Creative Director

Job Summary

• A Focus Brands Creative Director serves as the creative thought leader and brand steward for one of our famous restaurant brands. In this case Carvel Ice Cream. Carvel’s CD will have an Art Direction background and may currently be an ACD ready for a step up to the CD level. The CD is a player-coach creating, leading, and partnering with other disciplines to concept, write, design, and architect creative strategies and executions across all consumer touch points. These include Marketing Campaigns, Point-of-Sale Materials, Organic and Paid Social, Web & App, Loyalty, and CRM. The CD will collaborate with Digital, PR, Social, and Content Creation teams to create cross-functional brand activations while partnering with Brand Managers and other business partners to deliver world class brand experiences. You’ll help steer the ship of our inhouse creative team seeking to do better work more efficiently than an outside agency could do. You’ll have a team of creatives, budgets, vendors, and other resources to manage. You’ll be responsible for delivering on quality and performance expectations, and timelines of projects and deliverables. You’ll be responsible for helping to drive business results. Ultimately, you’ll play an important role in achieving our creative vision: World class work that drives the business.

Essential Functions

• Creative Concepting, Design, and Leadership.
• Leads and contributes to the generation of ideas from concept to execution to build brand love, improve brand experiences, and drive sales through a variety of mediums. Not just a leader and mentor, but a creator and maker as well.
• Collaborates with Marketing, PR, Social, Digital, and Creative teams to develop consumer insights, marketing strategies & campaigns, and best-in-class, cross-functional executions across all channels.
• Leads by example as a thought leader who can help set a high bar and inspire others for what creative success looks like.
• Follows top tier agencies, pubs, and award shows to keep a pulse on the best work in the world.
• Maintains brand voice and standards in all executions.
• Works well with other functions in support of the business.
• Responsibilities
• Leads projects from conception through execution to development of compelling and effective creative solutions.
• Helps draft human insight led creative strategies.
• Determines appropriate assignments for creative team members.
• Develops, executes, monitors, and adjusts project plans, resources, and strategies to meet the needs of stakeholders and to ensure the deliverables are on time, and within budget.
• Establishes and maintains vendor relationships (production, freelancers) to manage expectations (e.g., high level of service, accountability, etc.), to provide timely feedback, and to maximize cost efficiency, quality, timeliness, and responsiveness in a manner that best supports the organization’s initiatives.
• Directs photo shoots, video production, store location visits, and other stages of the creative development and production process.
• Stays abreast of creative, production, social trends and best practices as well as market, competitor, and audience trends related to the brand and business.
• Management
• Establishes and maintains relationships with other practice areas to manage expectations timely feedback, and to maximize cost efficiency, quality, timeliness, and responsiveness in a way that best supports organizational goals.
• Interfaces with industry and professional organizations to increase awareness of FOCUS Brands, to expand networking opportunities, and to remain knowledge of marketing/creative strategies, tools, and trends.
• Leverages personal business networks and relationships to help identify job candidates, creative freelancers, production companies, and other partners who can execute at a high level.
• A partner in the business accountable for helping all other partners achieve their goals– while maintaining a high bar for the creative work.
• Builds and Directs a High Functioning Team
• Holds others accountable for conducting business in a legal and ethical manner while complying with policies, laws, and regulations related to business and employment.
• Oversees people processes and programs across the team to ensure talent for current and future needs by providing operational, functional, and technical leadership.
• Attracts, retains, and develops highly effective professionals and support staff.
• Determines work methods and directs the work of associates.
• Drives the establishment of performance goals and provides on-going feedback, coaching, and development to enhance the team’s performance and capability, to facilitate open communication, and to encourage continuous performance improvement.
• Evaluates and helps determine the hiring, promotion, salary recommendations, and all employment-related decisions.
• Identifies individual and team skill gaps, developmental areas, and opportunities (e.g., training, special assignments, projects, etc.) to advance individual and team capability.
• Recognizes initiative, innovation, and work well done to create a positive work environment of excellence.
• Serves as point of contact for troubleshooting to maintain a positive work environment by resolving issues and discrepancies in a professional, timely, and courteous manner.

Education

• Bachelor's Degree, communications, design, advertising, or other related field of study, preferred.

Work Experience

• Killer portfolio that showcases award-worthy, 360 work across modern marketing platforms.
• 7-10 years' experience in creative marketing, required.
• 2-4 years' experience in creative leadership, required. ACDs looking for a step up to CD are welcome.
• A highly creative ad agency background is a major plus because you’ll bring best practices for making award-winning work
• Retail, restaurant, food, or beverage experience, preferred.
• Art Direction/Design Background, required.

Skills & Abilities

• Proficient with Adobe Creative Suite
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite, or able to learn fast.
• Ability to elicit cooperation from a wide variety of sources, including senior management, stakeholders, other departments, etc.
• Ability to work well under pressure in meeting deadlines in a high-volume environment.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts in clear concise language; to demonstrate active listening while engaging others; and to establish, implement, and clearly communicate strategies that align with business needs and objectives to gain buy-in from stakeholder
• Ability to develop and maintain positive business relationships and foster an environment of mutual respect, understanding, trust, and support
• Ability to adapt and adjust planned work through analyzing work demands, competing priorities, and tight deadlines; and to understand the most effective and efficient means to accomplish tasks within the parameters of the organizational structure, processes, systems, and policies
• Ability to assess situations, provide counsel, and identify solutions that resolve challenges/issues, while considering the best interests of all parties; to develop and implement short and long-term solutions; and to apply effective problem solving and decision-making to address business needs and issues
• Ability to mentor, motivate, and guide staff toward achieving goals; to drive accountability, to provide ongoing, thoughtful, constructive feedback effectively; and to recognize a job well done

Licenses/Certifications

TravelRequirement

• May be required to travel up to 25% of the time