Creative Director

Godfrey Advertising Inc; Lancaster (Lancaster County); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Creative Director at Godfrey Advertising Inc leads concept development and campaigns, while actively contributing hands-on at a senior level. They own client work, guide the creative team, and ensure quality and brand consistency across accounts.

They immerse themselves in client businesses to craft ideas that land with real people, and drive profitable, on-time delivery while developing talent and embracing new AI tools to enhance workflows.

Qualifications

• Extensive agency creative experience across print, digital, and web.
• Experience managing and developing art directors, designers, and writers.
• Ability to judge concepts, art, and copy and elevate work.
• Strong marketing principles and link to client objectives.
• Experience presenting and selling work to client leadership.
• Fluency in digital content and cross-channel performance.
• Experience running creative profitably with scope, resourcing, and timelines.
• Experience evaluating or rolling out tools and workflows including AI.
• Portfolio showing range and impact.

Responsibilities

• Execute at a senior level on client work from concept through production-ready files.
• Lead the development and presentation of campaign concepts and key creative executions.
• Deliver creative that meets clients' marketing and communications objectives.
• Write and present persuasive rationales for campaign approaches and defend the work.
• Own brand consistency and unification across everything your accounts produce.
• Set the visual direction on accounts and guide designers and art directors.
• Make sure art and copy work together from concept through execution.
• Manage and develop art directors, designers, and writers on your accounts.
• Direct and review creative before it reaches clients, giving decisive feedback.
• Own your direct reports' development through regular one-on-ones, growth plans.
• Lead critiques, ideation sessions, and reviews to raise performance.
• Balance assignments and capacity across accounts and anticipate workload risks.
• Run creative on accounts efficiently and profitably with PM on scope and timelines.

Skills

Creative leadership

Campaign concepting

Team development

Client storytelling

Marketing principles

Digital fluency

AI tools awareness

Tools

AI tools

Job description

The Creative Director is the face of creative on their accounts. They lead concept development and the campaigns that grow out of it. On some of that work, they execute hands-on at a senior level. For the rest, they manage and develop the creative team producing it. They immerse themselves in their clients' businesses, technologies, and markets deeply enough to own the work and the relationship, and they hold the line on quality whether the work is theirs or the team's.

Who You Are:

• A creative leader who owns the work on your accounts, directing the team's output and holding the standard on everything that reaches a client.
• Still hands-on in the craft, executing at a senior level on the work that calls for it, and setting the bar by what you make as much as what you direct.
• Able to take a complex B2B business and find the idea that makes it land with real people, then sell it in the room.
• A developer of people, giving direct feedback, creating real opportunities, and taking your team's growth personally.
• Commercially sharp, running creative on your accounts profitably and building client relationships that grow.
• Ahead of the problem, whether that's work drifting off strategy, a team stretched too thin, or a client losing confidence.

Key Responsibilities:

Creative Direction & Craft

• Execute at a senior level on a subset of client work, from concept through production-ready files, taking on the projects that most need your hands.
• Lead the development and presentation of campaign concepts and key creative executions on your accounts.
• Deliver creative that meets clients' marketing and communications objectives, not just their aesthetic preferences.
• Write and present persuasive rationales for campaign approaches and defend the work in the room.
• Own brand consistency and unification across everything your accounts produce.
• Set the visual direction on your accounts, making the calls on typography, color, imagery, and how a piece moves the eye, and giving designers and art directors what they need to execute it.
• Make sure art and copy work together from concept through execution.
• Manage and develop art directors, designers, and writers on your accounts, owning the quality of their work.
• Direct and review creative before it reaches clients, giving the feedback that makes the work and the person better.
• Own your direct reports' development through regular one-on-ones, growth plans, and stretch assignments.
• Lead critiques, ideation sessions, and creative reviews that raise what the team believes is possible.
• Balance assignments and capacity across your accounts and get ahead of workload risk before it reaches clients.
• Run creative on your accounts efficiently and profitably, working with project management on scope, resourcing, and timelines.

Account & Agency Partnership

• Serve as a core team member on your accounts alongside account, strategy, and channel leads.
• Immerse yourself in your clients' business, technology, products, and markets, and keep that knowledge current.
• Partner with strategy so creative is built on insight rather than assumption.
• Bring creative thinking to growth conversations and contribute to new business where your accounts or expertise fit.
• Keep the VP of Creative and account leadership informed on creative health, client relationships, and anything that could turn.
• Identify workflows and task types across your team that could benefit from new AI tools or approaches.
• Test and pilot new tools, evaluating quality before recommending broader use.
• Support your team in applying approved tools appropriately, including where a tool should and shouldn't be used, and make sure they have the training and guidance.
• Reinforce Godfrey's AI usage policies and guidelines, and the expectation that AI output gets reviewed for quality, accuracy, and originality before it's relied on or shared.
• Surface promising tools, risks, and adoption concerns to the VP of Creative.

Qualifications:

• Extensive agency creative experience, including leading campaign concepting and execution across print, digital, and web. B2B experience preferred.
• Experience managing and developing creative talent, including art directors, designers, and writers.
• Proven ability to judge concepts, art, and copy, give direction that makes the work better, and execute at a senior level yourself.
• Strong command of marketing principles and how creative connects to client business objectives.
• Experience presenting and selling creative work to client leadership.
• Digital and content fluency, including how creative performs across channels.
• Experience running creative profitably, including scope, resourcing, and timelines.
• Experience evaluating or rolling out tools and workflows across a team, including AI.
• Portfolio showing range, craft, and ideas that moved client businesses.