Client Lead

Overview

• 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.

Scope of role

• Client business understanding
• Client stakeholder management
• Business brief quality
• Scope and fee protection
• Commercial risk escalation
• Alignment between client, creative agency, strategy, planning and implementation teams
• Client-facing narrative and senior relationship management
• Ensuring campaign learnings return into the next client brief

Core accountabilities

• Own the client relationship and senior client confidence.
• Understand the client's business, category, competitors, commercial priorities 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 are discussed with the client and influence future briefs

Responsibilities

Business Brief

• Defines the business problem, client objective, market context and required response.

JTBD Definition

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

Success Definition

• Confirms business, brand, media and commercial KPIs.

Stakeholder Alignment Note

• Confirms decision-makers, approvers and timelines.

Scope & Fee Check

• Confirms whether the work is covered by existing scope or needs additional fee.

Client Escalation Note

• Used when material delivery, billing or commercial risks need client discussion.

Next Brief Input

• Ensures PCA learnings are fed into the next campaign brief.

Decision rights

• Whether the brief is complete enough to begin strategy.
• Whether the work is in scope or requires additional fee.
• Whether client escalation is required.
• Whether the final response answers the client business problem.
• Whether PCA learnings need to be formally discussed with the client.

What this role is not

• Building the media strategy.
• Building detailed TV, OOH, social, search or programmatic plans.
• Loading plans into systems.
• Chasing supplier invoices.
• Reconciling media owner bills.
• Trafficking digital campaigns.
• Producing weekly reports.

Qualifications

• 10+ years managing senior stakeholders, large accounts, revenue and agency teams.
• Degree/Qualification in Marketing, Business, Communications, or related field
• Client leadership - Manage senior client relationships.
• Business understanding - Understand commercial, category and brand challenges.
• Briefing discipline - Convert client needs into clear briefs.
• Commercial awareness - Manage scope, fee, risk and revenue.
• Stakeholder management - Align client, agency and partner teams.
• Communication - Present clearly and influence decision-makers.
• Escalation management - Manage sensitive delivery or billing issues