Group Client Director

Position at Mindshare

We are currently seeking a dynamic Group Client Director who embodies ambition, perseverance, and drive, and with a true passion for leadership. This individual will foster a culture of excellence where teamwork thrives and dedication to the agency’s clients’ success is paramount, with the explicit goal of delivering profitable growth. Working closely with the CEO and management team on strengthening Mindshare’s offering and market position, this role will be instrumental in shaping the agency’s trajectory towards success.

About Mindshare Sweden

Mindshare is part of GroupM, the leading agency group in the Nordics, with EssenceMediacom, Mindshare, and Wavemaker as their biggest agencies. With more than 1.200 employees across the Nordic countries, all are a part of WPP, the world’s largest marketing communications services group. Their capabilities include Media, Communication, e-commerce, and Data & Technology united under a vision to shape the next era of media and communication where advertising works better for people.

In Sweden, Mindshare holds a leading position with a strong heritage of working with some of the most challenging and innovative clients such as Samsung, Volvo, Jula and Unilever. The current organization consists of an office in Stockholm and a team in Gothenburg, with a total of around 40 employees.

Mindshare mission is to drive “Good Growth” for its clients through sustainable and diversified strategies. The company's vision is to build a digital-first, progressive, and profitable agency that utilizes data to deliver a competitive advantage for its clients. Mindshare's goal is to bring sustainability to marketing by finding the right balance between short-term gain and long-term growth, performance and brand marketing, global and local operation, and data and purpose-driven strategies.

The position

As the new Group Client Director, you hold one of the most senior roles in the agency and will have the overall responsibility to operate and develop your team and client group portfolio thus driving the direction of a transformation journey that will infuse every aspect of the agency. You will lead and navigate a diverse team through this transformation, being responsible for nurturing professional development, monitoring their Net Promoter Score (eNPS), and streamlining workflows. You will be accountable for a profitable P/L as well as employee management across all Mindshare’s disciplines (Client, Media and A&I), forming client teams that mirror the client organizations in the best way.

To successfully lead through change, the key will be the ability to engage various stakeholders and specialists on the journey by bringing a clear and compelling leadership approach, nurturing an environment where individuals are empowered to excel and motivated to cultivate their talents and capabilities. By establishing and refining best practices and optimizing ways of working, you will be part of steering the future of an agency that has a long-standing tradition of putting people and clients first, yielding impressive results and high satisfaction levels across the board. While you will not have direct reports within Nexus disciplines, you will integrate them into your client teams or delegate this to your Client Directors, ensuring seamless collaboration and maximizing the expertise within your team.

You will serve as a senior advisor, providing guidance and expertise for clients, your team, the organization and to external stakeholders. To meet this expectation, you must be curious and passionate and actively seek to understand your client’s business outside a media and marketing context, always with a clear focus on business development and with a holistic strategic perspective. You will further drive prospecting for new business opportunities and autonomously lead pitch processes, taking full responsibility for everything from RFPs and remuneration models to team setup, strategy development and presentations. Finally, as the Group Client Director you must have a visible and accessible appearance across your team and Mindshare in general and be a leading ambassador of the organization both internally as well as externally.

Some of the key responsibilities will be:

• Long-term strategic leadership, talent and competence development as well as recruitment of new talent, and ensuring synergies with GroupM’s various specialist teams
• Lead the people in your team, both resource planning as well as talent development
• Continuously identify and implement smarter work methods and processes
• Grow client portfolio YoY through profitability, client satisfaction and new business opportunities
• Account for your clients’ strategic direction through a diversified use of Mindshare and GroupM products and services
• Overall strategy within all disciplines (Mindshare, Nexus, Acceleration)
• Bring new business opportunities to Mindshare through pitches, prospecting and relationships
• Together with Financial Business Partner ensure profitable client contracts/Scope of works and updates where needed
• Have a tight dialogue with all discipline heads within Nexus for resource planning within client portfolio

You will report to Anna Martinkari, CEO, Mindshare Sweden.

Your profile

The ideal candidate for the role is a versatile leader with high ambitions, strong business acumen and exceptional interpersonal skills. With your engaging and passionate leadership style, dynamic vision, and holistic approach, you have the ability to win the hearts and trust of both Mindshare's teams and clients. 

Your leadership skills are crucial for success in this role, and the ideal candidate should be a true people person and have a passion for developing and leading employees and building industry-leading teams, with employee happiness as a key KPI. To achieve success, it will require passion and determination, being able to connect with individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and adeptly navigating both enjoyable and challenging conversations.

You should possess a minimum of 10 years of work experience, with a background in the media industry. Preferably, you should have experience in a similar role at a digital consulting firm, marketing department or technology company. Additionally, you should have a solid background in media, technology, and data. With strong business understanding and a consultancy mindset, you can easily navigate complex business environments and foster a culture that embodies this expertise. You should have a challenging proactive mindset, where setting a strategic growth plans for each client as well as taking the client relationship to the next level is key. Hence, you have a strong understanding of how to create business opportunities, both B2B and B2C, to grow revenue with clients and build capabilities across the agency. You translate strategy into concrete solutions and understand both breadth and depth to drive pitch work and lead long-term strategic work that promotes profitable growth.

And it goes without saying that Mindshare is committed to crafting something exceptional, hence you come with a great passion and determination to deliver on the ambition to transform and grow Mindshare Sweden.

Interested?

If you want to know more about the job you can contact Frida Hamilton on email: frida@marchermarkholt.com.