By Creative directors are the head honchos in charge of crafting your favorite commercials and print advertisements. They are the ones making sure that you never forget a brand’s name. The role of a creative director includes many different responsibilities throughout the advertising process, from hiring creatives and managing budgets to pitching ideas to clients. So, exactly what does a creative director do to determine the success of a great ad agency?
Related: Using Simplified AI To Create A Simple PAS Copywriting Solution for Your Brand
You may be curious about the role of a creative director if you are looking for a creative career and work with multiple brands. This blog will walk you through the entire role of a creative director, what they do and why they are so important to the advertising business.
What does a creative director do?
Creative directors manage the entire creative department in an ad agency. They have an innate ability to establish the visual language of a campaign, and then make it work across all media platforms. They are typically employed by advertising agencies or marketing departments within larger companies.
Related: 5 Reasons Building a Brand For Your Business Is Important
The following list encapsulates the responsibilities of the role and the creative director skills needed to accomplish them.
1. Leads the creative team
The creative director is responsible for mentoring the art director and copywriter in order to achieve the best results for marketing campaigns. Creative directors are key players on account teams, serving as the go-to person on creative issues, guiding and empowering their team to put out top-quality work. It is the role of a creative director to train the creative team to write compelling pitches for clients. They also overlook the creation of artwork by the design team to ensure they align with the overall narrative of the brands.
Related: 10 Best Quotes on Branding To Inspire Your Design Journey
2. Conceptualizes brands
The chief role of a creative director is to understand what a client wants to communicate with their brand. They must look at the big picture but also work on the smaller details. Creating brands is all about forming the unique elements of a brand identity. This involves working on a brand story that communicates the message of the client and makes them relatable to the target audience. The creative director must be careful that the creative deliverables made for the client align with the brand values of the agency as well.
Related: 9 Creative Steps For Establishing A Brand Design Aesthetic
3. Develops marketing strategies
A creative director is a person who oversees the development of advertisements and campaigns. Unlike traditional management, however, the role of a creative director requires an understanding and knowledge of design, as well as writing and art direction. Creative directors are often responsible for securing ad space in magazines, newspapers, and billboards; they also oversee pre-production meetings with graphic designers to determine what will go into each advertisement.
Related: Marketing, Branding, Advertising: What’s The Difference?
4. Interacts with clients
The creative director is a master of communication. They are the ones making presentations to clients about fresh campaigns and convince them how they can help the business grow and achieve goals. Whether it’s making a pitch to a new client or introducing an out-of-the-box idea to an existing client, the creative director should have a flair for storytelling. One can say the creative director is the face of the agency. They give the clients the confidence that they can be successful with particular campaigns.
Related: Social Media Marketing Metrics You Need to Know in 2021
5. Streamlines processes till the final execution
It is the role of a creative director to supervise each and every step of creative developments in an agency. They are the ones leading brainstorming sessions to inspire new ideas and concepts. Always attempting to question the ordinary, the creative director thinks of novel ways of selling the products and services for similar clients. Creating successful ads that go live requires an exceptional eye for detail and the openness to change wherever necessary to fit the objectives of the client.
Related: 17 AI Copywriting Tools To Help You Create Content In Seconds
The creative director is also confused with other roles- especially the role of the art director. However, they are not the same. Though the job descriptions may overlap, these two roles are quite distinct.
Related: Marketer Approved List of Digital Marketing Trends in 2021 [Part 1]
Creative Director vs Art Director
The creative director, as well as the art director, serve major operational roles in an advertising agency. The creative director does the task of conceptualizing brands and creating stories that can connect to the target audience. The art director focuses on the task of executing these ideas using the resources at hand.
The creative director is more of a visionary who looks at the big picture. The art director is the one who applies the technical knowledge to bring the picture to life.
Both roles require a wide knowledge base and creative instincts. The creative director and art director must cooperate together to achieve the best results for the agency. An array of professional experiences with hands-on training is essential to serve these important roles.
Related: Nike Marketing Strategy: How They Do It And You Can Too!
Have all the Creative Director skills? Take the next step!
Anyone with an in-depth understanding of the creative field can develop creative director skills. You must have a wide exposure to different mediums like copywriting, copyediting, photography, and graphic designing. You must have the capacity to lead a team and meet the expectations of clients, delivering quality results on time.
Increasing competition in the world of digital marketing and advertising has made the role of creative director super challenging. It takes a lot to come up with refreshing designs to capture the hearts of different types of audiences meant for unique brands.
Simplified is one such tool that can fill all the needs of creative careers. An easy-to-use platform where you can design and scale up your brands, Simplified also allows you to collaborate hassle-free with your team.
Explore everything you need to make your compelling brand pitch. Check out Simplified now!
One Free app to design, collaborate, and scale your work – try Simplified today.
