The Art of Account Management: Thriving on Challenge with Danielle Thomson

In creating and growing social and influencer business across EMEA for agency Laundry Service, Danielle makes it her focus to foster a culture of creativity, diversity and innovation – within her team and ultimately in the work they produce. Laundry Service is a full-service creative agency and Wasserman company building relationships between people and brands; in her role, Danielle helps brands including Meta and Pernod Ricard and beyond to integrate social media as an advantage for their future. Coordinating in-house services across strategy, creative, production, media buying and influencer management for client brands helps them to craft a meaningful role in culture across lifestyle, sports, music, technology and entertainment spaces.

Prior to Laundry Service, she served as MD / client services Lead at London-based social and influencer agency communicator. There she was instrumental to agency positioning and relationship building in the market, contributing to new business wins such as PepsiCo, BrewDog, Chicago Town Pizza and Lavazza. To those efforts, she delivered over 15 years of experience across FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), retail, food & beverages and QSR categories. Her global experience spans strategy, social, content, influencers, and partnerships with clients including McDonald’s, Coke, Jack Daniel’s, Heineken, PepsiCo, L’Oreal and BrewDog.

LBB> How did you first get involved in account management and what appealed to you about it?

Danielle> I love people, communication, culture and the art of organisation – and didn’t quite know how to merge those all together into a career. Account management (or even advertising) wasn’t something that we were taught in school, so I didn’t know it was a career option. I was headed down a path in community social work until a family member introduced me to advertising and I never looked back.

Getting to work with such talented people with different backgrounds and skill sets is such an honour. One of the best bits of client service is getting to bring all of those varied skills and talent together to create powerful work for our clients. The role has allowed me to work with some of the best brands in the world and make some great friends along the way. How could you not love that? 

LBB> What is it about your personality, skills and experience that has made account management such a great fit?

Danielle> Here comes that organisation a bit again. Being organised is a key quality you need to excel in account management. Think of yourself as a conductor in an orchestra: without you all of the pieces don’t come together to make that beautiful music. You are the connector to the client and agency, and the connector of all the different parts within the agency. You are trusted by everyone to make things happen and so you need epic organisational skills.

Being solution-focused helps, I naturally want to be the one to bring people together and make things happen, which means I always try to think ahead to foresee problems and try to solve them, both for my internal teams and the clients. I thrive on being given a challenge or opportunity and love being able to respond strategically. You always have the opportunity to flex those muscles in account management. 

LBB> What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting their career in account management?

Danielle> Be curious. Ask questions. Get to know your clients' business as well as they do. Understand how other departments work and how you can help them do their best work. No matter what level you are, this shouldn’t stop. There is always more to learn. 

LBB> Thinking back to some of your most challenging experiences you’ve had in your career, what do you think tends to lie at the heart of the more tense or difficult client-agency relationships?

Danielle> Not understanding your client’s business enough. Oftentimes agencies want to produce work that will make them famous and win awards. And while it never hurts to get recognised for great work, none of that matters if the work isn’t driving results for clients. In account management, you are the voice of the client internally and you are required to help guide your team on your client’s behalf. Take the time to truly get under the skin of their business and I guarantee it will always lead to stronger relationships and better work. 

LBB> And what are the keys to building a productive and healthy relationship?

Danielle> Two key standouts for me: 

First is open, honest communication. Always. It shouldn’t feel like a supplier relationship; it should feel like you are an extension of the client’s team. It means you are partners, working towards the same goal and you can be trusted to have honest,frank conversations – even if those are difficult. Is the brief not the best way to answer their business problem? Have those honest conversations from the start. Has a mistake been made along the way? Be honest and proactive with it from the moment it’s apparent. Honesty builds trust. And when clients trust their partner, the business will naturally grow – and those clients will be lifelong partners no matter what brand they lead or what agency you land at next.

Second is to be yourself. We’re all humans at the end of the day and want to work and spend time with people we like, trust and respect. It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day details of getting the job done, but don’t forget to take the time to bring a bit of yourself to the relationship. Get to know your clients’ interests outside of work. Get to know what makes them tick and vice versa. This will help build more meaningful connections and bring a more personalised approach to the relationship. 

LBB> What’s your view on disagreement and emotion - is there a place for it and if not, why not? If so, why - and what does productive disagreement look like?

Danielle> A difference in opinion is natural and can often lead to stronger work, but it must be expressed in a healthy, collaborative and professional manner. Clients hire us because we are experts in our field. We may have a different opinion than the client at times, but if you have a strong, credible partnership with the client, they want to hear your opinion. It goes back to honest communication and trust: if clients think you always have their business’s best interest at heart, they are more than willing to listen. At Laundry Service, we constantly ask ourselves, “Why should anyone care about this?” and ”Why are we really doing this?” Clients value that we are always going to bring our opinion to the table, even if it's different than expected. 

LBB> Historically, account management has been characterised as the mediator in an adversarial client and creative relationship - what do you make of that characterisation, is there any nugget of truth in that or is it wildly inaccurate?

Danielle> As an account person you’re often the first point of contact if a client or creatives face a challenge. So naturally I think a bit of mediation skill is required to be successful. Account managers need to be natural problem-solvers.That being said, I think this role is slightly evolving as more people have a seat at the table. At Laundry Service we encourage our creatives to build their own relationships with clients, so conversations tend to be a bit more organic between client and creatives. 

LBB> These days, agencies do so much beyond traditional campaigns and as account management you’re pulling together creative, experience, data, e-commerce, social and more - and that complexity can often be mirrored on the client stakeholder side too? What’s the key to navigating (and helping the client navigate) that complexity?

Danielle> Bring the right people in at the right time. Client’s don’t expect account management to know everything, but they do expect them to bring in the experts when we need them. We have so many brilliant departments and experts at Laundry Service – from strategy to influencer to production and paid media – whom we can really lean on to ensure we’re always coming to our clients with the best possible solution. 

LBB> What recent projects are you proudest of and why? What was challenging about these projects from an account management perspective and how did you address those challenges? What was so satisfying about working on these projects?

Danielle> We recently took on a hugely ambitious project for one of our clients, Meta. It involved ramping up a 50-person team globally across multiple departments in just three weeks. The scale and speed at which we put this team together was not only impressive, but made me step back and appreciate how powerful our agency is when we all pull together. Central to that alignment is the account management team ensuring we always stay focused and clear about the path forward.