Executive Creative Director (Art)
ABOUT US
Cronin is a proudly independent, full-service advertising agency that leverages the exponential force of creativity to help brands stand out and achieve their organizational objectives. While our work spans all categories, we have a particular strength in Health Care, Financial Services, Consumer Products & Services, and B2B. We’re building on our 75-year history of innovation, strategic smarts, and award-winning creativity to deliver powerful, end-to-end client experiences.
Our culture is built upon respect. You must champion our 10 core values:
Integrity. Curiosity. Creativity. Connected. Balanced. Unique. Genuine. Accountability. Empathetic. Tenacious.
Our momentum comes from the hunger to do better, to go bigger. It’s why we’ve been doing this for over 75 years.
ABOUT YOU
You espouse characteristics of our inspirational mascot – the goat. You are curious, nimble, inquisitive, and pretty darn smart. You are also a team player who leads by example and inspires all those around you. You bring out the best in others, in the Creative Department and across other agency departments. And of course, you are keen to bring out the best in our clients.
You possess an entrepreneurial, builder mindset and are excited to shape and guide the Creative Department, creating not only the “who” and the “what,” but also the “how”.
You are a good communicator who is able to convey your points of view clearly, supporting them with passion as well as logic. You have professional confidence, but not hubris. You can be perceived as a senior strategic partner to your clients and your agency colleagues. Your confidence allows you to effectively defend your positions with other senior professionals, while also being open to others’ points of view.
You enjoy new challenges and embrace involvement in new business activities.
You can get into the nitty-gritty of the Creative process, but can also step back and view the department, the agency and its clients objectively from a bird’s eye view. That objectivity is derived from years of experience in the industry.
POSITION OVERVIEW
At Cronin, the Executive Creative Director is a player/coach — both producing great work of their own and guiding the creative teams to create and produce great work. (In this case, a talented person who came up on the art direction/design side.) They must recognize the best ideas when they see them and have the gravitas to present and persuasiveness to sell that work to the internal Brand teams and to our clients alike. They can win over a room. Of course, the ECD knows that the best way to do this is to play well with others. They skillfully oversee the creative through rounds of revision ensuring the integrity of the work. The ECD must be modern and forward-thinking, an endlessly curious student of the latest trends. They are a good listener to the teams who report to them, their colleagues across the agency and their clients.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
- Drive creative excellence by guiding the work.
- Collaborate with other department leads to ensure seamless processes to bring the work forward.
- Work with People Operations and creative resource management teams to attract and recruit top-tier creative talent and ensure your team is being allocated properly.
- Understand how to translate data and results into a better creative product.
- Provide sound strategic input to every project and ensure the creative concepts adhere to the brief.
Supervisory Responsibilities
- This position will oversee two Creative employees – an ACD and a Sr. Art Director.
- Lead by example, actively setting a tone for how you would like your creative teams to show up.
- Develop the health and culture of the Creative Department — making sure that not only is it fun, but nurturing and useful for our teams. Make it a place to learn and grow.
- Establish a clear set of boundaries and expectations for your direct reports (two, for now), grounded in regular, clear, and helpful communication.
- You must be accustomed to, and good at, leading and managing people and setting expectations.
- Actively plan for and forecast any staffing gaps to stay ahead of the need. Work with People Operations during the entire recruiting lifecycle.
- Manage performance development daily, always thinking of how we can best engage our team.
- Manage the formal annual performance evaluation process for your direct reports. Plan for each employee's learning & development setting clear goals and objectives.
- Provide leadership, inspiring a culture of creativity and collaboration.
- Eschew the hierarchical. You regularly connect with your creative teams at all levels, with a special focus on junior talent.
- Recognize the creative opportunity in every client.
- Review and critique all agency deliverables to ensure alignment with client goals and brand.
Reporting relationships
This position reports to the COO.
Qualifications
- Strong creative vision from concept to execution, with an eye on client objectives.
- A digital forward mindset with deep understanding of how creative concepts exist in the digital space and beyond.
- Ten years of relevant experience, with seven or more years as a creative director leading a team of diverse, talented creatives in an agency or corporate setting.
- Experience in creating marketing/advertising campaigns — from developing the vision and messaging platform to overseeing production assets.
- Experience in creating integrated content across all marketing channels: digital, social media, paid media, mobile, offline, and print.
- Functional knowledge of the creative toolset (Adobe Creative suite, Figma/Sketch, Google suite, Photoshop, InDesign, etc.)
This is an exempt position.
No recruiters.