Together Group is hiring: Account Director, Fashion in New York

Account Director, Fashion

PURPLE is looking for an experienced Account Director for its Fashion division to join the agency. The Account Director will play an essential role in supporting the assigned senior management in the development and execution of generating maximum brand exposure through creative product placement, profile features and launches. The Account Director must have a genuine passion for developing brands, using true initiative in order to achieve exceptional results. Impeccable client liaison skills and an established network of key contacts (brands and press) are essential.

Account Director's responsibilities would include increasing awareness for all brands assigned to them. In this role the Account Director will promote the different clients in all activities, campaigns, special projects, shows, presentations and events to the media and to develop and maintain relationships with key journalists and media within your assigned and designated market, acting as an ambassador for Purple.

Key Responsibilities

The Account Director will:

• Provide counsel to clients as opposed to taking direction from clients; Is able to have tough conversations with clients with their best interests in mind
• Lead client calls / in-person meetings and think on one's feet
• Take client business objectives and develop a linear and cohesive communication strategy that reflect those business objectives
• Pull in and collaborate with speciality resources across the agency to ensure the client is getting access to the agency's network-wide expertise
• Lead client programs and campaigns from planning to execution in an organised and timely manner, within the specified budget
• Understand the difference between a communication strategy and a media strategy
• Show accountability in terms of meeting client benchmarks and delivering strong media coverage; Delivers on this through team leadership and guidance
• Own all media relations and continue to develop and maintain key relationships
• Provide strategic and tactical support to the Divisional Director
• Work with the in-house events team to manage launch events for media and influencers
• Line manage their team to ensure they meet targets and have a development plan
• Exhibit strong new business skills both from a planning and proposal perspective and during in-person pitch opportunities; Brings in new business opportunities through networking
• Work closely with Purple's social media team to ensure client milestones are promoted
• Oversee the management of all product-related media requests from email inquiry through prospective media coverage through sample product distribution and tracking and follow up
• Take inventory of and be responsible for client product inventory
• Consistently produce high quality internal and external communications content
• Oversight and compilation of weekly client agendas
• Proactively pitch story ideas to achieve maximum editorial placement across your brands
• Manage and motivate junior members of the team to ensure day to day operations run smoothly and PR results are delivered; while supporting them in their growth to the next level.
• Equally support AD's and senior members of the team to ensure maximum support across all levels.
• Have a clear understanding of paid, owned and earned media strategies, and develop relationships with top influencers to support this activity
• Have strong connections with leading and emerging editorial talents in the UK and Europe;
• Manage the Account Managers/Account Executive to help reach personal and team targets
• Contribute to agency new business efforts; both creating proposals and participating in relevant pitches

Skills and Experience

The Account Director should have:

• Proven experience operating in a senior position within the fashion industry
• Proven commercial experience with working in a fast-paced environment
• Management experience is highly desirable
• Proven track record of creating a positive impact on business through implementation of a PR strategy
• Discreet, professional and well spoken, with excellent communication skills
• Extremely well-organised, methodical and efficient, with a good dose of common sense and initiative
• Pro-active and able to show initiative/ideas to constantly promote the Purple offering
• Creative and strategic thinker
• Strong established fashion press contacts
• International press contacts are also desirable
• Strong experience of event management
• Strong presentation & superb writing skills
• Able to identify communication opportunities across multiple media platforms
• Strong MS Word skills; working knowledge of PowerPoint and Excel

About Purple

Purple is independent in philosophy, attitude and operation offering a boutique in-house approach, the strategic requirements of each client are individually tailored from the outset. Purple's services cover press relations, editorial procurement, product placement and high profile event management. A specialist knowledge of the beauty, fashion, lifestyle and entertainment industries gives unrivalled insight into brand positioning and sustaining meaningful press coverage.

Our Hiring Process

The hiring process will include the following stages:

1. Stage 1: Applied
2. Stage 2: Review
3. Stage 3: Interview
4. Stage 4: Hired

Not quite right? Register your interest to be notified of any roles that come along that meet your criteria.