Account Director (2 Positions) – (Toronto)

The agency job market is smokin hot right now in TO. I am looking for 2 Integrated Account Directors (Digital, Broadcast, Print, etc). Great established downtown agency that continues to grow has asked me to help them fill 2 pretty different roles. I’ll top line them here – ping me if you want to chat.

1st AD: Primary agency lead on a forward thinking, innovative brand that uses out of the box marketing/thinking to continue to establish their position in the consumers mind. Fun brand. Retail experience required (does not mean starbursts or banners!) but more importantly a creative spirit.

2nd AD: Primary agency lead on 2 diverse accounts. First is a well established, well respected Toronto retail chain/brand. Need to be strategic, entrepreneurial and quick. Second account is a CPG brand that has used unique channels to build their brand. Looking for someone again that can also approach a challenge strategically and also be decisive and quick to move.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborative
• Pioneering
• Optimistic and solutions-focused
• Driven (with a keen sense of balance)

Required Skills and Competencies

• A minimum of 7-10 years agency experience w/ a mix of digital & print
• Strong interpersonal, organizational and problem-solving abilities
• Proven strategic and analytical aptitude
• Proven experience in managing teams of people
• Solid project management and financial management experience
• Need to have proven experience on a retail brand or in a retail environment
• Excellent verbal and written communications

Please email resume to glenn@swanstaffing.com

Junior Broadcast Buyer – (Toronto)

This agency is ranked as one of the largest strategic planning and buying agency networks in the world & Canada. Their philosophy is that by putting people first, at the forefront of everything they do creates better results. The culture is based on passion, creativity, accountability, fairness and responsibility. The network believes that by hiring the best staff and giving them the best training, the spirit of a positive agency is created. This world class agency has an array of clients from different industries, from automotive to consumer goods, from retail and pharmaceutical to telecommunications, entertainment and fashion.

The Junior Buyer works closely with the Supervising Buyer to support them in negotiating, maintaining, and stewarding clients’ TV media scheduling.

Our Requirements (1-3 years relevant experience)

Develop a working knowledge of client’s goals, guidelines and strategies. Revise/Maintain all schedules on a daily basis. Analyze and negotiate client scheduled moves and makegoods changes to TV schedules. Prepare stewardship of all buys and stay current with all research data. Check contracts and alert Buyer to any differences between buy and contract. Perform basic buying functions in Donovan, update client schedules. Oversee and coordinate the administrators’ resolution of non-problem bill discrepancies and problem discrepancies, with the help of supervisor if necessary, within the designated timeframe. Establish good working relationships with Planning groups and other departments that Broadcast collaborates with. Recommend new ways of more efficiently managing and maintaining clients schedules and processes. Actively participate in brainstorming sessions. Issue 100% post buy analysis within 90 days after end of the quarter

Your Capabilities

• Bachelor degree in related field or equivalent work experience
• 1-3 year work experience
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Familiar with Microsoft Office software;
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to be flexible and be a team player

If this describes YOUR career goals, then apply today by emailing your resume! glenn@swanstaffing.com

Only those candidates that are deemed suitable for this particular role will be communicated with.

Account Director – Shopper Marketing – (Toronto)

This position has been created to lead the development of the Shopper Marketing Practice in Toronto with current clients and developing new business opportunities and relationships. The position will require close collaboration with Chicago’s client service and shopper marketing planning teams.  Reporting to the VP, Client Development (Toronto) and Managing Partner, Shopper Marketing (Chicago), the primary responsibility of the incumbent will be to manage organic growth responsibilities for a current client relationship in the alcoholic beverage category (about 20% of time) and grow the Agency’s prospective shopper marketing clients in the Canadian market.  The ideal candidate for this position is entrepreneurial and has a passion for driving business growth within a retail/shopper marketing discipline.

Who are you?

• You have a post-secondary education in marketing or related field
• 7-10+ years experience working in agency account management, retail marketing or merchandising, consumer promotions packaged goods marketing, retail activation, or a combination of these
• Experience in agency or services business development or sales experience in shopper marketing
• Strong knowledge of retailer strategies, particularly as they relate to retailer equity and shopper acquisition, shopper loyalty and retail marketing
• Key understanding of Shopper-based principles and messaging strategies as they relate to consumer packaged goods
• Experience managing client budgets, billing, and timelines
• Experience and success in new business creation
• Strong client facing skills and the ability to communicate with confidence
• An outstanding relationship builder with strong conceptual selling skills
• Must be able to think strategically and is a solutions-focused thinker
• Strong attention to detail, consistently striving to ensure the overall quality of the company’s success
• Highly organized with an ability to work independently, under tight deadlines and shifting priorities
• Excellent interpersonal skills with a strong desire to share knowledge and work in a collaborative and collegial environment
• Excellent presentation skills—ability to develop and deliver inspiring presentations
• Knowledge in digital and mobile marketing would be an asset
• Professional and presentable with a strong business acumen
• Key understanding of retailers and channels within which they play

What does the job entail?

This newly created position reports to the Managing Partner, and will have a pivotal role in driving and developing the CRM Shopper’s Marketing Practice for Canada & the US.

Essential Functions

• This position is primarily focused on revenue and bottom line growth through both organic and new business opportunities to support the agency’s Shopper Marketing practice.  This is the lead Shopper Marketing position in Toronto
• Identifies and leads the development of winning solutions for shopper marketing and retail promotional opportunities with consumer packaged goods and/or retail industry prospects, carrying that effort through transaction
• As a domain expert utilizing thinking from the Chicago Shopper Marketing practice,  assists in the development of the agency’s promotional shopper marketing value proposition, messaging and sales/marketing materials
• Assists in the development of presentations, proposals and contracts for new clients with the goal of securing new Shopper Marketing revenue and growing the practice
• Leads and manages existing and newly-secured client projects acting as the primary interface between mid-level client-side contacts and relevant agency departments in both Toronto and Chicago
• Coordinates and manages agency resources for client projects ensuring that all client needs are being met, managing client budgets and producing internal and external status reports
• Develops project and creative briefs based on client/agency input
• Leads meetings (internal and client) and delivers presentations clearly, effectively and with confidence
• Maintains awareness of industry trends, events, news and emerging new business opportunities for the North America promotions and shopper marketing practices

Uses interpersonal understanding to build constructive relationships. Demonstrates high levels of respect and integrity with dealing with others. Works collaboratively to achieve mutually successful outcomes; quickly becomes viewed as a valuable team member; cultivates a network of healthy relationships across the business

Senior Marketing Analyst (3 Openings)

The main purpose of this position is to uncover actionable insights, as well as develop strategies suitable to our clients’ business objectives and their customers. The Senior Analyst will be an integral part of the Analytics team and is responsible for providing account teams and clients with an understanding of customers segments and associated value, helping to define the measurement and analytics strategy, performing analysis and report writing.  This position will focus on data analysis, segmentation and modeling, and scorecard and report design.  The individual in this role will deliver strategic insight from analysis to present findings, program enhancements, and marketing recommendations to clients.

As a Senior Marketing Analyst You Will:

• Provide and assist with the delivery of measurement and analytic services:

1. Customer segmentation
2. Customer value determination (current and potential)
3. Predictive modeling
4. Data analysis
5. Business case development

• Work with client teams to develop measurement strategies, indentifying key metrics to track and report on.
• Present both proposals and final results to client teams and internal teams with an ability to translate data in terms that will resonate with the recipients of the information 

Your Capabilities (5+ years relevant experience)

• Post Secondary Degree in quantitative discipline (Math, Sciences, Engineering, Economics or equivalent).  Masters or MBA preferred
• Educational background in areas such as statistical analysis, financial analysis, or marketing sciences would be an asset
• Solid background in statistics including a range of analytical methods e.g. cluster analysis, logistic regression, decision trees, principal components, cross-tabs, conjoint analysis
• 5+ years specialty expertise – database / relationship marketing, use of analytical tools (SAS, SQL), application of experimental design results measurement and evaluation
• Expert in relational database and structured programming concepts
• Ability to build strong lateral relationships through influence
• Strong problem resolution and decision-making skills.
• Experience in writing and conducting dynamic presentations
• Ability to work steadily and accurately under pressure, especially during peak periods
• Attention to detail and time management is critical.

Experience in the Retail services industry, including understanding of marketing is an asset.

If this describes YOUR career goals, then apply today by emailing your resume!

glenn@swanstaffing.com

Only those candidates that are deemed suitable for this particular role will be communicated with. 

Multiple Media Planning & Media Account Management roles – (Toronto)

Wow – surprising how much difference a week can make – especially given how close we are to the holiday shutdown. I have several clients looking effectively for all intermediate and senior level roles within media planning and media account management. Digital, traditional and a mix. If you know of anyone that may be starting to look – please have them reach out to me. As always, information shared with me is always kept in the strictest of confidence. I will never share information (including resumes) without getting explicit approval to do so. (Can’t say the same for a lot of other recruiters…)

Please have a safe holiday season. Feel free to reach at glenn@swanstaffing.com. Most roles I’m working on are posted at http://www.bullhornreach.com/user/27671_glenn-swan-glennswanstaffingcom

Thanks again – Glenn

PHP Developer – (Toronto)

Great North Toronto (Easily accessible by transit) advertising agency is looking for an Beginner/Intermediate PHP Developer with experience in an agency or marketing environment.  You are a creative personality, looking for ways to expand your own personal and professional boundaries.  This is a full-time opportunity with great benefits – including a wonderful work life balance!

Your Capabilities (2-3 years relevant experience)

• 2+ or more years professional experience with the design and development of Internet-based applications
• Programming Languages: PHP, SQL, XML/XSLT, HTML
• Exposure to frameworks (SEO friendly ones are an asset)
• Experience with relational database design and development.
• Understanding of core Internet technologies (TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, web servers, server scripting, data interfaces/providers, web services, etc)
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Team spirit with the desire to own projects and the ability to work with minimal supervision

Not required (Assets)

• Content Management System design and development experience
• Other Programming Languages: ASP.NET (C#), Java, Ruby, ASP3/VBScript, etc
• Development Frameworks: Ruby-on-Rails, Zope, Drupal, others
• Experience working in an agency environment is ideal.

If this describes YOUR career goals, then apply today by emailing your resume!

glenn@swanstaffing.com

Only those candidates that are deemed suitable for this particular role will be communicated with.

Social Media Community Manager – (Toronto)

Our Requirements (2-4 years relevant experience)

• Acts as the voice of the brand across social media communities which will include but aren’t limited to Facebook and Twitter.

• Monitor fan and follower communication, and respond in a helpful, brand-positive manner
• Establish escalation procedures to client contacts for key issues
• Structure regular and insightful feedback channels for various client business functions.
• Help craft community participation guidelines
• Develop an engaging and brand-aligned content calendar

• Generates dialogue, buzz,  interaction, and conducts outreach
• Designs reporting format and intervals
• Works alongside brand teams and media activation colleagues to provide planning direction and integrated media strategies encompassing insights, paid, earned and owned.
• Establishes benchmarks for metrics and gauging engagement success.
• Is able to identify and engage advocates
• Serves as a thought leader on  new social media tools and best practices for community management
• Builds training and educational modules for clients to eventually assume management function

Your Capabilities

• 2 – 4 years experience in a digital and/or communications field

• At least 1 year experience as a social media community manager

• 4 year college degree
• Expert written and communication skills
• Demonstrated organizational skills
• Proficient with Microsoft Office products
• Ability to work in fast-paced environment and learn quickly
• An analytical eye for connecting social media community metrics to business objectives.
• Experience sourcing and managing content development and publishing
• Understands the social media universe of communities, social CMS tools, and platform management tools

If this describes YOUR career goals, then apply today by emailing your resume!

glenn@swanstaffing.com

Only those candidates that are deemed suitable for this particular role will be communicated with. 

Account Director (DIGITAL MEDIA) – (TORONTO)

This agency is ranked as one of the largest strategic media planning and media buying agency networks in the world & Canada. Their philosophy is that by putting people first, at the forefront of everything they do creates better results. The culture is based on passion, creativity, accountability, fairness and responsibility. The network believes that by hiring the best staff and giving them the best training, the spirit of a positive agency is created. This world class agency has an array of clients from different industries, from automotive to consumer goods, from retail and pharmaceutical to telecommunications, entertainment and fashion.

As the Account Director you are responsible for all aspects of your client’s business, and acts as primary point of senior client contact, as well as the team lead. The AD is responsible for the management of one or more accounts, strategic planning, smarter media solutions, the integration of all specialized services offered and rigorous financial management leading to business profitability. This position requires strong leadership, communication, the ability to foster teamwork and management skills coupled with control of many delegated tasks.

Our Requirements (7+ years relevant experience)

• Manages and directs projects for the group
• Oversees the development of objectives, strategies, development of plans and presentations
• Supervises the group in interpretations of competitive and other research data for application
• Ensures that team is functioning properly to deliver excellent written and verbal communications, multiple project management and meeting tight deadlines under pressure, critical thinking and problem solving recommendations and actions and qualitative and quantitative analyses and accuracy, with research applications as appropriate
• Recruits, trains and evaluates AAD and may provide input on remainder of team’s 360
• Attend meetings requiring senior leadership with client and internally, i.e. yearly strategy briefings, presentations
• Call upon all relevant resources available, including Research, and Search both locally and within the global network
• Should be able to resolve supplier/client issues without escalation
• Develop, lead and write an innovative digital strategy that meshes with overall communication plan and objectives. Be able to demonstrate a high level of digital creativity
• Ensure clients are aware of and on top of new trends and technology in the space
• Lead clients into new tests
• Lead an informal, in-group brainstorming session
• Know where to look or who to ask for inspiration or examples of interesting media executions
• Provide on-going digital education and consultation to the APGs
• Collaborate with the APG to identify the role of digital media and strategies
• Should be able to source 3^rd party resources as appropriate
• Ability to explain and demonstrate research and reporting tool benefits to a client’s business

You Should be able to..:

• …set and meet multiple demands within challenging deadlines for him/her self as well as the whole team
• …balance assignments while maintaining a flexible approach
• …delegate and share in the workload as a team member
• …pay strong attention to detail
• …take initiative and identify key areas of opportunities both with clients and also internal

Your Capabilities

• Minimum of 7 years experience having worked through positions of APG & SEM
• University educated (Business, Marketing, Communications)
• Solid industry experience
• Strong client management experience

If this describes YOUR career goals, then apply today by emailing your resume! glenn@swanstaffing.com

Only those candidates that are deemed suitable for this particular role will be communicated with.

[FILLED] Technical Team Lead – (Toronto)

The Technical Team Lead will assure the overall technical quality of the solution and be able to explain architecture decisions and their rationales to client management and technical teams.  He/She will provide mentorship and guidance to technical team members in all digital activities and will manage/mentor within the technology discipline.  The Technical Team Lead will keep current with methodology and technologies (e.g., via technical journals, conferences, and personal research) and contribute materially to the shared knowledge base of the agency, act as a thought-leader in a specific area.  In addition, this role will develop expert-level competencies in numerous application frameworks and solutions, and assist project teams in scoping and estimating project work.

Working collaboratively with the Senior Digital Specialist/Producer (SDS), the Technical Team Lead conducts, leads, and coordinates interactive development activities throughout all digital project, including key design decisions for the technology, structure and configuration of the solution.

The Technical Team Lead must convey the vision and needs of the client to the team, while actively motivating, inspiring, and coaching.

Our Requirements (5-8 years relevant experience)

• Technical Consulting
  Evaluate and document non-functional system and application requirements in a standard format in collaboration with the SDS and account group. Develop system architecture descriptions. Write technical documentation (admin guides), white papers, presentations,  contributes to determining internal processes.
• Technical Design
  Design stand alone & web-based, data-driven solutions using common techniques. Analyze development methodologies for future usage.  Provide innovative solutions to push the boundaries of technical constraints.
• Development
  Deep  knowledge of all interactive technologies commonly found at Fortune 1000 clients including Java, PHP, .NET,  Social Technologies, Content Management Systems, Portal Technologies, eCommerce platforms, Rich Internet Applications, Web services / Service Oriented Architecture. Ensure quality of code for development projects as needed.
• Client Management Support
  In collaboration with SDS provides technical support to Account group including conceptual solutions, logical architecture and estimating.  Work with response teams on RFP proposals. Work with other disciplines to satisfy business requirements and provide technical constraints. Identifies new opportunities and ideas for clients.
• Mentoring
  Provide support, mentoring and development guidance for development team. Help staff with technical designs, coding standards and work estimates and perform design reviews. Help management with staff reviews. Lead by example.
• Personal Development
  Work with management in identifying areas of needed or desired technical and business skill improvement for team members, and help create training plans to accomplish those improvements. 

Your Capabilities

• Work well in a collaborative team environment, following established coding and documentation standards, and be able to communicate efficiently with other team members.
• Work effectively with minimal direction.
• Must be able to provide time estimates before starting tasks and track time during tasks.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Willingness to travel to project sites if necessary.
• Ability to provide process and technical guidance.
• Proficiency in .NET, ASP.NET, PHP, SQL Server T-SQL, XML, XHTML, JavaScript, XSLT, CSS, image manipulation, Microsoft .NET class library, W3C web coding standards.
• Experience with web-based content management systems including e-commerce applications would be an asset.

If this describes YOUR career goals, then apply today by emailing your resume! glenn@swanstaffing.com

Only those candidates that are deemed suitable for this particular role will be communicated with.

Social Media Strategist – (Toronto)

In a nutshell – we’re looking for a Social Media guru. Subject Matter expert if you will. This is a position that will exposure to senior internal management as well as senior client exposure. You need to be professional, smart, and innately inquisitive with an unending desire to learn and discover and communicate. Ability and experience are important - your desire and passion for this industry is what will move you to the front of the line.

My client is a major digital agency in Toronto, Ontario with a national reputation for thinking strategically and acting creatively. The successful candidate will join their internal marketing team and interact with a variety of clients externally and their entire team internally. You must be able to play well in a sandbox filled with creative’s, programmers, account managers and clients.

Duties and Responsibilitie

• Interact with customers to align corporate objectives with social media
• Be the eyes and ears of our brand as if your own reputation depended on it
• Build and maintain our content distribution network by way of social media channels
• Minute by minute participation in conversations that surround our content and brand, answer comments, “be a mediator.”
• Identify threats and opportunities in user generated content surrounding our brand, report to appropriate parties.
• Interact with legal, search, client and cross corporate agencies.
• Create content for feeds and snippets in various social media sites.
• Schedule and organize multiple departments which generate content on a daily basis
• Conduct keyword research including cataloging and indexing target keyword phrases
• Participate in social media, as yourself and white hat avatars, on our behalf
• Optimizing tags, on our feeds, sharing sites like YouTube/Flickr and search engines through copywriting, creative & keyword optimization & buzz pocket mining.
• Tag and title content, with an understanding of how the word’s chosen impact natural search traffic and rankings via recurrent optimized content
• Manage and track link building campaigns, coordinated with all facets of our business.
• Create and update daily, weekly and monthly reports
• Analyze campaigns and translate anecdotal or qualitative data into recommendations and plans for revising the social media campaigns.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Has a college diploma or bachelor’s / associates degree in music, advertising, marketing, graphics, web development, communications, English, IT, music, theater, anthropology, history or related. (Yes, we are looking for interesting people with strong communication skills.)
• Excels at research, possesses excellent writing skills and the ability to crank editorial and technical writing output without brooding.
• Has work experience or training in advertising, PR, online marketing or similar field
• Proficient with Microsoft Office products.
• Dedicated to blogging and use of Facebook
• Understands the power of feed marketing
• Demonstrated creativity and documented immersion in social media (really send the links)
• Demonstrated ability to map out a marketing strategy and then drive that strategy proven by testing and metrics
• Experience sourcing and managing content development and publishing
• Ability to jump from the creative side of marketing to analytical side, able to demonstrate why their ideas are analytically sound
• Discretion to identify threats and opportunities in user generated content
• Understands social media universe including YouTube, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, Flickr, Forums, Twitter, Wikis, blogs, etc… We’re looking for a social media addict who maintains a personal mix of participatory expertise from among these channels.
• Possesses functional knowledge or some experience with HTML/CSS
• Knowledge of search engine optimization-think including basic keyword research. We name and tag our posts based on research.
• Has excellent verbal and written communication skills and an ability to work individually on a project or in a team environment
• Is eager to meet and exceed objectives and take on more responsibility
• Brings to the position outstanding organizational skills and the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines
• Ability to communicate results to management and in a fast paced environment

If this describes YOUR career goals, then apply today by emailing your resume!

glenn@swanstaffing.com

Only those candidates that are deemed suitable for this particular role will be communicated with.