Client Lead at Publicis Groupe in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Company Description

We are the Human Experience Agency. We believe the growth opportunity lies in people. We understand and anticipate human desires to deliver media experiences of value. We call this PeoplePoweredGrowth! Focusing on both business outcomes and human outcomes is proven to deliver stronger growth for clients. PeoplePoweredGrowth identifies the intersection between what people want and what brands need, to create media experiences of value. PeoplePoweredGrowth orchestrates the right talent and capability to solve for clients’ unique business challenges through interconnected capability. PeoplePoweredGrowth embodies a way of thinking, working, and learning; challenging the status quo and always reaching for a better. It is a culture of never standing still. Starcom is a full service, global media agency with a presence in multiple markets around the world. We believe in the power of our network and work closely with our global colleagues to ensure that we are providing our clients with global best practice, localized for the South African market. Our clients include Mondelez, Haleon (GSK), Samsung, Stellantis, Sandoz, Kellogg’s to name a few. We are part of the Publicis network – the fastest growing global network.

Overview

Reports to

Client Partner

Dotted line

Head of Media

Role purpose

Owns the client relationship, business context, commercial priorities, scope, revenue protection and senior stakeholder alignment. Ensures every media assignment starts with a clear business problem, growth ambition, JTBD and success definition — so the agency responds to the client’s business challenge, not only a media brief.

Responsibilities

Scope of role

• Client business understanding
• Stakeholder management
• Business brief quality
• Scope & fee protection
• Commercial risk escalation
• Internal team alignment
• Client-facing narrative
• Returning learnings into the next brief

Core accountabilities

• Own the client relationship and senior client confidence.
• Understand the client’s business, category, competitors and growth ambition.
• Translate client needs into a clear business brief and JTBD.
• Ensure all assignments have success criteria before strategy and planning begin.
• Confirm budget, timelines, stakeholders, approvals and commercial constraints.
• Align internal teams around the same brief.
• Protect agency scope, fees and revenue.
• Escalate client-facing delivery, billing or commercial risks.
• Ensure PCA learnings influence future briefs.

Mandatory artifacts owned• Business BriefDefines the business problem, objective, market context and required response.

JTBD Definition• Defines the job media must do for the brand or business.

• Success DefinitionConfirms business, brand, media and commercial KPIs.

• Stakeholder Alignment NoteConfirms decision-makers, approvers and timelines.

• Scope & Fee CheckConfirms whether work is covered by scope or needs additional fee.

• Client Escalation NoteUsed when material delivery, billing or commercial risks need client discussion.

• Next Brief InputEnsures PCA learnings feed the next campaign brief.

Decision rights• Is the brief complete enough to begin strategy In scope or additional fee• Whether client escalation is required • Whether the response answers the business problem• Whether PCA needs formal client discussion

Qualifications

• 7–10 years with strong client leadership and integrated campaign exposure.
• Manage senior client relationships.
• Business understandingGrasp commercial, category and brand challenges.
• Briefing disciplineConvert client needs into clear briefs.
• Commercial awarenessManage scope, fee, risk and revenue.
• Stakeholder managementAlign client, agency and partner teams.
• CommunicationPresent clearly and influence decision-makers.
• Escalation managementHandle sensitive delivery or billing issues

Additional Information

How performance is measured• Brief qualityPercentage of briefs accepted without major rework.• Client satisfactionRelationship health and senior stakeholder confidence.• Scope controlReduction in unscoped work and fee leakage.• Revenue protectionRetention, growth and commercial risk management.• Approval disciplineOn-time client approvals.• PCA adoptionEvidence learnings are used in future briefs.