ad: Annual 2024 Now Open For Entries!
*

Job Description: Creative Team

Published

The Creative Team in the advertising, digital or marketing sector is responsible for generating attention-grabbing ideas that will entice the consumer or target audience. Members of the team work together to develop conceptual campaigns designed to stand apart from competitors.

The creative team usually consists of an established art director and a copywriter, with some companies looking for individuals who have both skill sets. However, other members involved can include web developers and editors.

Job Description, Salaries and Benefits

Creative teams work in advertising agencies to dream up and execute advertising campaigns for the companies that hire the advertising agencies. Some large companies have in-house advertising departments, so have their own creative teams. 

These individuals primarily coordinate and create the ad copy and the artwork for various media, including television, radio, Internet, magazine and newspaper ads. They also develop direct-mail campaigns, which usually consist of sales letters, brochures and order forms. A creative team includes employees with various job titles. The job descriptions of these employees vary but they all have the same objectives.

Daily tasks may include:

  • Client liaison to develop a strong understanding of client requirements and objectives
  • Creating ideas that can be used across various platforms to support campaigns
  • Staying one step ahead of competitors by researching current media trends
  • Inspiring younger creatives to be expressive and innovative in their ideas
  • Executing tasks with the flair and professionalism needed to push the agency and clients in the right direction

Creative team jobs usually take place during a typical 36 - 40 hour week and working hours are usually Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm. Salaries will range dramatically depending on their specific role.

A creative team should have:

  • An impressive conceptual outlook and ability to produce original ideas
  • High-level creative thinking and the confidence to use it
  • Multiple disciplines embracing the various roles required throughout a project
  • Strong experience in relevant fields
  • The confidence to share and present ideas internally and externally
  • Motivation and the desire to execute every job to the highest standard
  • The ability to deliver campaigns that generate results
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • The ability to think laterally and literally
  • An understanding of how creative roles complement other departments, such as finance and data management
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, as well as presentation skills in order to make outstanding pitches

What is the work like?

A creative team’s input is required for a wide variety of activities, including:

  • Creating desire among the public for products and services
  • Building  brand awareness and image
  • Creating proposals for clients, outlining the key tasks and associated costs
  • Brainstorming and creating concepts by formulating general themes or ideas
  • Proofreading and editing
  • Ensuring the messed and content is commensurate with the overall marketing strategy

Hours and Environment

The creative team jobs in most agencies involve working regular office hours, but many will occasionally find themselves working out-of-hours. A good creative team member knows exactly how to merge their skills with the demands of a campaign, and how to inspire others to do the same.

Salary and other benefits

Given the vast range of roles within a creative team, it is difficult to offer a tangible salary. The typical salary for a copywriter currently sits at around £28,000 per annuum, whereas the salary for an art director is at around £36,000. The starting saary for a creative team job might land somewhere between the two. As ever though, your mileage may vary.

Skills and Personal Qualities

There are certain skills that many creative teams have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. These include:-

  • A naturally creative mind
  • Strong design skills based on a degree, equivalent qualification or industry experience
  • Confidence in client-facing situations
  • A thorough understanding of the creative process
  • Ability in developing strategic creative concepts
  • The ability to express ideas in a compelling visual and tangible way, and to understand how to brief and direct relevant creative or creative tech specialists
  • A commitment to personal development and progression
  • Experience in various creative software programmes

Members of a creative team need to be confident enough to share and sell their ideas, and perceptive enough to know when to encourage others to share theirs. Team members should also be strategic in their thinking, so they can organise thoughts and develop plans to suit the expectations of the client.

Interests

It is important for creative teams to have an interest in:-

  • The creative industries
  • Current affairs
  • Global and industry-wide trends

Getting in

A creative team is made up of several key members, starting with a creative director, and including copywriters, editors, graphic designers and artists, and web developers. In short, it's the group of people that comes up with the advertising ideas and brings those ideas into being. 

Titles may vary among different organisations. In some agencies, the lines defining the creative team blur, and the account managers or executives - who serve as a liaison between the client companies and the agency - also get into the creative act. 

Smaller agencies often have fewer members on their creative teams than larger agencies, and the duties overlap. For example, an advertising manager may also be the creative director and a graphic designer. The creative director coordinates the creative team and liaises with the account executives. 

Copywriters do the actual writing. Editors help ensure the accuracy of advertisements. Artists or graphic designers create the artwork, illustrations and other visual aspects of the advertisements. Web developers upload creative pieces to the Internet.

Entry for young people

The most logical place to start for those just leaving university is in junior positions. There has been a significant shift towards remote working in recent months and this has in many ways levelled the playing field, as a creative team role is no longer a job you “have to move to London” for. The majority of agency staff are graduates but a degree is not essential. A postgraduate qualification has little effect on earning potential.

Entry for adults

While the traditional route for a creative director, namely a humanities degree and several years of hands-on experience, still holds true, graduates now come from a variety of creative backgrounds, management and technological roles. New job roles, such as content strategist, producer and app developer offer new routes to senior roles. Key technology skills are increasingly a fast-track route to the top of the industry.

Training

The demand for advertising and marketing roles far outstrips availability, so potential employers are looking for well-rounded candidates with life skills and professional experience. Work experience is a big part of this. Start by attending industry events open to students and networking with industry people. Running a well-read blog and speaking at industry events will also get you noticed.

Getting On

Creativity is all about nurturing imagination and turning thoughts into the ideas that give a project the edge. So agencies will expect team members to have a positive approach that encourages creativity to flourish. Once established, the career path for creative team members is usually clear with a progression to creative director being the ultimate goal.

Demonstrating you're already practising in the area is vital. Consider developing your social media profile, your website or personal blog to give your online brand a more professional feel. Show your commitment while still at university by taking a communications role through the student union or other societies.

Further Reading

Creative Direction in a Digital World by Adam Harrell - Creative Direction in a Digital World provides designers with the tools they need to craft compelling digital experiences across screens, devices and platforms. Readers will learn how to take a multi-disciplinary approach to digital creative direction that will help them uncover target audience insights, concept more creative campaigns, change consumer behaviour, and create more user-friendly digital experiences. 

The Eye: How the World's Most Influential Creative Directors Develop Their Vision by Nathan Williams - They’re often working behind the scenes, letting their work take centre stage. But now Nathan Williams, founder and creative director of Kinfolk magazine and author of The Kinfolk TableThe Kinfolk Home, and The Kinfolk Entrepreneur—with over 250,000 copies in print combined—brings more than 90 of the most iconic and influential creative directors into the spotlight.

Book of Ideas - A journal of creative direction and graphic design by Radim Malinic - Book of Ideas is just that: an outpouring of what one creative director and designer has discovered from many years working in the strange and endlessly fascinating world of the creative industry.

This is Service Design Thinking by Marc Stickdorn - Service design is a bit of a buzzword these days and has gained a lot of interest from various fields. This book, assembled to describe and illustrate the emerging field of service design, was brought together using exactly the same co-creative and user-centred approaches you can read and learn about inside.

Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder - A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-colour design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organisation.

Comments

ad: Annual 2024 Now Open For Entries!