Head of Brand Creative

Head of Brand Creative

Salary: £70,000 - £100,000 per annum,
Location: Huddersfield
Working Pattern: Hybrid, 3 days office / 2 days home
Experience: 8+ years
Domain: Consumer goods, retail, fashion, lifestyle or other emotive, product-led brands

About the Business

Our client is a well-established consumer goods and retail business with a strong heritage and an ambitious vision for the future.

The organisation designs and sells products that support families throughout their parenting journey, with a broad product portfolio spanning furniture, interiors, pushchairs, clothing, equipment and toys.

The organisation is entering an exciting period of transformation, with an ambition to become the go-to destination for expectant parents.

As the brand looks to connect with a new generation of consumers, there is a clear opportunity to modernise how it looks, feels and communicates across every customer touchpoint.

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Creative Lead to join the business at a pivotal point of growth and transformation.

This is a senior creative leadership role responsible for shaping and evolving the brand, with a particular focus on increasing relevance with younger, digitally minded consumers.

You will lead the creative vision across digital, social, retail and wider omnichannel touchpoints, ensuring the brand is distinctive, consistent and emotionally engaging.

Alongside leading the creative direction, you will play a key role in developing the internal creative function, bringing more capability in-house and building a stronger, more efficient content operation.

Reporting into the Marketing Director, you will work closely with marketing, digital, product, retail and commercial teams, as well as external agencies and creative partners.

This is a strategic and hands-on role, suited to someone who can set the creative vision while remaining close enough to the work to ensure a high standard of execution.

Key Responsibilities

Brand & Creative Direction

• Define, evolve and modernise the brand's creative expression across all consumer touchpoints.
• Develop a distinctive creative vision that increases relevance with younger and digitally minded consumers.
• Ensure the brand is cohesive, recognisable and consistently executed across digital, social, retail and omnichannel environments.
• Set creative direction across art direction, photography, styling, casting, visual identity and tone of voice.
• Translate brand and commercial strategy into clear creative direction and actionable guidance.
• Act as a senior advocate for the brand, maintaining a high standard of creative output and brand consistency.

Campaigns & Storytelling

• Lead the development and delivery of brand campaigns, product campaigns and omnichannel content.
• Translate product propositions into compelling and emotionally engaging creative concepts.
• Oversee creative output across design, photography, video and content.
• Develop creative that is effective across Organic Social, Paid Social, Digital, Retail, CRM and Wholesale.
• Ensure individual product categories have clear and compelling creative propositions while remaining connected to the wider brand.
• Establish effective creative processes from strategy and concept development through to production and execution.
• Use consumer understanding, data and performance insight to inform and improve creative output.

Creative Team & Capability

• Assess the existing creative operating model and identify the future capability required to support brand and content growth.
• Lead and develop the existing creative team, including graphic designers and copywriters.
• Build out the wider in-house creative function, including content creators and additional creative capability as the business grows.
• Increase the amount of creative production delivered in-house, reducing reliance on external agencies where appropriate.
• Introduce modern creative workflows, tools and processes to improve speed, efficiency and quality.
• Develop a scalable content operation capable of supporting both always-on content and major brand campaigns.

Digital, Content & Innovation

• Drive creative across digital and social channels, ensuring content is relevant to the customer journey and optimised for each platform.
• Explore new digital tools and technologies to improve creative output and efficiency.
• Demonstrate curiosity around AI and its application across creative development and production.
• Identify opportunities to use emerging technology and new creative formats to strengthen the brand.
• Ensure creative output balances brand building with commercial performance.

Brand Guardianship & Creative Quality

• Audit and elevate creative output across all channels.
• Develop practical creative guidelines that enable consistency and quality at pace.
• Maintain a strong eye for craft, detail and brand integrity.
• Provide clear and confident creative direction and feedback.
• Ensure all creative work meets a consistently high standard.

Agency & Production Management

• Lead and direct external agencies and creative partners.
• Provide clear creative briefs and direction across campaign development and production.
• Oversee campaign shoots, photography, video production and asset creation.
• Manage internal stakeholder feedback and ensure effective collaboration throughout the creative process.
• Balance external agency support with the development of stronger internal capabilities.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Build strong relationships across Marketing, Product, Digital, Retail and Commercial teams.
• Work closely with the Marketing Director to align creative strategy with commercial and marketing objectives.
• Partner with Product teams to translate product strategy and propositions into compelling creative expression.
• Collaborate with Digital and Channel teams to ensure creative is relevant and effective across customer journeys.
• Work with Retail and Wholesale teams to bring the brand to life across physical environments.
• Influence senior stakeholders and provide clear creative leadership across the organisation.

About You

You'll be an experienced creative leader with a strong background in brand-led, lifestyle, consumer goods, retail, fashion or other product-driven businesses.

You'll bring a strong creative point of view, combined with the commercial awareness and strategic thinking required to modernise an established brand and connect with a new generation of consumers.

Ideally, you'll have:

• 8+ years' experience across creative, brand or design, with significant experience operating at a senior creative leadership level.
• Proven experience leading brand transformation or significant brand evolution.
• Experience working across both agency and in-house environments is highly desirable.
• A strong background in consumer goods, retail, fashion, lifestyle or other emotive brands.
• Experience building and maintaining a consistent brand across multiple consumer touchpoints.
• Strong experience across digital, social, retail and omnichannel creative.
• Expertise in creative direction, art direction, photography and visual storytelling.
• Experience leading campaigns from initial concept through to production and execution.
• Experience managing and developing creative teams.
• Experience building or evolving an in-house creative or content function.
• Strong agency and external partner management experience.
• A good understanding of consumer behaviour and how creative can build emotional connections with audiences.
• Experience working with younger, digitally savvy audiences.
• An understanding of performance marketing and how creative can contribute to commercial results.
• An interest in AI and emerging creative technologies, with the ability to identify where they can improve creative processes and output.
• The ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on creative leadership.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge and influence at a senior level.

Personal Attributes

• Creative at heart, with a strong point of view and passion for brand transformation.
• Commercially minded and able to connect creative decisions to business objectives.
• Hands-on, pragmatic and comfortable operating at pace.
• Scrappy and resourceful, with the ability to deliver high-quality creative within budget constraints.
• Collaborative and confident working across multiple functions.
• Decisive and clear when providing creative direction and feedback.
• Curious about new technology, creative formats and ways of working.
• Detail-oriented, with a strong eye for craft, consistency and brand integrity.
• Comfortable working through change and ambiguity.
• Passionate about creating brands that connect with modern consumers.

What's on Offer

• Salary of £70,000 - £100,000 (DOE)
• Hybrid working, with 3 days in the Huddersfield office and 2 days working from home.
• The opportunity to lead the creative transformation of an established consumer brand.
• The opportunity to build and develop an in-house creative function.
• Significant influence across brand, creative, digital and omnichannel activity.
• The opportunity to shape how the brand connects with a new generation of consumers.

If you're an experienced Creative Lead, Creative Director, Head of Creative or senior brand creative looking for the opportunity to transform an established consumer brand, this role offers the chance to make a significant impact across brand, creative, content and customer experience.