Job Description
Are you an experienced creative leader and art director with a specialist knowledge in employee experience? Are you seeking an agency that will challenge your creative boundaries and allow your career to flourish to the next level? This could be the role for you.
Mr B & Friends is an independent agency focused on brand identity, brand experience and employee experience – with an ambitious growth plan. We are seeking an Associate Creative Director who will step in as a creative lead on our employee experience portfolio – a client list of global businesses which includes the likes of LEGO, Coca-Cola and IHG Hotels & Resorts.
We’re looking for someone who shares our energy – to challenge the ordinary, drive up standards in our people and create exciting work which others wish they had done. You’ll be responsible for developing exceptional ideas, building strong client relationships – and guiding the next generation of creative talent.
This role will be prominent, client-facing and influential in building our reputation in employee experience and internal communications.
Here’s more about what the role involves:
Creative leadership
As an experienced art director, you lead with creative authority, inspiring the team with your ideas, and clients with your collaborative leadership style. Here’s what you’ll be doing:
- Demonstrating expert creative thinking in employee experience, both in inspiring our people and in exciting our clients
- Overseeing design, copywriting and art direction across all media channels including video, digital, print, experiential, and social
- Line managing 2-3 designers/art directors, conducting regular 121s, setting and monitoring performance objectives
- Helping to establish our reputation in employee experience through our own marketing and brand, and through raising your own profile online and at events
- Supporting the Executive Creative Director in inspiring the team with our creative ethos of ‘never ordinary’, developing creative processes and recruiting the very best talent
- Working with the wider agency team to sharpen our approach to employee experience
Campaign expertise
You’ll be working for some of the world’s biggest brands on employee experience campaigns, as well as national B2B and B2C campaigns. You’ll be hands on in:
- Developing integrated campaign ideas that work seamlessly across multiple platforms and audiences
- Breaking new creative ground while maintaining strategic relevance and commercial viability
- Working closely with strategists to craft thinking that drives change
- Creating compelling visual narratives for employee experience campaigns
- Presenting creative concepts to clients and senior stakeholders with confidence and strategic rationale
- Ensuring brand consistency and creative excellence across all touchpoints
- Jumping on the tools when needed to bring your concepts to life.
Required skills
Experience and background
- 10+ years in creative roles with significant art direction and employee engagement experience
- Proven track record developing integrated campaigns across multiple platforms
- In-depth experience working in internal communications and employee experience
- Portfolio demonstrating range across
multi-channel experiences - Agency background essential
Creative and technical skills
- Strong conceptual thinking with ability to translate strategy into compelling creative ideas
- Exceptional visual storytelling abilities
- Experience directing photography, film, and digital content creation
- Understanding of current creative trends and emerging technologies
- Proficiency in Creative Suite (particularly Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator)
- Understanding of digital platforms and social media creative requirements
Team leadership
- Proven ability to lead creative teams and manage multiple projects simultaneously
- Strong presentation and communication skills
- Mentoring and line management experience of junior to senior creatives
Benefits
Mr B & Friends Creative Ltd is an independent agency with a global perspective – many of our people forged their careers in London and overseas agencies, and our clients range from entrepreneurial start-ups to globally famous brands. We are sector agnostic, working equally across B2B and B2C, and have a particular focus on brand strategy and identity, marcomms and employee experience.
If you really want to ‘get’ our culture, then you have to understand our brand positioning – Challenge The Ordinary. It’s the lens we apply to everything we do – challenging sector norms and driving up quality standards in ideas and execution.
With a full-time staff of 30 people, we’re well placed to handle large, complex projects while still feeling like the energised, supportive team we were at the start, some 19 years ago.
The ‘Friends’ in our name isn’t spin. We look after our people. We have a great Employee Benefits scheme called The Friends Pact with an additional 27 employee benefits outside of salary, holiday and pension. We have flexible hours, a hybrid work policy and operate a 4.5 day week, with half day on Fridays.
If you don’t have a traditional creative education, you won’t be alone here. We value aptitude and experience over certificates, and welcome untypical perspectives.