“Piece of advice for the client?“
Don’t be afraid to be bold. Unleashing creative freedom can unlock great potential. Find an agency that truly cares about your business’s success and wants to push limits in order to achieve it.
“Strategic account management doesn’t happen by accident – it’s made up of formalised, repeatable, and measurable processes.“
Strategic Account Managers focus on creating value for accounts over and above specific opportunities, often including value co-creation, customer satisfaction improvement, rigorous application of company resources, and operational and structural alignment with account direction and needs.
To know more about it we have with us a Senior Account Manager of Mangos Agency.-Meet Tracy Spinelli
Tracy Spinelli has always been a “people person” with a creative flair. In college, Tracy studied Marketing, Communications and Advertising, which left her with a broad range of opportunities upon graduating.
Over the course of 11 years, Tracy has worked for three agencies – all of which have given her unique opportunities and the freedom to define her role within the companies. Tracy has spent the past five years with Mangos, which has awarded her the most exhilarating and gratifying experiences to date.
Being in account management allows Tracy to utilize her excellent communications skills, strategic thinking as well as her creative brain. No two days are the same, which makes for a very exciting career.
Sharing some of her experiences, it’s truly an honor to host Tracy Spinelli in our Agency expert interview series.
1. When kicking off a client, what is the first assignment you give them? Why?
The best client relationships start with a conversation. However, if I were to give a client an “assignment”, my favorite would be a brand analogy exercise. For example, “If your brand was a car, what would it be and why?”. Is it a luxury brand? Is it the old reliable and affordable brand? Is it an innovative eco-conscious brand? This facilitates out-of-the-box thinking, and often uncovers insights that are extremely helpful in positioning the brand and identifying the target audience.
2. What elements can create an excellent social media experience that will help convert prospects?
Relevant content that connects with your audience on a personal level makes for the most successful social media campaigns. You can’t just push your message out there. The conversation, the experience and, most importantly, the engagement are critical.
3. What is the one thing that sets you apart most from the competition?
I’m very organized and on top of things, but I have a very casual way of working with my clients. In my opinion, it fosters the best working relationships and helps instill trust on both sides. People are people, and if you can connect with your clients on a personal level, you can break down barriers and achieve great results.
4. What do you believe to be the most important task you do on a daily basis? Why?
Oftentimes clients struggle to see “the forest through the trees”, so I love to bring an outsider’s perspective, strategic thinking and fresh ideas to the table. It’s not always easy to challenge your clients, but it’s important. A great account manager makes their client look good. And that means not always giving them what they want, but rather helping them realize what they need, and producing work that is unexpected and memorable, relevant to the target audience, and above all, results oriented.
5. Which project would you say has been the most intricate or challenging that you have worked on?
I had the opportunity to help launch one of Pennsylvania’s leading health network’s new Children’s Hospital. My agency was tasked with developing a multi-media campaign (on a limited budget) that created awareness of the new hospital and convinced the market that they no longer needed to “leave home” if their child needed serious medical attention.
Seems exciting enough…but the challenges were plentiful. To start, one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation was just an hour away. My client’s new hospital was not a stand-alone facility, but rather part of the health network’s pre-existing facilities. Also, the announcement of this new hospital came before all the planned specialities, technologies, etc. were in place.
To combat both the budget constraints and the fact that the expected technologies were not yet in place, we developed a series of nine television spots featuring videos sourced from YouTube. This was just one campaign element, but certainly one of the most intricate and challenging I’ve conquered to date. I’m happy to say it was successful and even provided a launch pad for one of the coolest social media contests I’ve ever worked on.
6. Have you ever had to break up with a client? How, specifically, did you handle the situation (ending things)?
I’ve been fortunate enough to have great, long-lasting client relationships. However, like most marketers, I’ve experienced a few client losses, but they have been amicable “break ups”. In fact, I’ve been privileged enough to even work with past clients at other agencies.
7.What do you believe has been your greatest career accomplishment? Why?
This is a tough one. I’ve worked on many campaigns that have won countless awards – from international to national to regional. It’s always a great feeling to have your work recognized by industry peers in markets outside of which the campaigns have aired. However, at the end of the day, seeing my clients happy and their businesses succeed is the most rewarding feeling. If I can continue on the trajectory I am on, I will always feel a sense of accomplishment.
Today we got to know some interesting tips which can help business as well as an individual grow in the field of marketing and advertising from Tracy Spinelli. Going forward there are many more specialists that we want to chat with. We will resume our discussion with another expert in our next post.
Until then, Happy Marketing!!
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