Associate Creative Director, New York / North America

Agency Description

M&C Saatchi Sport + Entertainment NYC is a full-service creative communications agency operating across lifestyle, sport, entertainment, fashion, technology, culinary and spirits. We specialize in campaigns that operate through earned media channels, relying on creativity, strategy and cultural relevance to create news that infiltrates consumer circles, in lieu of paid spends that often force content upon people. Put simply, we need to create campaigns and content that folks will naturally discover because they connects directly with them, using their personal passions and cultural ecosystem as conduits. The agency is responsible for executing creative campaigns from ideation through to design, production, execution and sharing, and our creative studio delivers output that includes still, video, print, experiential, and many more – we are built to work within whatever medium best suits each story.

Roles & Responsibilities

As the Associate Creative Director within the agency, you would be working directly alongside the agency’s creative director and senior leadership team to lead the conceptualization, pitching, development and execution of creative communications campaigns on behalf of our clients. You will be in a leadership position within the creative studio, helping to oversee and manage junior staff members in regards to the aforementioned work – and of course, contributing yourself through concepting, copywriting, design, and any other creative abilities that sit within your unique wheelhouse.

As our offering is focused on generating earned media, the medium and nature of the work is fluid – again, we create whatever asset, content or experience that best services the story, ranging across, print, digital, web design, social, experience, audio, etc. As such, the Associate Creative Director must operate as our studio does: malleably and proactively, using experience, intuition and positivity in taking on any and all creative challenges, structuring creative output and guiding project management across whatever unique road each brief takes us down. Excitement for the unknown is a must; as is the nature with presenting unique concepts, there is not always an exact road map for how to bring them into a fruition.

In terms of a hierarchy of relevant skills… creative direction and creative strategy are most important within the role. Generating concepts is quintessential to our client offering, and senior creative staff are paramount in harnessing the ideative energy of the relevant agency staff (not just the creative team members!) and shepherding them through the brainstorming process to strong output. You’ll be leading brainstorms and helping team members navigate creative briefs – it’s a curational role in which you’re not just bringing strong thinking, but spotting the truly great ideas when they pop up from any source. And, of course, on those truly tough briefs when the team comes up empty you’ll be leaned on to step up  (alongside other senior creative team members) and deliver strong creative strategies and concepts in a pinch, leading through example.

Creative direction and creative strategy are followed closely by art direction, design and copywriting. Once a concept is generated, we must also be adept and capable in pitching it successfully, and then bringing it to life in a visually and editorially striking manner. Please note that the team has quite a few talented copywriters in place, so while your writing skills are enormously welcome, design is the true area where we see a potential for immediate and vast improvement and growth through your expertise. This ACD position includes an element of “Design Director”- using your own skillset to bring concepts to life through striking art direction and design, providing leadership and guidance to junior design staff throughout the design process, and informing on the addition of new design partners on both a freelance and full-time basis as needed. The above applies to both the pitch and production processes – the develop of visually striking decks, and the development of visually striking external assets that bring our core concepts to life through design. You will also be asked to lead live content production when relevant, splitting duties with the CD on creative and art directing film and video shoots – in certain cases, directing content yourself. NOTE: Travel will be subject to personal comfort levels in regards to COVID-19.

Finally, please note that while we are earned first, due to our strong client relationships we are often asked to consult on the development of content and campaigns that sit outside of an earned remit, especially as it relates to design – paid campaigns and content (OOH, digital, social, dot com), retail launches and partnerships, and more. The Associate Creative Director, using their experience in the design space, will be leaned on to help guide our agency’s response to any design-focused briefs that sit outside of the earned media experiences of other agency team members.

Key Brands
Major Beer and Spirits Brands and/or Entertainment/Lifestyle Clients

Location / Travel

Typically, the role is New York City-based, with travel for client pitching, shoots and campaign production. Currently, the role operates digitally, and members of our staff are located throughout the country (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Upstate New York, etc).

Benefits

Full Health Insurance (company covers 100%) BlueCross BlueShield+ Dental (company covers 50%) Aetna

Friday hours end at 3PM (full year) + 1PM Summer Fridays from June through August

401K matches up to 3%

Closed on all major holidays and Christmas > New Year’s Eve break

Apply

Send an email and resume to: jobsnyse@mcsaatchi.com