The Independents
Freelance Account Manager / Director, Hospitality & Lifestyle
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Contract: Freelance / Fixed-Term Contract
Start Date: ASAP
Location: London
We are looking for an experienced Freelance Account Manager / Director, Hospitality & Lifestyle to join our London team on an initial contract of up to six months, supporting our growing Hospitality offering.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced PR and communications professional to work across a diverse portfolio spanning luxury hotels, travel, and restaurants.
The ideal candidate will have strong experience across hospitality and lifestyle PR, with an established network of relevant media, influencers, and industry contacts. They will have a genuine interest in luxury travel, food, drink, culture, and lifestyle, and be confident working across different verticals and client needs.
You will be comfortable taking ownership of day-to-day client relationships, developing creative ideas and strategies, driving media and influencer activity, and working independently to deliver high-quality results in a fast-paced agency environment.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead day-to-day client liaison, including direct client contact, calls, and meetings, demonstrating maturity, professionalism, and strong client awareness.
- Work closely with senior team members to understand and implement client strategy, ensuring effective delivery across the wider team.
- Develop creative ideas, strategies, and presentations that respond to client objectives and support new business opportunities.
- Oversee and support the work of junior team members, providing guidance, feedback, and sign-off where required.
- Manage reporting, press collateral, media and KOL visits, product send-outs, and associated booking processes across relevant clients.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with relevant media, influencers, and industry contacts, leveraging an established network to secure meaningful results for clients.
- Identify relevant media, cultural, social, and industry trends and translate these into opportunities for client strategies and campaigns.
- Support client pitches with strong market insight, creative thinking, and a clear understanding of the Karla Otto proposition.
- Identify opportunities to introduce and integrate additional Karla Otto services across existing client accounts, working with the senior team to develop these opportunities.
- Work collaboratively with global offices and other Karla Otto divisions to maximize opportunities for clients and encourage a global, cross-functional approach.
- Stay up to date with developments across social media, particularly Instagram and TikTok, and identify relevant talent and influencer opportunities for clients.
- Use data and analytics to monitor the performance and impact of digital initiatives and make recommendations where appropriate.
- Attend relevant industry events and maintain an active understanding of developments across luxury travel, hospitality, food, drink, culture, and lifestyle.
- Take ownership of projects and deliver work to a high standard, meeting deadlines and responding effectively to changing priorities.
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Key Attributes
- Proven experience in a PR or communications role, ideally with a background in luxury hotels, travel, restaurants, drinks, hospitality, or consumer lifestyle.
- Strong client management and stakeholder engagement skills, with confidence acting as a key day-to-day point of contact.
- Established and relevant relationships across top-tier travel, lifestyle, food, drink, and consumer media, as well as influencers and industry contacts.
- Strong understanding and experience of KOL and influencer relations.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with strong presentation and storytelling abilities.
- Confident developing ideas, strategies, and presentations with a clear understanding of client objectives.
- Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced agency environment.
- Commercially minded, with an understanding of the wider business environment and opportunities to grow client relationships.
- A proactive approach, with the confidence to bring ideas and recommendations to both clients and internal teams.
- Strong attention to detail and the ability to interpret both quantitative and qualitative data.
- Proven negotiation, influencing, and problem-solving skills.
- Comfortable working independently and able to make an immediate impact within an established team.
- Positive, adaptable, and solutions-focused, with the ability to respond calmly and effectively to challenging situations.
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At Karla Otto, we are always looking for personalities with positive charisma who are enthusiastic, self-motivated, and have a keen sense of aesthetics.
Karla Otto embraces and celebrates diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Karla Otto provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join our team!
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