Advertising creative

Apprenticeship summary

Occupation summary

This occupation is found in advertising, marketing, branding agencies. Across a range of sectors as creatives are either employed in house or in commercial agencies. Creatives can work for agencies and social media owners. Agencies can support multinational corporations through to small & medium sized enterprises. They also work for media agencies, tech agencies and other businesses. There are an increasing number of larger brands who have in-house creative teams, such as Specsavers, Unilever and Barclays Bank and a creative may work directly for them. Creatives are most often hired in teams although some agencies hire single creatives. Some creatives will work on a freelance basis and undertake contract work. They will usually report to an Executive Creative Director, and they will usually receive briefs from creative services. The role of a creative is transferrable with skills valued across multiple sectors.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to develop strategic campaigns, or one-off pieces of communication, that meet a client brief. Creatives will need to influence stakeholders, working with many interconnecting sectors, partners and influencers. They require a good knowledge of regulated industries and legislative requirements to interpret the purpose of the brief and create an impactful campaign on behalf of the customer. Creatives lead projects from concept and ideas to completion, applying continuous improvement from internal and external feedback to ensure a successful outcome. Creatives must understand the perspectives and approach of each brief and/or campaign. They must determine, refine, and adapt the initial vision of a client, promoting diversity and inclusion within briefs. Most often, this is to drive sales of a product or service, but it can also be to initiate change for example for social good. They will utilise strategic planning, taking responsibility to develop appropriate courses of action that are capable of underpinning change to meet the needs of a brief. A creative will have the skills to understand the clients’ key drivers and to be able to professionally challenge a brief by exercising autonomy and judgement to achieve the best for the client.

A creative will always meet the brief and, where appropriate, suggest improvements based on informed research and evaluation to continuously develop and improve strategy. They must manage relationships through conflict and creative differences to achieve the best outcomes for clients. The creative either individually, or as part of a team, will develop ideas presenting them to their creative director or line manager for feedback. Creatives must manage competing demands and their time effectively- sometimes there will be weeks to develop ideas and sometimes just hours.

The creative will be expected to show that they can develop ideas that are omnichannel – this means that they are able to execute ideas on a range of platforms such as TV, radio, print, out of home promotion, social media, experiential (for example, publicity stunts, sampling, tasting), PR events and instore promotion. The creative will have a strong say on the ways their idea is executed, partly by choosing and or recommending artisans to work with for example photographers, illustrators and set designers. The creative will understand that their decisions may be influenced by budget and achieving value for money.

In their daily work this occupation interacts with many other departments inside their agency – if they work for an agency (see above). This will include creative services, strategy and client services. They are expected to present ideas to senior staff in their organisation, including the executive creative director, the client service director and the planning director. They may have contact with the client, either working directly with the client to drive improvements to the brief at the research stage and or presenting and pitching ideas. They could either work independently or as part of a team of creatives to generate ideas. In the production phase the creative may also initially be working with other artisans to achieve the communication of their idea.

The creative will work independently or as part of a team on the client’s brief. They will have review meetings with their line manager, but they will be expected to take responsibility for their work. They will lead work based on their advanced theoretic and practical knowledge utilising established frameworks and utilising tools to develop ideas. A creative will be responsible for managing their time on briefs. Agencies often invoice clients according to the time taken on work therefore a creative will maintain accurate records and evidence value for money. When working on a brief for a client, they will ensure that any ideas presented are within the tone of voice that is appropriate for that client. Refining their ideas through research to reflect the client brand. If they are working on a brief in a regulated category for example alcohol or gambling, they will be expected to ensure that any ideas presented are within the regulatory requirements. Creatives will be expected to represent their agency always reflecting professionalism and agency values.

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