Creative Director - Live Experiences

The Creative Director of Live experiences role is responsible for creating and delivering world-class event, conference and exhibition experiences for Imaginations clients.

It is your role to devise visionary and innovative creative work that supports Imagination’s core global offer of experiential marketing and communications, brand strategy and development, brand experiences, events and built environments.

Importantly, the Creative Director is responsible and accountable for developing a creative vision that solves client’s challenges while aligning to project requirements – then working with our internal teams (film/screen, digital, graphic design, copy and content, 3D environmental design and event production) to deliver on that vision seamlessly.

Role Overview

• To come to work each day to lead and support Imagination to create epic sh*t that our clients and Imagination team live for.
• Work with the Senior Creative Director and taking the lead of Imagination Australia’s event creative offer
• Lead the creative for live events and experiences - often across several projects at once
• Originate from the outset: helping to unpack the brief, develop the creative idea and lead the team to visualize it and devise the overall live experience
• Develop the show/event story arc/narrative and devising how it translates into an overarching experience,
• Structure the event show/flow while unpacking the individual touchpoints and micro experiences that matter to meet the strategic demands of the brief
• Create world-class concepts, powerful stories and engaging event narratives that sell the idea, then present the concepts internally and to clients at all levels
• Lead the team to produce integrated experiences spanning environmental, graphic, digital and motion design through evocative visuals across a range of tools and media
• Work closely with relevant creative, design, production and logistics teams and third-party suppliers to brief them and collaborate throughout the lifecycle of the project
• Be proficient in integrating creative show elements into environmental concepts for optimal impact – digital, lighting, sound, performance and content
• Understand, embrace and deploy the latest insights, trends and techniques in the work we do to ensure best practice and industry leading deliveries
• A mentor to the rest of the team, fostering camaraderie and creative growth across the team
• Understand and carefully manage the complexities of multi-agency scenarios in corporate marketing communications
• Be able to quickly develop a strong understanding of the clients’ brands, products and competitive environment
• Demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain client relationships by understanding client’s business and superb project delivery
  
  

Measurable deliverables (Key Performance Indicators)

• Deliver and inspire award-winning work, through creative excellence across a variety of media
• Consistently deliver projects successfully through a collaborative client relationship
• High level of client satisfaction
• High level of team satisfaction
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail
• Learn new skills and stay abreast of design developments in brand communications and successfully apply these to work practices to help improve processes and procedures
• Confidence in delivering projects from concept through to delivery via innovative and engaging presentation methods
• Initiate and lead creative brainstorms and tissue sessions
• To work closely and collaboratively with extended teams to find solutions that always push the boundaries
• Demonstrate a strong sense of ownership and attention to detail during the creative process

Responsibilities - Creative Direction and Design:

• Provide strategic and creative vision to drive and grow accounts and the agency
• Provide creative leadership in the day to day running of creative projects.
• Provide creative direction through media-neutral thinking; work with/alongside other creative and strategic agencies taking responsibility to be on-brand and on-message, to produce visionary solutions that are within budget, whilst also creating and maintaining a secure creative framework for ongoing project work
• Use creative and strategic thinking, creative brainstorming, industry knowledge and design awareness to ensure the most appropriate creative response to a client brief, approaching opportunities from a commercial, creative and multi-disciplinary perspective
• Provide consistent, enthusiastic and motivational creative leadership to the team’s creative group
• Build and maintain relationships with the team’s clients
• Manage, schedule and brief the team’s creative group to deliver projects on brief, on time and on budget
• Provide a pivotal role in developing new business opportunities and initiatives
• Promote, support and work with account management and production management, as well as other internal or external teams as appropriate
• Build and maintain relationships with specialist creative teams and demonstrate experience of working alongside insight/communications planning
• Mentor and appraise creative group members
• Contribute to and encourage the overall spirit of Imagination, entrepreneurial ideas and creativity

Management: You must

• Build and maintain good relationships with team members and ensure your team has a high level of morale
• Demonstrate excellent communication, interpersonal and problem-solving skills
• Be available to mentor creative team members where required
• Adept at setting best practice working processes
• Able to articulate and advocate the principles of best practice creativity that embraces integrated channels and platforms to both clients and colleagues
• Meet utilisation and billable targets and complete timesheets accurately and on time
• Work with Resource Management to manage workload

Qualifications and Experience:

• Significant experience of working across global brands / accounts, demonstrating portfolio or work and can communicate problems solved and results achieved
• An event, architectural, interiors, retail or exhibition design qualification at degree level preferable
• Substantial design experience, preferably with an architectural, interiors, retail, exhibitions background or alike
• A portfolio of built, completed examples of work
• Excellence in presenting and workshopping with clients to achieve the best solutions for their brands.
• Experienced in presenting at C-Suite and below
• Must be able to sketch, visualise and communicate ideas with clarity and vision
• Must be a leader but also an approachable team member
• Exceptional organisational skills
• Must be proficient in Google Suite (Slides, Docs, Sheets etc)

Key Competencies:

Practitioner skills:

• Idea generation – the ability to consistently contribute new, innovative ideas that are on brand and on brief
• Presentation skills – the ability to contribute to and deliver considered, concise and relevant presentations to colleagues and clients, that meet the Company’s design guidelines

Managerial capabilities: 

• Client management skills – providing a highly responsive client service. Being recognised as an important part of the team by the Company’s clients and ensuring very high levels of client satisfaction 
• Line management – provide a supportive working environment, based on openness, trust and regular constructive feedback on performance. Set clear and achievable goals. Take immediate action to address performance/conduct issues. 
• Mentoring – support and encourage team members and colleagues to manage their own learning in order that they continue to maximise their potential, develop their skills and improve their performance as part of an ongoing process
• Team utilisation and project allocation – the ability to track and improve team utilisation while understanding its relationship to overall client profitability. Allocate projects to increase overall team utilisation and ensure efficiency
• Ability to work with the wider Strategy team, Account Management, Creative, Production Management and Internal Specialist Departments 
• Quality control – ensure all output is of a consistently high quality. Ensure that all work is carefully monitored, despite day-to-day pressures. Provide excellent and insightful advice and support to colleagues. Operate quality control measures proactively

Leadership attributes: 

• Thinks strategically – identifies key business opportunities and challenges
• Inspires creativity and innovation – transfers ideas and success across departments
• Drives results – achieves high levels of customer satisfaction
• Builds teams – recognises and rewards the achievements of others
• Exhibits professional excellence – demonstrates eye for quality
• Builds relationships – resolves conflict effectively
• Communicates effectively – tailors messages appropriately to audience
• Champions change – supports new initiatives