Creative Director

About the role:

We are hiring a Creative Director who will inspire and lead a creative team to make a difference to consumers’ behavior by influencing change through ideas, creativity and the use of technology. Your role is to make a difference to digital communications, marketing and advertising, and to inspire our client's brands. 

Contributing to OLIVER’s founding values: Ambition, Imagination, Inclusion, Inspiration, Learning and Results; you will be excited about being part of our success. You will thrive when faced with new challenges and will constantly strive to improve the way things are done for our clients.

What you will be doing: 

• Deliver and inspire award-winning work from both yourself and others who work with you, influencing where appropriate a dramatic change through ideas, creativity and the use of technology. 
• Consistently deliver a number of successful solutions and high-quality work to clients on time. 
• High level internal and external client satisfaction. 
• High level of team satisfaction. 
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail. 
• Learn new skills and stay abreast of technical and digital developments, and successfully apply them to work practices to help improve processes and procedures.
• Participate in a number of pitches and/or deliver pro-active work to drive organic growth. 

 What you need to be great in this role: 

 Concept and design

• Create award winning work. Take the time, care and responsibility to moderate ideas, assess strategic direction and deliver innovation with a view to create industry leading and mould breaking work across all relevant client consumer touch-points - from social media, digital advertising, ecommerce to activations, campaigns and everything in between. 
• Review concepts and design work from an assigned group of clients and provide effective direction and feedback. 
• Prioritize multiple projects and their components to maintain high creativity and delivery. 
• Resolve key strategic issues with a high degree of creativity. 
• Responsible for creative output and complete ownership of issues, always finding an appropriate resolution. 
• Identify key pieces of award-winning work and ensure work is entered for the most appropriate awards. 
• Contribute to the award entry process, if necessary, create additional supporting assets and check quality control of award entries. 
• Manage client expectations, anticipate issues before they occur and communicate appropriately. 
• Work with functions across the Company to ensure excellent communications and foster a collaborative work environment. 
• Continually provide feedback to, and consultation with, all levels of staff. 
• Maintain an in-depth knowledge of all areas of the creative industry using new developments to ensure that the Creative department produces world-class work. 
• Support industry events, raising the profile of OLIVER externally. 
• Lead the development of existing and new relationships with appropriate colleges across the client network. 

Management

• Provide creative leadership, motivating the Creative department to produce award-winning work that is exceptional and commercial. 
• Look for processes that need improvement and drive implementation of changes and solutions to ensure all creative work meets the OLIVER scale’s standards. 
• Guide, teach and mentor senior members of the Creative department in developing ideas further. 
• Conduct regular team and individual meetings including annual performance reviews, highlighting any performance issues early and managing in a professional manner. 
• Identify team members training needs and support arrangements and initiatives for training. 
• Keep team informed of company news and decisions. 
• Identify permanent recruitment needs. Interview and assess potential candidates on behalf of the Creative department. 
• Make recommendations on the financial management of the Creative department including training, events and equipment. 
• Ensure direct reports are meeting utilisation and billability targets, completing timesheets accurately and on time. 
• Work with Resource Management to manage workload including sourcing OLIVER talent or freelancers when internal resources are exhausted. 
• Ensure there is knowledge sharing across accounts using appropriate methods. 

 Qualifications and experience 

• Proven experience working as an Associate Creative Director or Creative Director. 
• Experience working in a creative/agency/consultancy environment. 
• Has successfully run multiple simultaneous projects.
• Demonstrated creative success in leading collaborative multi-functional teams including project planning.
• Exceptional information presentation (visual and written) experience.
• Experience developing/leading client relationships.
• Experience in, and enthusiasm for, a broad range of marketing platforms, including content creation, digital and social advertising, brand activations, campaigns and the use of Gen AI.
• Proven track record generating new business.
• Extensive experience with all the relevant software packages and hardware, and a working knowledge of emerging platforms.
• A degree Marketing, Communications, Visual Studies or other advertising-related field preferred but not compulsory.  
• At the time of this posting, the base salary for this position may range from $170,000 to $180,000. Individual compensation varies based on job related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. The range listed is just one component of OLIVER’s total compensation package. 
• This role will be performed hybrid working out of Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Practitioner skills

• Creative leadership skills – the ability to provide clear creative direction on all projects. Make excellent creative judgement calls at all times and gain the support of others to complete a task to the best outcome.
• Client liaison skills – Work to forge a fruitful and trusting relationship with clients and accept responsibility for ensuring the client’s creative requirements are fully understood and correctly implemented. 

 Managerial capabilities

• Team configuration and operational management – deploy team resources in the most appropriate way to meet day-to-day challenges, ensuring the successful delivery of all projects and the smooth running of the department as a whole. Work with the Company’s  Senior Management team to strengthen, restructure or redeploy the team against business and customer needs as they occur. 
• Team development and training – identify team’s development needs together with general and specialist training requirements. Where possible, source or originate internal training solutions. 
• Prioritize development and training needs based on business objectives and individual’s risk of attrition.
• Stakeholder management – keep stakeholders informed of project progress at all times and manage expectations proactively. 

Leadership attributes

• Thinks strategically – evaluates risks. 
• Inspires creativity and innovation – facilitates knowledge sharing. 
• Drives results – holds self and others accountable to high performance standards. 
• Builds teams – provides challenging work assignments and development opportunities. 
• Exhibits professional excellence – earns the trust and respect of colleagues, partners and clients. 
• Builds relationships – facilitates win-win situations. 
• Communicates effectively – effectively persuades others to support ideas. 
• Champions change – builds commitment to change. 

 Req ID: 9145