Account Executive - Experiential Marketing

Job Title: Account Executive – Experiential Marketing
Reports To: Account Supervisor
FLSA Status: Full Time - Salaried, Exempt
Location: Cincinnati, OH

Who is pep?
pep started with 7 employees, a borrowed conference room, and an idea to fill a void in the marketing services space. Today we’ve grown to over 200 people and we are an industry leader in consumer activation, serving some of the top Fortune 500 companies. We’ve managed over $5 billion in marketing spend for over 750 brands and pride ourselves on a client retention rate of 98%.

Our company has evolved since we started 22 years ago, but there is one thing that has remained constant. At pep, we put people first. Our core values of accountability, excellence, ingenuity, people, and tenacity guide our interactions, decisions, and drive our culture. We are committed to maintaining an inclusive environment where every member of our team feels seen, cared for, and has the support they need to thrive. And our tremendous growth provides our people with many new career and development opportunities along with the flexibility to pursue their professional goals.

We’re looking for teammates who are driven, eager to learn, agile, positive, and client focused to join and contribute to our team. If this sounds like you and you want to be a part of something special, then click below to apply.

At pep We Value Our Team and Offer:

• Generous Time Off
• Robust Health and Wellness Plan
• Family Support
• Mentorship Program
• 401K Match
• Role Autonomy
• Certification Reimbursement and Ongoing Training
• Enrichment Events and Employee Resource Groups
  
  

Summary of Position:
The Account Executive position is a strategic partner for our clients, responsible for successfully delivering marketing campaigns and projects. This includes supporting a variety of consumer activation initiatives, with a preferred focus on experiential campaigns, and live events. Account Executives are highly organized and have a passion for building relationships. You will serve as the primary liaison, ensuring seamless execution by collaborating closely with clients and engaging internal and external supplier contacts.

Key Responsibilities:

• Client Leadership: Act as the main point of contact, building deep relationships with client teams across various initiatives. Proactively understand clients’ pain points, business objectives, and marketing goals.
• Program Management: Act as the primary client lead, overseeing project intake, defining program scope, establishing the execution path, and serving as the central point of contact for all strategic and operational communications.
• End-to-End Program Delivery: Own the full lifecycle of program execution, coordinating cross-functional teams, managing information flow, supplier coordination, and ensuring seamless delivery from initial requirements through final closeout. For experiential programs, this includes managing timelines for production, fabrication, and event logistics.
• Structured Communication & Meeting Management: Schedule and facilitate routine client status meetings and internal weekly program reviews, ensuring all stakeholders remain aligned and informed.
• Operational Tracking & Reporting: Build and maintain shared program trackers for clients and internal teams and deliver weekly program updates.
• Relationship Management: Cultivate strong, trust-based relationships with clients, vendors (including event production and fabrication partners), and internal partners through proactive communication, consistent follow-through, and a commitment to flawless execution.
• Account Growth: Identify opportunities to expand client engagement, introduce new capabilities, and pitch strategic solutions (such as innovative experiential concepts) that address evolving client needs and drive account growth.
• Financial Ownership: Manage complex and dynamic budgets. Own and review all cost components on a consistent basis to ensure financial accuracy and cost competitiveness. Manage program volume forecasting and retainer oversight for assigned clients, ensuring financial accuracy, transparency, and alignment with program activity.
• Performance & Quality Assurance: Ensure all programs meet established performance metrics, including on-time delivery, budget adherence, and high audit scores, while continuously optimizing processes for efficiency and quality.
• Team Development: Mentor junior team members by providing coaching, guidance, and support to elevate team performance and foster professional growth.
• Knowledge & Expertise Development: Stay current on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in consumer activation and experiential marketing, contributing to ongoing process improvements and organizational knowledge.

Knowledge/Skills Preferred:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. A successful candidate will have the following skills:

• Preferred, but not required: bachelor’s in business or communication (emphasis in marketing or management); or Minimum 2 years of applicable business or promotion management experience.
• Experiential marketing, event production, event planning, or purchasing experience preferred, but not required.
• Familiarity with event-specific logistics (e.g., vendor sourcing, asset fabrication, permitting, on-site execution) is a plus.
• Exceptional client communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to lead conversations, uncover business needs, and influence decision-making across multiple client teams and stakeholders.
• Marketing or project management experience preferred, including scoping, timeline development, risk assessment, and coordinating cross-functional teams through complex, multi-workstream initiatives.
• Leadership and collaboration skills, including mentoring junior team members, partnering with specialized internal teams, and contributing to continuous process improvement.
• Demonstrate desire for continuous learning, improvement and growing your business.