Client Lead

Publicis Groupe · Nairobi

Company description

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.

Overview

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

Responsibilities

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.

Seniority Level

Account / Business Director - Owns client relationship, business briefs and commercial delivery.

Mandatory artifacts owned

Business Brief - Defines the business problem, 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 work is covered by 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 feed the next campaign brief.

Key handshakes

Gives to - Receives from - Handoff

Growth Media Strategist - Client / BUD / MD - Business Brief + JTBD

Journey Planner - Strategist - Planning need & client constraints - Measurement Lead

Strategist / Client - Business & brand KPI expectations -

Client / BUD / MD - Internal team - Final recommendation, escalation & PCA narrative

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

What this role is NOT accountable for

✕Building the media strategy.

✕Building detailed TV, OOH, social, search or programmatic plans.

✕Loading plans into systems.

✕Chasing supplier invoices or reconciling bills.

✕Trafficking digital campaigns.

✕Producing weekly reports.

Required competencies

Client leadership
Manage senior client relationships.

Business understanding
Grasp 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
Handle sensitive delivery or billing issues.

Qualifications

Experience requirements

4–6 years in client service, media, marketing or account management.

How performance is measured

Brief quality - Percentage of briefs accepted without major rework.

Client satisfaction - Relationship health and senior stakeholder confidence.

Scope control - Reduction in unscoped work and fee leakage.

Revenue protection - Retention, growth and commercial risk management.

Approval discipline - On-time client approvals.

PCA adoption - Evidence learnings are used in future briefs.