ROLE OVERVIEW
The Account Director is a senior, strategic, client-facing role responsible for leading the delivery of integrated media solutions across multiple African markets in the telecommunications sector. This role guides clients toward the effective use of media to achieve their business objectives, while ensuring operational excellence, commercial performance, and client satisfaction. Accountable for end-to-end campaign implementation; from strategic planning through execution, optimization, and close-out, the Account Director serves as a trusted advisor, team leader, and business growth driver.
CLIENT CONTEXT
· Industry: Telecommunications (Telco)
Market: Nigeria + Pan-African footprint
· This role supports one of Africa’s largest telecommunications groups, a major player with over 50 million active subscribers and a significant market share across the continent. The Nigerian market, which this role leads, represents the client’s largest and most complex portfolio, characterized by fast-moving campaigns, high spend, and ambitious growth targets.
· Simply Black has recently secured this account and is building a high-performance media team to manage the client’s pan-African operations. Nigeria serves as the commercial and operational hub. The workload is high, timelines are tight, and the expectations are demanding, but the opportunity for growth, learning, and impact is unmatched in scale.
· The local team operates from one of Simply Black’s most vibrant and collaborative offices. The environment is relaxed, fun, and highly productive, led by an experienced leadership team with a strong record of delivery and cultural cohesion.
TRIANGLE OF FOCUS
· Client Delight: Build strong relationships, lead strategic conversations, and deliver consistently high-quality work that earns client trust and positions Simply Black as a valued partner.
· Operational Excellence: Ensure structured ways of working, accurate campaign execution, and clear communication across internal and external teams.
· Commercial Performance: Drive account profitability, optimize media investments, and identify growth opportunities across markets.
CORE RESPONSIBILITIES
· Account Direction: Lead the development and execution of integrated, multi-market media strategies aligned with the client’s objectives. Provide strategic guidance, proactively identify risks and opportunities, and maintain strong client relationships built on trust and delivery. Anticipate needs of stakeholders and prepare communication that addresses their needs and concerns.
· Planning: Develop media campaigns and projects that align with their brand objectives, market dynamics, and audience media habits, considering the rise of digital platforms and changing media landscapes. Guarantee that all media plans are strategically sound, data-driven, and financially efficient.
· Placements: Determine budget allocations for different media channels. Supervise flawless execution across all media channels; digital, ATL, and BTL. Ensure timelines, budgets, and campaign quality standards are consistently met.
· Campaign Diversity: Demonstrate strong experience in establishing, implementing and managing different campaign channels such as radio, television, out of home, mobile app ads, email and SMS marketing etc.
· Optimizing: Utilize analytics tools and ensure campaigns are monitored in real-time. Adjust campaigns based on data-driven observations, client objectives and maximize campaign impact while ensuring cost-effective use of budget.
· Reporting: Lead the preparation and presentation of insightful campaign performance reports. Ensure reporting clarity and consistency across markets. Provide clients with comprehensive reports and analysis on key performance indicators (KPIs). Make data-driven recommendations on the most effective media channels, platforms, and formats to reach the target audience.
· Compliance: Ensure campaigns and projects are properly closed off closed and maintain adherence to internal billing, financial, and ethical protocols. Ensure transparent, compliant processes across all media activities.
· Delivering through others: Guide, mentor, and motivate team members to deliver high-quality work, fostering a culture of collaboration, learning, and accountability.
· Through-The-Line Mastery: Upskill yourself to become a master of through the line campaign management. Support data gathering for pitch work or strategic recommendations. Curiously stay up-to-date with emerging digital marketing technologies, tools, and trends, and integrate them into campaigns to enhance effectiveness. Demonstrate proficiency in utilizing popular digital and above the line marketing platforms.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
· Professional working proficiency in English (essential) and local language (advantageous).
· Deadline driven and account pacesetter. Demonstrate excellent project management skills and effectively lead projects with cross-functional colleagues or external partners.
· Provide clarity to all team members on responsibilities and timelines, ensure team members are meeting objectives. Respond with urgency to challenges encountered.
· Uphold Simply Black’s ways of working and meets all delivery timelines.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT
· Robust understanding of the telecommunications industry, including market trends, consumer insights, and competitive positioning.
· Simply Black subject matter expert.
· Cross-cultural sensitivity and understanding. Able to lead multi-market initiatives and match in-market offering with client objectives.
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING AND INFLUENCE
· Put the client experience at the heart of every encounter and proactively foster ‘Client Delight' in self and team.
· View suppliers as strategic partners in delivering an excellent client experience. Ensure strong partnerships with media vendors and outlets are cultivated and maintained.
· Intentionally develop and nurture positive cross-functional internal relationships. Ensure respect is maintained within team and across functions. Effectively resolve conflict and de-escalate issues.
· Strong facilitator of team conversations and can positively express difficult sentiments with understanding of audience.
· Create professional documents to capture and cascade information to colleagues, reports or external stakeholders, anticipating their needs.
COMMERCIAL ACUMEN
· Display commercial acumen.
· Owner of account profitability, ensures efficient budget management and accurate financial reporting.
· Able to forecast client needs, make recommendations for optimizing spend and successfully mitigate financial risks.
· Responsible for ensuring campaign and project close out and upholding billing protocol.
· Can skilfully negotiate in tough situations with internal and external groups.
· Foster culture of upselling and growth in team.
INNOVATION
· Encourage the use of emerging tools, technologies, and analytics to enhance campaign effectiveness.
· Think creatively. Lead effective brainstorming session, bring innovative ideas to forefront, and see them through.
· Able to interpret data and use rigorous logic and data-driven methods to develop strategies to improve performance.
PERSONAL MASTERY
· Thrive in fast-paced media environment. Self-aware, growth-centred & agile.
· Demonstrate confidence in abilities and decisions. Take calculated risks when appropriate.
· Direct self. Champion high performance. Set personal and professional goals and create action plans. Monitor milestones and progress towards achieving them.
· Model adaptability. Show agility for continuously shifting company priorities and goals.
· Recognize and reward others for personal growth, development, and effectiveness.
LEADERSHIP BLUEPRINT
· Follow Leadership Blueprint and Lead the SB Way ensuring context, clarity, consistency and consequence.
· Effectively cascade communication, responsibility and deliver through others.
· Adjust behaviour to get best outcomes from others.
· Foster a culture of accountability. Promote ownership and responsibility.
· Receive and deliver feedback well. Foster feedback-rich environment.
VALUE ALIGNMENT
Simply Black Group’s values are more than words on a wall, and we hold all members of the Tribe to the same high standard. Living the organisational values is crucial to your success at the company and this is measured throughout the year.
GROWTH PHILOSOPHY
At Simply Black Group we value holistic growth. The primary focus is personal mastery, but growth in the form of organisational movement such as a role change is dependent on three key factors:
(a) Success in Current Role: Demonstrated, consistent excellence in a) Triangle of Focus b) Core Responsibilities and c) Success Drivers
(b) Business Readiness: Alignment with operational, commercial, and strategic priorities.
(c) Industry Need: Agility to adapt as the media and marketing landscape evolves.