Earned First Creative Director in London

We are looking for a culturally fluent, strategically sharp senior creative with deep roots in PR agency life. This is a 9 month fixed term contract.

About the role:

This is not a pure-play art director or copywriter role. It’s for a creative leader who understands how ideas earn attention, travel through culture and generate impact beyond paid media. Someone who instinctively knows what makes journalists care, creators collaborate and audiences share. This role is a shared role split 50/50 with our sister agency M+C Saatchi Sports & Entertainment enabling you to work across a portfolio of ambitious brands that demand strong grounding in culture, from emerging trends to mainstream moments, translating data/insight and brand strategy into powerful, campaignable ideas that live in the real world. Most importantly, you will have a proven track record of selling bold ideas into clients and seeing them through to earned impact.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead Earned-First Creative Strategy
• Translate research, social listening and cultural insight into compelling strategic springboards
• Define creative platforms rooted in brand truth and cultural tension
• Develop campaignable ideas built to travel across PR, influencer, social and partnerships
• Ensure ideas are inherently shareable, newsworthy and culturally resonant
• Work closely with strategy and planning to interrogate data and uncover killer insights
• Identify where brands can credibly intersect with culture
• Create ideas that generate headlines, conversation and measurable earned impact
• Craft persuasive, high-impact presentations
• Lead client pitch moments with confidence and authority
• Articulate the “why” behind the work as powerfully as the “what”
• Demonstrate strong commercial instincts and an understanding of what clients will buy
• Partner with account leads and strategists to shape briefs
• Elevate creative standards across the agency
• Mentor mid-weight creatives and help build earned-first thinking into the agency DNA
• Maintain strong awareness of media, influencer ecosystems and evolving platform behaviours

What you’ll bring:

• Significant senior creative experience within a UK PR agency or earned-first environment
• Proven track record of ideas that clients have bought and that have launched in the real world
• Experience working across PR, influencer and social-led campaigns
• Strong portfolio demonstrating culturally resonant, earned-first ideas
• Experience presenting and selling to senior clients
• Deep understanding of earned media dynamics
• Ability to translate data into sharp, ownable creative insight

What you’re good at:

• Strategic thinker who can originate creative platforms, not just executions
• Strong editorial instinct, knows what makes a story land
• Commercially astute and confident in pitch environments
• Culturally plugged-in with a point of view on where culture is moving

What Great Looks Like:

• Ideas that lead the conversation, not follow it
• Work that earns headlines, creator participation and social traction
• Campaigns that travel across channels seamlessly
• Clients who trust your thinking and back your ambition
• Presentations that make people lean forward

Why Join Us?

You’ll shape the creative output of an agency that believes earned attention is the most powerful currency in modern marketing. You’ll work with brands that want to be culturally relevant not just visible and with teams who value insight as much as imagination. This is an opportunity to define what earned-first creativity looks like at its best.

WHAT YOU’LL GET:

For the right candidate, we will offer a competitive salary and benefits package which includes 27 days annual holiday, private healthcare, employer contributory pension, life assurance and income protection. We also offer a host of benefits that support wellbeing including subsidised gym membership, whilst our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion sees us offer learning opportunities around D&I, mentoring programmes and the opportunity for all to participate in a number of active Employee Led Networks and associated events. Finally, this role will be supported with all the necessary personal development required to set someone up for success.

ABOUT M+C SAATCHI GROUP

M+C Saatchi Group has pledged its commitment to create a company that values difference, with an inclusive culture. As part of this M+C Saatchi Group continues to be an Equal Opportunity Employer which does not and shall not discriminate, celebrates diversity and bases all hiring and promotion decisions solely on merit, without regard for any personal characteristics. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please make us aware as part of your application. All employee information is kept confidential according to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).