Associate Director - Brands

More about the role:

Burson, is looking to hire Associate Director - Brands for our Mumbai location. The individual will join our Brands, Sports & Entertainment client servicing team.

Burson is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel. 

As an Associate Director at Burson, you are responsible for playing a greater role in managing and leading teams /practice with revenue targets, contributing to the company’s performance by managing client relationships and integrated communication (IC) programs, satisfying, and delighting clients, generating new business, and developing strong teams. You are required to support our corporate strategy and your practice or office to help ensure superior client service, a winning culture and profitability.

The Brands, Sports & Entertainment (BS&E) practice comprises a team of specialised communications professionals that delivers integrated campaigns across entertainment, sports, FMCG, lifestyle and luxury brands. Spanning a wide spectrum of sectors, including fashion, retail, automotive, travel, sports leagues, broadcast media, art, and movie marketing, the team builds brands that enhance reputation, create culture and influence consumer behavior.

What you'll do:

1. Client Service:

• Oversee a significant portfolio of clients and demonstrate the ability to profitably grow clients and build long term relationships.
• Be a knowledge leader and trusted advisor for clients and their go-to source for insights critical to their business; understand the trends and issues that impact brands, including media, business, political and cultural.
• Provide strategic counsel to clients and resolve major concerns in order to achieve outstanding results with a long-term perspective.
• Manage and motivate account teams to deliver superior client service and creative groundbreaking plans and concepts by ensuring they are equipped with the right resources, tools, and training.
• Timely Decision Making – The ability to identify a problem and find solutions. Makes decisions in a timely manner, using available information and under tight deadlines.
• Own high-level media relationships that result in strategic media outcomes.
• Be a source of creative ideas and effectively use Burson’s proprietary tools Creative Studio, BAV, Decipher and other businesses under the Burson umbrella (i.e. PSB, Axicom, etc.) to build brands and nail client objective.
• Partner with the digital team and other network resources at the beginning of an engagement to ensure a truly organic and cohesive digital strategy.
• You must possess a strong familiarity with how Generative AI tools are used across communications programmes, especially in planning, research, ideation, content creation, and daily operations.

2. Business Development:

• Proactively identify opportunities for organic growth with existing clients and keep up with client and market changes that could lead to new business opportunities.
• Lead our new business development process by actively developing business contacts through professional activities and network with professional contacts as a means of exchanging ideas and opening new client opportunities.
• Introduce existing clients to Burson offices in other geographies to contribute to the regional/global growth of the company.

3. Talent Management:

• Coach, mentor, and delegate responsibilities to junior staff; support team members and managers who want to expand their roles and responsibilities.
• Foster teamwork and build morale and motivation within account teams ensuring that good performance and efforts are recognized.
• Create an inclusive and welcoming environment that engage all individuals without bias and demonstrate flexibility in a changing work environment.
• Take an active interest in the career development of team members and help them identify development needs, acquire new skills, and grow within the organization.
• Provide continuous constructive feedback- not just during performance reviews- to develop the next generation of client leaders.
• Play a leading role in learning and development programs and staff retention initiatives; conduct training programs and continually look for ways to engage top performers through career and learning opportunities so they remain engaged with the company for the foreseeable future.

4. Financial Management:

• Play a significant role in managing revenue targets.
• Act as a conduit between finance and the client servicing team to ensure that accounts are profitably managed; understand the reason for over and under servicing.
• Follow agency procedures for client budgets, budget tracking, contract approval and billing rates. • Prepare and manage annual budgets and forecast of projected income.
• Understand client contracts and take responsibility to draw up detailed scopes of work.
• Play an active role in developing business plans to increase market share and profits.
• Create and execute a practice plan that supports our corporate strategic plan.

Experience that contributes to success:

• Postgraduate in any stream or professional qualification in the field of public relations or marketing communication.
• 10+ years of professional experience in media relations, content management and communications for consumer-lifestyle brands.