AVP, Executive Creative Director

ROLE OVERVIEW

As the AVP, Executive Creative Director (ECD) you have the opportunity to lead a team of agency experts providing creative leadership including copy and design direction to the in-house agency for some of our recognized brands, Mackenzie Investments, IG Wealth Management and IGM Financial each with their own unique brand identity, distinctive purpose and spanning wealth and asset management. This position is responsible for connecting the creative approach to the business strategy. Working with creative teams, the ECD champions concept creation and sets the creative direction for the entire agency. The ECD is responsible for partnering with Production Management Leadership and managing senior client relationships, creating workflow efficiencies and providing support and contact to internal IGM clients. The ECD must be able to convincingly present creative concepts to all parties. This person must exhibit outstanding creative judgment and guide the creative services team in achieving the highest possible standards appropriate for all materials regardless of medium. The ECD obtains an in-depth knowledge of clients’ business challenges and leads innovative and conceptual solutions to address those challenges, getting personally involved on high profile and complex creative challenges.

The Ideal Candidate

Proven track record of building brands and campaigns, creative leadership with marketing strategy and the development and execution of successful marketing programs across key marketing disciplines. Deep understanding of brand positioning, creative development, omni-channel marketing, customer lifecycle management, and digital marketing are imperative.

Strategic thinker and visionary with demonstrated ability to set vision and build strategy by understanding fundamental business drivers and anticipating changes, while identifying competitive opportunities in an evolving marketplace. Strong ability to set direction and deliver follow-through, ownership, attention to detail, prioritization skills with self-motivation are essential.

Inspirational and influential leader who has a motivational and collaborative leadership style and has shown proficiency in leading and motivating large direct and cross functional teams. Exhibits exceptional influencing skills with the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams, adept at driving organizational change through partnership, while maintaining focus and intensity. Ability to champion innovative ideas and new programs that position the organization for industry leadership driving tangible business results.

Results and impact oriented demonstrating a strong results orientation and ability to get work done through others with focus on impact over quantity. A Marketing leader who is a strong coach and mentor through their behaviours; positively impacting individuals and cross-functional teams to target business objectives. A leader who thrives on challenge and accountability, including leading significant change to drive sustainable growth that supports significant sales growth and a strong ROI.

Creative experience with 15+ years of experience in Marketing and ideally 3+ years of experience within the Financial Services sector.

 KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Team Leadership

  • Visionary and inspirational leadership to deliver best in class work across integrated campaigns and content that connects across all omni channels; social, digital, email, video, experiential, collateral.
  • Work harmoniously with others to get a job done and lead the team in a collaborative fashion
  • Share critical information with everyone involved in a project to produce more effective creative solutions
  • Inspirational leadership to create a high performing team of creative experts that drives the business and works collaboratively across the organization
  • Promote a solution-oriented mentality across the creative team
  • Encourage individuals to take on specific roles to deepen existing skills or develop new ones
  • Give the team proper recognition and credit for their contributions
  • Build a collective team vision and define goals and objectives
  • Lead with passion that energizes the team to over-deliver against expectations and results in high employee engagement and overall job satisfaction

Creative Direction, Leadership and Execution

  • Provide creative direction and coaching while partnering with team members to accomplish creative objectives
  • Provide creative quality control over concepts and execution
  • Oversee and direct complex, large-scale project activities and effectively lead and manage the work of the creative department across all media
  • Oversee all Tier 1 creative work with omni channel focus across digital, video, social, experiential, publication channels including development of sketches/prototypes and imagery selection or headlines and copy
  • Provide Tier 2 design/brand guidance and direction to ensure consistent alignment with brand standards
  • Motivate the team to deliver a consistently high level of quality as evaluated by clients
  • Understand data used to track market trends and customer actions and use it to inform the creative work
  • Lead and mentor team in the ideation process leveraging research, analytics and brand insights   
  • Own and ensure adoption of brand governance and brand identities for respective brands
  • Develop creative strategies to address marketing and business objectives
  • Expect team to push new thinking and challenge cliché or rerun ideas
  • Confidently and diplomatically steward new ideas through the organization on behalf of the team

Staff Development

  • Work to improve the team’s performance by pursuing opportunities for continuous learning/feedback
  • Constructively help and coach team in their professional development through informal and formal feedback sessions (i.e., performance reviews) as appropriate
  • Guide the workload, development and growth of direct reports
  • Demonstrate a real sense of caring for the team’s professional and personal well being
  • Plan regularly scheduled one-on-one time for personal coaching and mentoring of direct reports
  • Implement and refine conceptual development/ideation process and define
  • Coach team on presentation expectations
  • Exhibit a “can-do” approach and inspire and motivate associates to excel
  • Foster a team spirit that is reflective of their collective personalities
  • Nurture a culture that is fun to work in and helps build an open creative community
  • Proactively address staff performance issues
  • Celebrate team and individual successes and create a safe environment for constructive feedback

Client Service

  • Build strong relationships with clients and be perceived as a credible, trusted expert
  • Partner with clients to achieve effective outcomes in an efficient manner
  • Work with clients to articulate creative needs concisely yet completely
  • Appropriately balance client desires, business requirements, marketing strategies and creative excellence.
  • Find common ground with clients when debating creative or strategic opinions

Skills and knowledge required

  • Creative visionary having worked on best in class creative campaigns
  • Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to manage differing viewpoints so the final product remains true to the objective
  • Proven leadership skills to maximize team talents across a team of 15+ people
  • Hands-on experience in creative disciplines: design, copywriting, video production, ideation, Digital
  • Effective communication and presentation skills
  • Experience in brand development in all multichannel marketing (Social, Digital, Apps, Experiential, Events, TV, Print, DOOH etc.)
  • Ability to anticipate problems and see how a problem and its solution will affect other projects, people or processes
  • Understanding that all projects require attention to detail so that work is on time, on budget and on strategy
  • Knows how to delegate properly and does not get caught up in being a production or process manager
  • Knows how to be persuasive and/or negotiate when selling in ideas
  • Working knowledge in industry-standard software and tools such as the Adobe Creative Cloud, MS Office, Adobe Acrobat, Workfront, and online market research

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE REQuiREMENTS

  • Bachelor’s degree required; preferably in design, advertising, English, journalism or related field
  • Minimum of 15 years professional experience required; five as a Creative Director
  • Experience in financial services helpful, not mandatory
  • Five years management experience required
  • Portfolio required
  • External agency experience required
  • Demonstrated expert creative conceptualization skills

https://careersen-mackenzieinvestments.icims.com/jobs/4116/avp%2c-executive-creative-director/job?mode=view&mobile=false&width=960&height=500&bga=true&needsRedirect=false&jan1offset=-300&jun1offset=-240

Please visit our career page by clicking on the following link: https://www.mackenzieinvestments.com/en/careers 

We thank all applicants for their interest in Mackenzie Investments; however only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.  

 


Similar searches: Banking & Financial Services