“I am so happy with the hybrid work style BuzzBrothers offers — I have really found that “perfect” balance that is so difficult to reach!”

Spotlight on: Pierre-Jean B., Senior Account Manager

Back to Spotlight where every couple of weeks we shine a light on one of our experts. 👀

Lights on Pierre-Jean B., a pretty recent arrival at Buzz (November 2021) who has already left his mark on many Logic and CPW projects. His secret superpower? Running a full marathon in 2.5 hours — yes you read us correctly!

Hi Pierre-Jean! We usually start by talking business and then move on to passions… But we’re just too curious, what’s your marathon story?

Haha, well my “marathon story” started 5 years ago. Back then I lived in Paris, and was living that typical Parisian life many of you probably know: a lot of work, restaurants, parties. It was great, but I wanted to get into shape… so I started running. From the first try, I loved it. That’s where the journey began, I committed to the sport and started running my first races, and marathons — because what I really enjoy is that “long run” experience. I now can run a marathon in 2h39 — it took a lot of practice and dedication, of course, but overall honestly it is just a lot of fun. Sometimes it’s the “fails” that make the experience right? I talk about one of my biggest mishaps in this podcast episode in case you’re interested. ;)

Running opened many doors for me, I discovered the pleasure of endurance sports — and of outdoor activities: from running I moved on to ski touring, cross-country skiing, alpinism and many other adventures. So last year, when I saw an opportunity at BuzzBrothers, I just had to grasp it! Moving here (to Annecy) has given me the possibility to bring together two very important sides of my life: my professional experience within our industry, and the proximity to the outdoors! I love the hybrid work style BuzzBrothers offers — I have really found that “perfect” balance that is so difficult to find!

And when you’re not out there breaking records, you’re focusing on some of our main clients, right?

Yes! So I joined Buzz in November 2021 to work with Sébastien H. and the rest of the team on 2 main accounts — both brands from big multinational companies. Both are fascinating in very different ways:

• On one of my accounts, we work on everything from naming strategies, defining the brand purpose and universe, storytelling, all the way up to actually executing the design and graphical guidelines, creating Social Media assets, defining acquisition strategies… to name just some of the things we do.
• My other account is more recent, it came in last year, in 2021. Since then we have been working on many different brand and communications issues. Our job is most often to define a creative approach which we then deploy across several markets by creating toolkits for each local client to be able to adapt the concept to its realities on the field. It is super interesting work, as our role is to find that right “creative tension”, creating a generic concept which is strong in itself, and giving the markets the tools to make it even stronger locally.

What does a day in the life of a Senior Account Manager look like?

One thing is for sure: life is pretty exciting in this position — which is something I have re-learned at BuzzBrothers. I used to work in the business development department at my previous agency in Paris, and it has been so great to rediscover life as an Account Manager (which was also my first job at La Chose in Paris).

It’s quite simple actually: being a Senior Account Manager means having one foot in the client’s mentality and another right here, at the agency. What does that mean? My role is to listen to my client at all times, to be there, to understand their needs and also anticipate them. Sometimes this means co-constructing a new brief together over weeks, sometimes it means being reactive enough to answer a need overnight. But the role is also to co-create with our talents within the agency of course. Once the brief has landed in my inbox, I will share it with our creative team and strategists who will develop the big idea we need to answer the brief. As a bridge between client and agency, my goal is to ensure we answer the brief correctly, all while supporting and promoting our teams’ powerful ideas.

The great thing at Buzz? We may have different roles and job titles, we all really work as a team on projects like these. True interaction at your service. ;)

Stay tuned for our next Spotlight interview. And in the mean time, meet the whole team here!