What does it imply to be a inventive director?
Perhaps one of the most overused job titles around, a creative director can mean everything from a loose celebrity collab to a hands-on leader. Does the role need to be better defined?
“I wonder if she’ll be filling in her timesheets?” This was among the many social media comments that greeted the recent news that Kate Moss had been appointed creative director of Diet Coke, and came from her fellow CD Ed Morris. Somehow, it’s hard to imagine Ms Moss pulling an all-nighter on a pitch deck for this year’s OOH campaign, or patiently responding to the fifth round of tweaks from marketing on her big new point-of-sale idea. Yet nominally she sits alongside others doing just that, and much more, under the increasingly nebulous title of creative director.
Contrast what Moss, who throughout her career has been a supremely savvy steward of her own personal brand, is likely to bring to Diet Coke with what is demanded of another creative director in a position currently being advertised on LinkedIn – global creative director for Vodafone.
For this job, the successful candidate will need not just to lead a team to create great, effective work, they will also need to “define and lead the brand and champion it across the business”; manage all the work that goes through the in-house studio and deliver it more cheaply than external agencies could; manage and archive all the assets; and “be champion for ensuring the brand shows up in everything we do as a business”. In common with most in-house creative director roles, it’s a hugely challenging mix of organisational, inspirational, and commercial responsibilities.