Creative Director - Experiential Marketing Agency in London

As Creative Director, you will play an important part in leading one of our largest and most high profile events in the GPJ EMEA calendar, as well as working with GPJ London's ECD and CD’s in leading the GPJ London creative department. Your role is to drive the creative vision to ensure the delivery of highly effective experiences that exceed our clients' expectations, meeting their budget requirements, and fulfilling GPJ’s business goals.

Working with the EMEA CD and global account ECD, you will play a leading role in developing concepts and are then responsible for leading, presenting coherently and in a compelling manner the direction to clients and others. As Creative Director, you must work well as a leading member in a team environment; motivating and managing other Creative staff and freelance talent, as well as interfacing effectively with other departments within GPJ. Your role is pivotal to the success of both winning and executing excellent work reporting directly to the ECD, and beyond specific projects, you will be vital in shaping the creativity of the whole company helping to grow the business.

• Creative Leadership & Vision
  • Set the overarching creative direction and drive best practices across the business, stepping back from day-to-day production to focus on high-level advisory and troubleshooting.
  • Assign creative talent based on skill, experience, and personality to match specific client needs and project demands.
  • Demonstrate expert delegation skills, managing the team’s time with a commercial mindset to maximize efficiency and value.
• Client Relationship & Communication
  • Act as a senior-level partner to clients, speaking their "business language" to ensure creative solutions solve their specific commercial challenges.
  • Serve as a creative escalation point for major accounts, working independently to resolve complex project hurdles.
  • Interface with other departments to instigate organisational improvements and provide new thinking that pushes the agency forward.
• Team Management & Development
  • Line manage, focusing on nurturing talent, managing performance expectations, and resolving interpersonal conflicts.
  • Actively participate in the recruitment of new creative talent and work with the ECD/EDCI to represent the creative department positively across the global network.
  • Conduct regular team check-ins to sense-check priorities, resolve roadblocks, and ensure the health and motivation of the creative workforce.
• Innovation & Technology
  • Lead the adoption of new creative tools and processes, coaching team members on how to integrate them into their workflows.
  • Stay ahead of industry trends and technology, providing expert counsel to clients and internal teams on how digital evolution influences their brand discipline.
• New Business, Account Growth & Integration
  • Take the creative lead on major RFPs and pitches, interrogating briefs to develop winning strategies and representing the agency's standards to prospective clients.
  • Identify opportunities within existing accounts to expand the agency’s footprint through best-in-class delivery and integrated campaign thinking.
  • Maintain a deep understanding of the client’s entire marketing mix to ensure our creative work integrates seamlessly with their wider campaign objectives.

About you: We seek a passionate, original thinker with proven creative expertise across a range of media. Acting as the lead on specific projects this role requires strong communication skills to clients at all levels. Confidence to brief effectively and work well in a team environment are as important as an ability to excite clients with our concepts. You will be able to drive the creative vision of our face-to-face communication projects from inception right through production to completion.

You communicate with clarity, conviction and persuasiveness tailored to different situations. Competent delegator – bringing the right people in for the right tasks, thinking commercially about the use of people’s time and working with creative operations and project teams to ensure we efficiently meet client expectations. You demonstrate 'active' listening skills in a variety of situations, seeking out others' ideas, are open to them and are able to take action where appropriate. You understand the marketplace (client and talent) and use this information to inform project & business decisions. You problem solve on behalf of the agency and department, finding solutions to challenges the team face. You are able to build effective relationships, able to understand and respond to the agenda of others and are able to help unlock future client opportunities. You think creatively to deliver ideas/solutions & solve problems; are able to demonstrate the ability to enhance the client's or team’s outcomes or business impact through actions & contributions. You understand the vision & strategy of GPJ to spot opportunities to support sustainable commercial growth. You are a collaborative, consultative team player with enthusiasm, passion and drive. If you have a ‘roll-your-sleeves-up’ approach and a strong portfolio to show, we’d love to hear from you.

Your Background, Skills & Experience: Extensive experience as a Creative Director or in a similar role. Excellent verbal, written and listening communication skills as well as creative and artistic presentation skills. In-depth knowledge of brand positioning, industry trends. Ability to convey ideas in an oral presentation in an exciting and engaging manner. Substantial level of related experience including experience as a creative director in a communications agency developing impactful experiential and event marketing programs. Can convey complex concepts clearly. Ability to work in collaboration with the internal departments in bringing concepts to life and finding innovative ways of achieving this within a client budget without compromising on quality. Strong communication skills and the ability to enthuse and motivate clients and colleagues alike. The Creative Director will have day-to-day responsibility for project delivery and will be expected to run projects with a fair degree of autonomy, allowing the ECD to concentrate on new business development and strategic thinking. This role requires 3 days per week on site in our London office (Tues to Thurs).