Creative Director

Creative Circle; Toronto; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading creative agency in Toronto is looking for a hands-on Creative Director to elevate their creative output. The ideal candidate will have experience in experiential marketing, leadership skills to manage a creative team, and the ability to oversee the operational aspects of creative projects. You will collaborate closely with senior leaders and ensure the agency's brand evolution through innovative solutions and strong communication. This is a unique opportunity for a dynamic leader eager to impact throughout the organization.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in creating memorable and meaningful experiences.
• Hands-on experience in the live events industry.
• Leadership skills to inspire and manage a creative team.

Responsibilities

• Elevate creative output by introducing innovative solutions.
• Manage and cultivate a high-performing creative team.
• Oversee the operational side of the creative department.
• Collaborate with senior leaders to ensure brand evolution.

Skills

Experiential marketing

Creative leadership

Excellent communication skills

Time management

Job description

Overview

Our agency client is seeking a Creative Director with a proven track record in creating memorable and meaningful experiences that drive business results. You have worked in experiential marketing (XM) and the live events industry and understand how to bring experiences to life in a fast paced agency environment. This is not a conceptual leadership role; our client is looking for a hands-on creative leader who still designs, still crafts, and understands what it truly takes to bring bold ideas into the real world.

Key Responsibilities

1. Hands-on Creative Leader (The ‘Product’): you elevate our creative product by introducing innovative, smart and results driven solutions to clients.
   • You lead the department by ensuring high quality creative output that is innovative and on-brand for clients and our agency. You’re experienced and knowledgeable about XM & Conference
   • You push yourself and the whole company to bring fresh thinking and innovation to our creative product, keeping up with trends and technology
   • You’re responsive, jumping in where necessary, roll up your sleeves with an understanding of where to prioritize key clients and budgets
   • Clients respect and seek out your opinion; strong ability to link business strategy & KPI’s back to creative recommendations
   • You can articulate and present a compelling case to clients for buying our creative solutions. You demonstrate a strong ability to ‘sell’ our creative solutions
2. Managing Creative Team (The ‘People’): you are a strong creative people leader who brings out the best in your team.
   • They enjoy working for you – feel engaged and excited to be here under your leadership.
   • They’re learning and growing from you through ongoing critical thinking and analysis of their work – getting feedback in real time and growing their skills
   • They are given opportunities to watch you and learn from you – client meetings, internal meetings, presentations, how you work, etc. Your team feels set up for success. You give them the information they need to be successful – they’re not an island.
3. Managing the Creative Department (The ‘Operations’): you understand how to effectively and efficiently operate an agency creative department.
   • Demonstrate an understanding of the company’s strategic business plans and proactively make recommendations and prioritize your time and the department accordingly
   • Demonstrate an ability to manage the business side of creative, i.e. pricing, timing, resourcing, reconciliation
   • Identify operational issues and recommend solutions including process, software, training
   • Set Department goals/KPI’s and help to ensure the department runs profitably and efficiently
4. Closely collaborating with other Senior Leaders (The ‘Team’): you understand that you’re a key member of a multifunctional team and you ensure that other team members feel trust, support and collaboration when working with you.
   • Excellent communication skills - ensuring other leaders feel confident and in-the loop about recommendations to the creative product
   • Excellent time management – team feels confident on delivery of creative portion of any program so they can manage client deliverables accordingly
   • Collaboration – you’re open minded and seek input and feedback on a continuous basis to optimize our creative product and ensure the creative team is a welcome partner at our agency
5. Strong internal creative leadership (The ‘Brand’): you are the brand steward of our agency and lead the evolution of our brand through an understanding of our unique IP and culture.
   • Proactively lead the look and feel of our corporate branding, working collaboratively with senior leaders
   • Recommend & oversee major tentpole initiatives including retreats, training and internal branding initiatives
   • Lead roll out of any branding work in a timely and cost-effective manner

Other Performance Metrics: Executive Leadership Skills

You demonstrate the necessary range of leadership skills to successfully inspire and lead teams to achieve great results, including:

• Self-Management
• Organizational Management
• People Management
• Actively Engages with Team
• Engages in Courageous Conversation
• Performance Management
• Flexibility
• Communication Skills
• Professional Development

Corporate Strategic Goals

• Contribution to overall corporate success