Securing senior US client leadership for accelerated growth.
Learn how Major Players helped this global youth marketing agency accelerate their ambitions by hiring quickly into their senior team
Global Youth Marketing Agency Case Study.
The agency needed to build out senior client leadership in the US so it could run youth-centred ambassador programmes and experiential campaigns for its global brand partners on the ground, rather than leading them from overseas. The role required full account ownership, budget responsibility and a small team, sitting on Eastern time.
The talent pool was narrow. Candidates needed agency-side Account Director experience, real ambassador and experiential delivery, and genuine fluency in youth culture, all at once. An earlier attempt to fill the role fell through at the final hurdle when the preferred candidate accepted a counter-offer, so the second search had to land, and quickly.
The approach
Major Players ran a targeted search built around the specific mix of skills the agency's US clients needed.
- Mapped Account Director talent across experiential, sports and entertainment, and culture-led agencies, rather than relying on traditional advertising backgrounds.
- Headhunted passive candidates with direct experience running ambassador programmes, festival activations and athlete or talent partnerships.
- Ran two shortlist rounds, using the client's feedback after the first round to sharpen the brief and recalibrate the second.
- Advised on salary positioning, and the agency extended its budget to secure the right level of experience, closing at a $160k offer the candidate accepted.
- Managed counter-offer risk from the outset, drawing on what was learned from the first search.
- Supported the process through three interview stages, including an in-person meeting, to a signed offer in under a month.
The impact
The agency now has a dedicated senior client lead in the US, with the new Account Director onboarded through time with the leadership team in both London and New York. This gives its global brand partners a senior point of contact in the market and lets the agency deliver US ambassador and experiential programmes locally. Since the hire, the agency has continued to win new business on the account and expanded its US team. It has also returned to Major Players for further senior hires in both the US and the UK.
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