Senior Influencer & Creative Partnerships Manager

Company: WPP Media South Africa
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Reports To: Client Partner
Direct Reports: Influencer Campaign Manager / Executional Support
Type: Full-Time

Role Overview

The Senior Influencer & Creative Partnerships Manager is a strategic, creative, and client-facing leader responsible for elevating brand stories through high-impact talent partnerships and creative integrations.

This role bridges high-level creative conception, executive-level talent management, and end-to-end client service. A core focus of this position is managing top-tier Mega & Key Macro Influencers/Ambassadors (e.g., culturally iconic figures such as Somizi, Siya Kolisi, etc.), building long-term brand equity, leading high-stakes rate negotiations, and managing annual partnership renewals.

Additionally, this role serves as an active creative voice embedded alongside the creative agency team—co-creating overall campaign concepts from scratch, driving creator-led ideas, and ensuring talent and creative strategy are seamlessly integrated into the broader media mix.

Key Responsibilities

High-Tier Talent Strategy & Relationship Management

• Mega-Influencer Ownership: Act as the primary manager and guardian for top-tier Mega influencers and brand ambassadors, ensuring their creative output, personal brand, and engagement seamlessly align with client objectives.
• Talent Identification & Scouting: Continuously monitor cultural trends, social listening data, and creator landscapes to identify high-potential talent and strategic brand-fit partnerships before competitors do.
• Long-Term Partnerships & Renewals: Drive contract negotiations for long-term (e.g., multi-month or annual) brand ambassador deals. Manage contract renewals, usage rights, exclusivity clauses, and financial terms to secure optimal ROI.
• Talent Briefing & Creative Direction: Deliver high-level, inspiring briefs to Mega talent, guiding content direction while honouring the influencer’s authentic voice to drive maximum resonance.

Strategic Client Service & Partnership Account Management

• Primary Client Liaison: Function as the key point of contact for clients on influencer strategy, strategic partnerships, campaign progress, and post-campaign analysis.
• Client Brief Intake & Consultation: Receive client briefs directly, translate business problems into creative influencer solutions, and present ambitious talent strategy proposals.
• Status & Performance Feedback: Lead strategic client feedback calls, presenting narrative-driven post-campaign reports, campaign ROI, content performance, and actionable learnings.

Conceptual Creative Brainstorming & Agency Team Collaboration

• Co-Creating Campaign Concepts: Actively participate as a key member of the creative agency team during strategy and ideation phases, helping generate core creative concepts and overarching campaign narratives (beyond just the creator element).
• Creator-Led Creative Ideation: Translate overarching campaign themes into innovative, talent-led creative mechanics, cultural activations, and original content formats.
• Integrated Creative Alignment: Ensure overall campaign creative concepts seamlessly blend creator authenticity with brand messaging, media strategy, and agency deliverables.
• Proactive Pitching: Develop and pitch proactive big-idea concepts, cultural moment responses, and strategic partnership proposals directly to creative leads and client decision-makers.

Commercial & Financial Accountability

• Costing & SOW Management: Oversee campaign budgeting, detailed executional costing plans, Statements of Work (SOWs), Cost Estimates (CEs), and Insertion Orders (IOs).
• High-Stakes Rate Negotiation: Lead commercial negotiations with talent management/agents, optimizing budget efficiency while maintaining positive, high-trust talent relationships.
• Commercial Performance: Ensure assigned campaign budgets and talent contracts are executed flawlessly within financial guidelines and target profit margins.

Leadership & Operational Guidance

• Direct Report Oversight: Provide direction and management to the Influencer Campaign Manager, delegating operational tasks (logistics, tracking, standard briefings, reporting) while maintaining overall responsibility for account quality.
• Process Excellence: Enforce standard operating procedures for talent vetting, compliance, legal usage rights, contracting, and campaign workflows.
  

  Required Qualifications & Capabilities

  Experience
  •    5+ years of dedicated experience in Influencer Marketing, Talent Management, or Creative Account Management within an agency or brand environment.
  •    Proven track record of personally managing high-profile Mega Influencers / Celebrities / Brand Ambassadors and executing high-budget, integrated campaigns.
  •    Direct experience participating in agency creative brainstorms, pitching overarching creative campaign concepts, and negotiating multi-figure long-term talent contracts.

  Skills & Competencies
  •    Creative Conceptualization: Strong ability to brainstorm big-picture creative ideas for multi-channel campaigns alongside agency art directors, copywriters, and strategists.
  •    High-Level Negotiation & Commercial Acumen: Skilled in navigating complex contract discussions, exclusivity terms, usage rights, and multi-year renewals.
  •    Client Relationship Excellence: Strong presentation, articulation, and consultative sales skills with senior client stakeholders.
  •    Technical Proficiency: Proficiency with influencer discovery tools (e.g., CreatorIQ), social listening software, workflow systems, and Microsoft Office / Google Workspace.

  Attributes
  •    Culturally Connected: Deeply embedded in South African pop culture, sports, entertainment, and digital media trends.
  •    Diplomatic & Resilient: Adept at managing high-profile personalities, client expectations, and tight agency deadlines with poise.
  •    Detail-Oriented & Accountable: Rigorous oversight of commercial documents, legal contracts, and campaign delivery standards.

  Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

  •    Partnership Success & Renewal Rate: Successful acquisition, retention, and annual renewal rate of key Mega-influencer brand ambassadors.
  •    Creative Output & Campaign Innovation: Active participation in generating winning creative campaign concepts (both general creative and creator-led) in partnership with the creative agency team.
  •    Financial Oversight: Campaign profitability, adherence to budget limits, and efficiency in rate negotiations.
  •    Client Satisfaction & Growth: Positive feedback from key client stakeholders and growth in influencer campaign scopes.
  •    Team Leadership: Effective direction and development of direct reports (Influencer Campaign Manager).