is responsible. The SVP, Account Lead should be strategic, disciplined, an innovative thinker and have a broad understanding of traditional and digital media, marketing research, content marketing, social marketing and analytics. The VP, Account Director will work in a fast-paced environment and thrive in an entrepreneurial and results-oriented culture.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Overall
- Play a key role in all advertising, marketing and business efforts for the McDonald’s Co-Op account
- Liaison with McDonald’s Regional Marketing/Advertising management
- Collaborate with and lead agency partners and marketing team to ensure creative cohesion across channels and deliver on strategy, deadlines and budget management
- Monitor performance and impact of all programs/platforms to maximize effectiveness
- Develop relationships with client’s senior level counterpart and jointly handle unfamiliar problems, situations or issues
- Responsible for client discovery process (gathering all marketing information and historical learnings)
- Understand the client’s marketing objectives and develop measurements for ROI, ROO and others as needed
- Responsible for ensuring clients’ media and marketing needs are addressed and analyzed in order to develop an effective media strategy
- Maintain awareness of new media, relevant industry and market trends; develop analyses and reports regarding those trends; and communicates to clients appropriate action steps regarding those trends
- Assist in developing and presenting annual client P&L, compensation agreements, and oversees account profitability
Account Stewardship
- Work with all agency departments to monitor goals for McDonald’s Co-Op are being met
- Work to develop effective policies and procedures to keep ahead of changing client needs
- Manage internal staff in creating strategic direction, demographic and market analysis and recommendations on national and local media plans including traditional, social and digital channels that drive traffic and awareness resulting in growth in system transactions and sales
- Monitor and recommend changes to Agency resources on account, as appropriate
Creative
Client contact during product selection and strategy focus meetings for all creative projects (i.e. TV, Radio, Print, POP, Outdoor, Digital, Social)
Participate in the development of annual/quarterly creative strategies (Present to client as needed
Work hand-in hand with Creative Agency in exploring new creative concepts for McDonald’s Co-Op. Provide ideas and input
Work closely with Creative Director in the production of ground-up agency work
Attend TV shoots as necessary
Work with strategic planning in developing creative briefs
Consult with with VP, Operations on legality of concepts and creative product
Monitor quality, timeliness and cost efficiency of Agency creative product
Monitor that all agency communications on behalf of McDonald’s Co-Op are:
- True to brand initiative / creative brief
- Appropriate in ton
- True to the targeted consumer
- Consistent with campaign objectives / tone
Media
- Monitor media functions (planning & buying) from Media partner agency (OMD) to deliver desired results for McDonald’s Co-Op. Recommend changes to planning / buying process and resources, as necessary
- Work with Media Director with annual planning process, overseeing development of strategic direction, guidelines and budget parameters for plan
- Work with media departments (Planning / Buying) in development of new and added-value media ideas
- Oversee annual, quarterly and monthly content and media calendars to manage and plan specific, timely marketing campaigns
Marketing/Advertising
- Participate in future planning and idea generation for the Regions/National teams
- Provide strategic direction and formulate innovative solutions to existing marketing and advertising problems
- Monitor plan development
- Work with Account Directors in development of marketing and advertising plans for McDonald’s Co-Op Regions (annual marketing plans, opportunity plans, creative direction, etc.)
- Work with Account Directors and Regional Teams in development of new product launch plans
- Work with Field promotional team in development and presentation of promotional ideas
- Develop and present various McDonald’s Co-Op plans to McDonald’s Co-Op client stakeholders, as appropriate
- Monitor McDonald’s, HQ and Regional work to help secure desired brand scorecard measures. Work with strategic planning to help accomplish this\
- Work with strategic planning to provide McDonald’s Co-Op regions with relevant/up-to-date market profile analysis and information for their markets
Strategic Planning:
- Work, as needed, with strategic planning group to meet the research and planning needs of McDonald’s Co-Op national and regional offices
Agency Integration
- Foster environment of shared information and resources to benefit McDonald’s Co-Op
- Develop a close working relationship with McDonald’s U.S. Branding agency, OMD and any other partner agencies
- Work with McDonald’s branding agency in exchanging marketing and advertising ideas and information
- Work with Zimmerman Operations Chief to develop and maintain consistent and efficient processes and communications between the partner agencies
Financial
- Assist in development of annual P&L budgets
- Assist in providing accurate and timely annual/quarterly Agency billing projections to Omnicom
Contract
- Assist in development of staffing analysis for annual contract discussions
- Assist in development of annual staffing recommendation
Staffing
- Monitor and make recommendations to ensure staffing needs on McDonald’s Co-Op account are met
- Maintain strong ties for recruiting best personnel
- Cultivate and maintain relationship with HQ Agency staff
Training
- Assist in development and implementation of training programs Agency-wide
Office Management
- Work with Human Resources, IT and Accounting departments to help ensure the needs of the McDonald’s Co-Op Division are met
Agency Management
- Fulfill role in various meetings by providing input, ideas and plans, as appropriate
- Play key role in the advancement of Agency-owned subsidiaries
New Business
- Work with Executive, VP, McDonald’s Co-Op Division and Field offices in Agency new business efforts
- Identify and facilitate business-building efforts across the country
Required Skills
- Bachelors Degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications or relevant, equivalent experience
- 8-10+ years experience as an Account Director or Group Account Director in a full service agency
- At least 3+ years of Quick Service Restaurant experience, preferably brand or direct marketing experience at an advertising agency or client company, or product management at a client company
- Proven leadership abilities and managerial experience as a disciplined team leader. Strong coaching and mentoring skills
- Possess a thorough understanding of the overall media environment in addition to the Client(s) industry and business
- A strong account management background, including past experience managing client accounts and supervising account teams
- Success in presenting strategic solutions and POVs that engage consumers and build brands; proven ability to orchestrate large-scale programs across multiple platforms
- Experience working collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary coalition of agency partners
- Can comfortably and effectively interact at the senior leadership level (VP and C-Suite)
- Marketer of today with sound, hands-on integrated marketing experience
- Great relationship building qualities
- Experience identifying superior business building opportunities
- Proven ability to manage multiple tasks while working independently
- Strong attention to detail
- A strong sense of urgency and commitment to get the job done quickly and with high quality
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with people at all levels of an organization
The responsibilities are many, various, and not limited to those written in this document
THE EXTRAS:
- Work with nationally recognized talent.
- Work with premier regional and national clients.
- Excellent benefits package including full medical, paid vacation, holidays & sick/PTO, 401(k) to name a few.
Required Experience