Mandarin-speaking Senior Activation Manager

TONG is on the hunt for an outstanding Mandarin-speaking Senior Activation Manager (SAM) based in London to work in our Activation Team.

About Us

TONG Global is a specialist bicultural China marketing agency, with offices in London and Shanghai, helping luxury, real estate, and consumer brands connect with Chinese consumers worldwide. Previous and current clients include Unite Students, Tiffany, Unilever, Heathrow Airport, Vivo, Taylors of Harrogate, Alexander McQueen and The North Face.

Behind our success is a team of multilingual experts bringing insights, inspiration and ideas from around the world. With diverse interests from fashion to technology, arts to gaming and sports to design, we bridge the perspectives of both industry and consumer. The commonalities that bind us are the curiosity, exchange, and transparency that permeate everything we do.

Who We’re Looking For

As a Senior Activation Manager in our Activation Team, you manage a significant section of our business by delivering on behalf of our clients. You are responsible for the P&L for your sub-team and for building and maintaining an efficient, high-performing team in line with agency culture.

You demonstrate professionalism and leadership, ensuring that we produce top-quality client deliverables. You work closely with our Activation and Commercial team leaders, reporting directly to the Managing Partners as a senior figure in the agency, and assist with new business development and upselling to our current clients.

You will manage an international team on a day-to-day basis, ensuring the smooth operation of our client services, including but not limited to brand strategy and consultation, social media retainer, influencer collaborations, paid media campaigns, offline events, social listening, and PR, all tracked against client commercial objectives.

You will bring extensive hands‑on experience in digital marketing, with an extensive network of media partners/KOLs/3rd‑party freelancers. Most importantly, you bring deep strategic vision and creativity regarding how we could improve our client services and grow the agency.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain relationships with client decision‑makers
• Keep clients informed on account progress, benchmarking and strategy through monthly reports and meetings
• Renew and expand contracts with clients, selling additional services where necessary for client success
• Brief the delivery team across our UK and Shanghai offices and project manage client accounts, owning outcomes in accordance with client objectives
• Devise and execute campaigns around key calendar and business moments
• Act as the client’s representative at TONG, ensuring timely, quality delivery of our services
• Devise new revenue streams based on market trends in partnership with the Commercial Team
• Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the Chinese consumer, online eCommerce & social media landscapes and provide audience‑appropriate, high‑level advice and service innovation to client decision makers
• Manage resourcing & media spend for each client – communicating overspend and underutilisation of resources to managers/SAEs as soon as possible

Must‑have Skills and Experience

• Excellent written and verbal bilingual (Chinese and English) communication skills; Fluent and confident in negotiation and presentation in both languages.
• Deep expertise of major Chinese social media platforms including WeChat, RedNote, Douyin, Weibo, Zhihu, Bilibili, including ongoing content development, paid media campaigns, influencer collaborations, and so on.
• At least 5 years’ experience (Internship exclusive) in Marketing/PR/Digital agencies or the equivalent role in‑house.
• At least 2 years’ experience in a managerial position that led a team with more than 3 direct reports.
• Experience in consumer goods, fashion & luxury, cosmetics, travel & retail, and education‑related sectors.
• Familiarity with Chinese LLMs and AI tools is required.
• High emotional intelligence and commercial mindset.
• Strategic thinking, research and brand planning skills and experience.
• Project management and budget control experience.

Package

• Competitive, based on experience

Work Location and Mode

• London Office
• Hybrid, 3 days in the office per week

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