Creative Lead

UNAVAILABLE; Chiswick; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Life assurance

Healthcare

Private medical insurance

Gym memberships

Cycle to work

Holiday trading

Job summary

Danone UK&I is seeking a Senior Creative Lead to drive creative ambition and brand consistency across all brands, channels, and campaigns. You will partner with marketing teams, lead agency relationships, and ensure high-quality execution from strategy to delivery.

You will steer creative development, maintain standards across paid, owned and earned media, and influence senior stakeholders while collaborating with D-Studio and IBC specialists.

Qualifications

• Proven agency background with significant experience leading integrated creative campaigns.
• Strong understanding of brand building, creative strategy and campaign development.
• Experience managing retained agencies, creative boutiques and specialist partners.
• Deep understanding of paid, owned and earned channels, including social, influencer, PR, shopper and ecommerce.
• Strong appreciation of design systems, content creation, digital experiences and production workflows.
• Understanding of creative effectiveness principles, measurement frameworks and modern marketing ecosystems.
• Exceptional creative judgement with a strong portfolio of commercially successful work.
• Ability to inspire confidence and influence senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable challenging agencies and internal teams to raise creative standards.
• Strong coaching and mentoring capability.

Responsibilities

• Lead creative development across UK&I brands and categories, ensuring activations strengthen long-term brand equity.
• Champion creative excellence and establish clear creative standards across the organisation.
• Translate brand strategies and insights into compelling creative opportunities.
• Act as senior creative counsel to Brand, IBC and senior leadership teams.
• Lead creative agency ecosystem, manage performance and set output standards.
• Provide creative direction and feedback throughout the ICP process.
• Review and approve major creative work before stakeholder review and production.
• Ensure consistency across campaigns across paid, owned and earned touchpoints.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to create connected consumer experiences.
• Drive adoption of AI-enabled creative tools and best practices.

Skills

Agency leadership

Brand strategy

Campaign development

Paid/owned/earned channels

Creative excellence

Stakeholder influence

Coaching & mentoring

Job description

Short Intro and About the Job

Danoners are steering us to a more sustainable future, helping to make the world healthier. As a certified B-Corp, we have our Danone Impact Journey to 2025. This will only be possible with each and every one of our leaders.

Role Purpose:

To be Danone UK&I's senior creative authority, responsible for driving creative ambition, brand consistency and executional excellence across all brands, categories and channels. The Creative Lead serves as the central creative partner to marketing teams, leading agency relationships, shaping creative thinking and ensuring every activation delivers against both brand-building objectives and channel effectiveness principles. Acting as the bridge between strategy and execution, the role works across the full ICP process, partnering with brand teams, agencies, D-Studio and IBC specialists to ensure ideas are integrated, distinctive and executed to the highest standard across paid, owned and earned touchpoints.

Key Activities:

Creative Leadership & Brand Building:

Lead creative development across UK&I brands and categories, ensuring every activation strengthens distinctive brand assets and long-term brand equity.

Champion creative excellence and establish clear creative standards across the organisation.

Translate brand strategies, consumer insights and marketing challenges into compelling creative opportunities.

Act as senior creative counsel to Brand, IBC and senior leadership teams.

Agency & Partner Management:

Lead Danone's creative agency ecosystem including BETC, creative pairs, freelance creative planners and specialist boutique agencies.

Select the right creative model for the challenge, balancing effectiveness, quality, flexibility and cost.

Own creative scopes, agency performance reviews, briefing quality and output standards.

Hold agencies accountable for creative ambition, integration and delivery.

Creative Direction & Quality Control:

Provide creative direction and feedback throughout the ICP process.

Review and approve major creative work before stakeholder review and production.

Ensure consistency across campaign development, activation, adaptation and production.

Set standards for channel-native creative execution across media, social, influencer, experiential, shopper, ecommerce and owned platforms.

Integrated Experience Developmet:

Partner with Sponsorship, Experiential, PR, Influencer, Social, Shopper and Digital Experience teams to create connected consumer experiences.

Ensure creative ideas travel effectively across paid, owned and earned touchpoints.

Drive stronger creative integration between brand campaigns and activation channels.

Creative Capability & Innovation:

Lead adoption of creative effectiveness frameworks, AI-enabled creative tools and emerging industry best practice.

Build creative capability across marketing and IBC teams.

Identify opportunities to improve creative quality, efficiency and effectiveness throughout the content supply chain.

About You

We would like you to demonstrate your following key skills:

Proven agency background with significant experience leading integrated creative campaigns.

Strong understanding of brand building, creative strategy and campaign development.

Experience managing retained agencies, creative boutiques and specialist partners.

Deep understanding of paid, owned and earned channels, including social, influencer, PR, shopper and ecommerce.

Strong appreciation of design systems, content creation, digital experiences and production workflows.

Understanding of creative effectiveness principles, measurement frameworks and modern marketing ecosystems.

Exceptional creative judgement with a strong portfolio of commercially successful work.

Ability to inspire confidence and influence senior stakeholders.

Comfortable challenging agencies and internal teams to raise creative standards.

Strong coaching and mentoring capability.

Operates effectively in ambiguity and can balance strategic thinking with executional delivery.

Highly collaborative with the ability to unite multiple disciplines behind a single creative vision.

Please note that the salary on offer here is between £70-£80K + bonus & benefits

About Us, We offer and What's next

At Danone, we are committed to delivering better health through better nutrition for millions of consumers and patients in our communities.

Our market-leading products reach millions of consumers and patients every day. Our iconic brands span across the dairy, plant-based and water industries, including Actimel, Alpro and evian.

We're also a leading provider of specialised early-life nutrition through our Aptamil and Cow & Gate brands and medical nutrition products and services through our Nutricia brand.

Depending on the needs of your role, you'll spend an average of 2 to 3 days per week in the office hub, enhancing community, problem solving, and innovation.

We offer a flexible benefits package that you can tailor to your needs. This includes core benefits like pension, life assurance, and healthcare, plus options such as private medical insurance, gym memberships, cycle to work and holiday trading.

You’ll also have access to employee discounts and wellbeing support, helping you look after your health, finances and lifestyle in a way that works for you. Discover More: https://careers.danone.com/uki/en/our-learning-and-rewards.html

Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) is deeply embedded in Danone's DNA, representing our core values and beliefs. We embrace diversity as a driving force for positive change, nurturing an inclusive workplace where every individual is valued.