Michele Callieu

This role was a result of a promotion to head up the company's founding and largest client, the UK's biggest retailer, Tesco.

Directed and mentored team of 14 professionals, encompassing account managers, designers, proofreaders, copywriters, artworkers, and freelance staff to execute in-store shopper marketing initiatives.

• Established meaningful partnerships by building and nurturing customer relationships
• Focused on delivering outstanding customer experiences through proactive engagement
• Crafting creative briefs and delivering presentations to stakeholders across multiple levels
• Upholding and enforcing guidelines to ensure brand consistency for the client is maintained
• Continuously building an understanding of client/agency relationships and optimum client service whilst actively supporting teams with priority projects, ensuring no detail is missed
• Managing £1.5m budget
• Developing forecasts, managing budgets and signing off my account managers’ project budgets
• Encouraging and developing the strategic partnership between agency and client
• Ensuring project documentation is accurate and up to date at all times
• Providing leadership, motivation and inspiration to my team and client
• Ensuring my team are always provided with the necessary levels of support through guidance, coaching and mentorship
• Collaborating with creative teams, client and suppliers with a high level of scrutiny and attention to detail
• Maximising the potential of my team to leverage relationships and implement solutions that drive productivity and deliver excellent creative responses
• Motivating and guiding team to achieve and enhance established KPIs
• Ensuring the team’s work aligns with client goals to deliver results

This role gave me opportunities to work across various accounts within the business:

Tesco, on several key areas: Shopper Marketing and Pharmacy. Prior to this I worked on the Tesco Opticians and Tesco Central European accounts. The client requested I fulfil a secondment at Tesco Head Office for 9 months as Head of Marketing for Tesco Opticians to manage and oversee all their in-store campaigns and support the business during the acquisition of Tesco Opticians by Vision Express.

M&S; I co-ordinated local marketing efforts to boost regional presence.

Dendron; working with brand managers throughout a 6 month secondment. Connected with retailers to strengthen in-store brand recognition by helping to develop and deliver shopper facing messaging.

Leeds University; working closely with the creative team on brand development for their new restaurants and canteens on campus.

• Managing multiple projects simultaneously with multiple outputs and delivery dates whilst ensuring the customer was kept involved and updated at every key stage in the delivery of the project
• Working across a range of retail activity, with the skills to own, develop and manage key clients
• Working closely with senior and junior members of the agency team to develop and deliver varying projects, with two account managers reporting directly into me
• Maintaining consistent contact with my clients, taking creative and artwork briefs and understanding their plans
• Handling budgets and managing campaign costs
• Writing briefs and communicating the work to the creative teams, ensuring they delivered the work on time, on brief and on budget
• Presenting creative responses back to the client
• Problem-solving and thinking reactively to deliver projects very quickly
• Driving high customer service standards at all times
• Setting and delivering against objectives and development plans
• Developing and growing organically in existing accounts
• Account management of multiple projects and clients
• Communicating to a high standard in written and verbal formats, in person and over the phone

I managed large FMCG (Premier Foods, Tetley Tea and Nestlé Waters) and pharmaceutical client accounts, ensuring their sales promotion and marketing requirements were handled efficiently, creatively, on budget and on time. I managed other account managers and executives, an estimator and a team of graphic designers. I also developed a strong understanding of print production during this role.

• Taking verbal and written briefs from client, understanding them and discussing with the client to ensure correct requirements were briefed into the creative team
• Constructing precise written briefs for the creative team by supplying electronic and hardcopy briefs, detailing all images/logos/copy etc. to be included
• Responsibility of art direction in the studio including creative input of front-to-back delivery by putting together creative ideas to communicate client’s brands and promotions
• Managing in-house graphic design department and suppliers to ensure requirements were dealt with in a timely manner
• Writing legal terms and conditions and obtaining legal approval from company ISP lawyer
• Raising purchase orders and co-ordinating production of printed materials
• Managing all POS production and distribution requirements to the merchandiser for siting in-store
• Briefing estimator on quote requests
• Sourcing of products and promotional goods for branding
• Updating monthly sales figures for directors’ access
• Charging up job tickets, checking costings and passing detailed information onto Accounts Department for invoice generation

This position gave me excellent all-round office experience and training and was the springboard to my Account Manager role which then enabled me to continue to be a high achiever leading me to where I am today.