Creative Director

Position Summary:

Virtue is looking for a Creative Director who loves to create brand fame at the intersection of advertising and entertainment. You will be responsible for creating and driving ambitious work. Your work should not only be culturally relevant; what you do and make should BE culture itself. You should know what it takes to make a piece of work, or a brand, famous, newsworthy, and deserving of people’s time and attention. 

As a Creative Director, you’d be responsible for overseeing creative work, new projects, and pitches. Our creative teams will depend on you for guidance. A collaborator, you should love being in the heart of the action and someone who can excite the people around them. The CD sometimes oversees teams, but not always. You will also be required to be hands on. At the same time, CDs are expected to stretch upward as well, a team player but has the experience to craft decks on their own. Owning client presentations, being the creative point person on pitches, and operating autonomously as required. 

At Virtue, we trust you can get the job done and maintain creative integrity while working hand-in-hand with your counterparts in other departments and building a positive culture and environment. 

What you’ll need to do:

• Meet and exceed the ECD’s expectations for creative excellence and brilliance by pushing for great work from the start of every project.
• Take creative feedback from multiple sources and sort out how to address it, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of the work.
• Work with strategy and client management to think holistically through the ask, the brief, the insight, the approach. Keep those elements and guidance from other departments in mind throughout the process.
• Drive creative direction and vision for your project or sometimes multiple projects.
• Be a sounding board and supportive creative leader for your team, while at the same time making sure they understand the high expectations of the work.
• Cultivate a culture of high-volume creativity. Push yourself and junior teams to come up with strong, insight driven thinking. 
• Lead your team in developing creative presentations, coordinating pitches, being a strong creative representative in front of clients, handling shoots, etc
• Jump in to teach more junior creatives whenever the opportunity arises. Your knowledge is invaluable to them. 
• Be Culturally knowledgeable. Remain current with pop culture in your areas of interest, but also remain aware of the broader zeitgeist.
• Make sure you and the creative department as a whole are aware of the work out there in the industry right now.
• Work with the Business Development team to handle creds meetings, client engagement opportunities, etc.
• Work collaboratively and respectfully with members of other departments (strategy, client management, creative production, integrated production, etc). 
• Constantly work to ensure the work your team is putting out is creatively and aesthetically ambitious.
• Remain (and help your team remain) adaptable to changing and sometimes stressful circumstances.
• As a creative leader, stay focused on solutions instead of problems.
• Contribute to a positive environment for all team members, speaking respectfully to and about your colleagues at all levels. 
• Prioritize the collective needs of the agency over individual wants.

What you’ll need to bring with you: 

• A history of working in India and a strong understanding of Indian Culture and the region. 
• A creative mission, something to prove to yourself or the world 
• A diversified background and a variety of interests to draw inspiration from. 
• The ability sell your ideas in the most compelling way possible.
• To simultaneously frighten, calm, and convince clients
• Senior-level presentation skills
• Ability to balance owning and delegating
• An understanding of what it takes to persuade people, internally or externally, to get excellent work made. 
• Track record of working with, or creating ideas for global or large regional brands. 
• Interpersonal savvy; the ability to relate well to all kinds of people, build rapport, form constructive and effective relationships, utilize diplomacy and tact, and diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably
• A scrappy attitude. Resourcefulness. No dependence on big budgets or stacked staffing for your projects.
• Integrity and trustworthiness; ability to be direct and truthful, present the unvarnished truth, keep confidences, admit mistakes, and never misrepresent oneself for personal gain.
• Knowledge of how to get different teams and departments to work together to make something great
• Contemporary taste in design, copy, art direction, music, etc. All the magical stuff we use to make our work.
• A history of participating in culture in a genuine way
• Honesty, honesty, honesty. With creatives, with clients, with colleagues, and with yourself.