Associate Director - Xbox
London
Assembly Media Group – Brand /
Full-Time /
Hybrid
We’re looking for someone who has a proven track record as a consumer PR lead, has experience in the videogames industry and can come into a fully formed team to lead, drive forwards and evolve the work that we do at a UK level. You’ll have a wealth of successful UK campaigns under your belt; driving them from concept to execution, be emotionally intelligent, have excellent client handling abilities and an understanding of how to talk to audiences who are already highly engaged in gaming, as well as those on the periphery who might be just starting their gaming journey. The successful candidate will understand how to incorporate earned strategies within integrated campaigns, will have significant experience leading on data/insight driven campaigns and will have a track-record in leading PR, influencer and integrated campaigns.
We are looking for someone with a hunger to evolve the work we do for our clients, who is confident managing multiple senior stakeholders and who can partner with their clients, develop strategies that lead to exceptional executions and ultimately ensure that client expectations are not only met but exceeded. You’ll be passionate about leading and building future-proof teams. You’ll have a love for the videogames and tech industry even if you’re not a gamer.
This role will be a key hire in the Assembly team, working alongside wider leadership teams across Xbox EMEA, Xbox Social and Surface and bringing their skills and experience to broader clients working within the gaming space across the agency when required (for example; Dove, Samsung, HP, Lego)
Key Responsibilities:
- Managing and developing client relationships to earn their trust to deliver day to day work as well as providing proactive confident counsel on communications strategy and new approaches or ideas that will help evolve their communications
- Working collaboratively with our Assembly counterparts and global clients based in the US across a wide variety of Xbox comms, marketing and BTL (retail) teams
- Running integrated campaigns across the UK, ensuring delivery against campaign objectives and metrics; driving consistent quality of work
- Creating and driving outreach plans, message development, management of events, effective pitching and coaching of spokespeople
- Developing a highly efficient UK team below you to deliver the best work we’ve ever delivered
- Writing proposals, messaging and narratives
- Directing media engagement strategy for clients and coaching teams to activate and deliver coverage, leading from the front
- Identifying potential leads and areas of growth within existing client workstream
- Financial management – forecasting, staff planning, managing utilisation and servicing
Ideally you will have/be:
- Experience across a broad range of consumer/consumer tech clients and ability to apply transferable skills from your current clients to Microsoft/Xbox
- Strong communication skills, verbal and written - able to develop high-quality strategy, write documents and proposals and manage large teams
- Desire to work as part of a large, integrated team in a busy, fast-paced, and highly motivated working environment
- The ability and experience to provide senior clients with clear, confident, and well-informed strategic counsel and excellent negotiation skills and ability to manage expectations against budgets / results.
- Present confidently and expertly, able to articulate a point of view and persuade and influence
- A curiosity and desire to keep up with digital trends, media trends, emerging platforms and changing audience behaviours, and be able to articulate these to our clients.
- Understanding of Millennial and Gen Z audiences and how to reach them
- Creative storyteller with a natural curiosity in the arts and broader cultural life and societal trends
- A knowledge of the major technology trends and issues impacting big tech and gaming, including the UK policy landscape
- An ability to handle difficult and sensitive conversations
- Experience of integrating with different practices / teams on cross-business work, ability to work collaboratively with a variety of people to meet client expectations
- A creative problem solver able to deliver results for clients and generate new ways of thinking and working
Assembly is an integrated agency providing purpose-built communications to Microsoft – bringing strategy, creative, research, social and digital, and influencer marketing together to drive tangible business results and advance Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.
We advocate for ideas based on real audience insights and sound strategic opportunities and bring them to life with creative executions that earn attention. We are the team behind some of Microsoft’s most exciting work across Surface, Xbox, M365, and Windows to name a few. We are the lead agency for the Microsoft brand across social; the global PR agency of record for Xbox; and the influencer agency of record for Xbox, Surface, M365 and Windows. Assembly is also a strategic partner for executive communications across Microsoft Store and several executives across the company.
Our results are a direct reflection of our culture and people – we believe that bringing together diverse perspectives enhance creativity and innovation, and we embrace and celebrate differences both in our organization and through our work. We’ve partnered with Microsoft for 27 years, across 17 countries around the world. Come be a part of our collective story as we partner with Microsoft to enable each other to achieve more.
Assembly Media was founded in 2014 under DJE Holdings to exclusively service Microsoft. In 2019 our parent agency, Edelman, was recognized by AdAge as one of the top 10 creative companies in the U.S. and recognized as a 2019 Best Place to Work.
