Associate Creative Director

ON BOARD EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 

On Board Experiential is an award-winning, full-service experiential marketing agency that creates meaningful brand experiences throughout the world from our home offices and physical office locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City (or from wherever our adventures take us!) Our clients include Nike, Facebook, J.P. Morgan Chase, Instagram, Cheez-It, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, and Salesforce (to name a few). Cool, cool, but what’s it like to work here? Event Marketer recognized OBE as one of the best places to work in events (2019), and we couldn’t agree more. The most important part of our business is our people. They are hardworking, brave and make magic happen on the regular. But under each majestic exterior, is a human deserving of a healthy work life balance. That’s why we believe in recovery days, happy hours (virtual, if we must), friendly (but always competitive) fitness challenges, company retreats and yearbooks, and open meetings to facilitate discussions that heal, inspire, and bring us closer. We encourage each other to bring our whole selves to work. We want to hear about your lived experiences and authentic perspectives. We want you to be unapologetically you. 

SUMMARY OF POSITION 

The Associate Creative Director (ACD) is a spirited, creative powerhouse responsible for driving the creative process for project campaigns, activations and pitches across both digital and physical experiential marketing work. In addition to guiding the creative vision, the ACD is responsible for performing excellent, self-driven strategy work (research, insight development, copywriting, KPI planning), leading brainstorms and ideation sessions, planning creative deliverables, and ultimately crafting and executing thoughtful and comprehensive attendee journeys / user experiences.  

The ACD also collaborates closely with supporting strategists and provides top-notch art direction to a range of designers (2D, 3D, motion, UX/UI, etc.). The ACD coordinates with internal Account, Production and Technology partners on projects to ensure creative work meets the brief and project parameters (timeline, budget, etc.) while pushing for creative excellence across every opportunity. Working closely with Creative Leadership (ECD, CDs, Senior Creative Resource Manager), the ACD also helps drive key client relationships and continually seeks to understand how their projects fit in the ecosystem of OBE, elevating the work and supporting the Creative team every step of the way.  

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS 

• Leverage deeply rooted creative passion to come up with innovative solutions and give momentum to all projects. Apply strategy and design skills to elevate the work, inspire others and support the overarching creative output. Be the conduit between upfront strategy development and design exploration and execution: 
  • STRATEGY: Clarify and anchor the client brief, objectives and KPIs; conduct research on the brand, audience, and other key project elements, distill and curate ideas based on strategic insights, contribute storytelling and copywriting, pivot and adjust with strategic excellence, etc.  
  • DESIGN / ART DIRECTION: Create clear rationale for suggested art direction that guides designers and wins over clients. Coordinate with diverse talent to bring together the best possible aesthetics that are simultaneously on-brand and forward-looking. 
• Attend client pitch and presentation meetings and actively participate in the presentation of the concepts, strategy, design and executional details for each client opportunity. Sell in big ideas that help evolve the work and yield excellent outcomes.  
• Supervise a range of creative talent to ensure solutions and execution are consistent with brief, meeting or exceeding brand goals. Coordinate with outside resources, including freelancers, vendors, photographers, printers, fabricators, web developers, interactive technologists, and others as needed, for completion of the creative deliverables for each project. 
• Lead and participate in both internal and client brainstorming sessions, workshops, and idea rakes designed toward specific outputs and solutions that address client’s strategic and tactical business needs.  
• Ensure each creative idea and concept is designed to produce measurable results based on client objectives and goals. 
• Remain current with industry trends and techniques, striving for best-in-class output across all facets of ideation, strategy, art direction and beyond.  
  • CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE: Stay up to date on current events, culturally relevant movements and happenings, DE&I best practices and terminology, and a vast range of subject matter that enhances the work, heightens your ability to collaborate with diverse talent, and creates an inclusive environment for expressing authentic and diverse perspectives.  
  • AUDIENCE-CENTRICITY: Foster deep understanding and empathy for the given brand’s intended audience that enhances the work. 
• Strive to continually elevate creative work and foster creativity in all interactions with those inside and outside the Creative Department.  
  • Collaborate with Strategy and Account teams to continuously create solutions that meet client and project objectives in an innovative and creative way.  
  • Coordinate with Production and Technology to ensure approved creative deliverables are executed on a timely basis with consistency and high quality. 
• Recap and reflect on all creative pitches and projects in order to share key learnings and elevate the work. 
• Evaluate and implement improvements for overall digital strategy
• Develop website UI/UX strategy and actionable long- and short-term roadmaps for the marketing website 
• Integrate digital assets, raise brand awareness, collaborate on marketing campaigns, and measure the efficiency and effectiveness of digital channels. 
• Map out framework for digital assets/content and how they will be optimized for business and registration results. 
• Analyze registration and digital marketing campaign data to inform improvements to the consumer journey and user experience 

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE  

EDUCATION 

• Bachelor’s degree in design, marketing, strategy, writing, or visual communications. 

EXPERIENCE 

• 5 -8 years industry/agency experience, preferably including experiential background. 
• Strong portfolio of creative work and concepts, including digital and experiential design for Fortune 500 brands. 

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES 

• Excellent organizational, interpersonal and written communication skills. 
• Outstanding presentation skills and the ability to articulate strategic creative solutions to clients. 
• Ability to translate strategic vision into tangible project deliverables. 
• Strong work ethic with an ability to thrive in and enjoy a fast-paced, dynamic work environment. 
• Ability to multi-task while coordinating multiple projects and resources. 
• Solid understanding of digital and interactive communications, including social media marketing, content strategy and multi-channel campaign execution.  
• Experience working on event installations, including onsite support of fabricated environments, interior design / styling / set design, signage installation, site mapping, etc. Preferred. 
• Ability to manage other creatives, either as direct reports, freelancers and/or mentees. 
• Excellent technical skills that include ability to manage docs and collaborate within Microsoft Office (Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, etc.), Keynote, Google Drive (Slides, Sheets, etc).  
• Proficiency in design applications is not required, but preferred, which could include Adobe CC essentials like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and/or 3D modeling software proficiency (Sketchup, AutoCAD, Cinema4D, Studio3DMax, etc) 
• Digital/interactive technologies (Figma, Adobe XD, HTML 5/CSS 3/PHP) a plus. 
• Willingness to travel up to 50% of the time following CDC, federal, state and local guidelines.