CPG is a member of the Nitrous Effect™, nitrouseffect.com, a collective of agencies across a spectrum of marketing, content, events, and entertainment.

CPG Agency is seeking a smart, collaborative Executive Creative Director to lead our creative efforts. For an agency with “Creative” in its DNA (we started life as Creative Producers Group), we understand the importance of great creative. But we’re not making print ads, billboards or TV commercials. We tell stories within the umbrella of corporate events and corporate communications – and we’re looking for an expert in those areas. The winning candidate will have a deep understanding of the corporate events industry (B-to-B, preferably, but we will consider candidates who’ve worked in B-to-C experiential as well).

Your visual art background is less important to us than your ability to discover and respond to creative challenges within the event framework. We’re looking for someone with an expansive outlook, avid curiosity and strong problem-solving, stellar pitch skills, and the ability to lead a team to produce award-winning creative solutions in business experiences including large-scale business meetings and events.

We value the ability to listen to a client’s objectives, desires and needs, and craft strategies and experiential solutions to satisfy them. This could include reimagining an event’s agenda, crafting a compelling opening module, or supporting C-suite presenters in developing effective presentations. We want someone who’s worked on hundreds of business meetings and still brings a fresh take on how to execute messaging, venue branding, scenic, entertainment, and pre/post event communication.

This person is also a key individual contributor to overall results by leading our creative responses for new business. Working with our team, the ECD leads the charge on RFP responses and new business pitches, working closely with the VP Sales and Marketing. Superb communication and business acumen are required to understand assignments, develop a strategic response and then subsequently manage a team of internal and external resources to meet project goals by providing direction and monitoring progress.

Strong writing skills are a must. The ECD leads our storytelling efforts and should be able to write proposal copy, headlines, themes, etc.

CPG Agency has a great team, and we’re excited for someone new to bring collaboration and energy around our creative process.

RESPONSIBILITIES

This position requires a blend of the following responsibilities and skills:

STRATEGY/CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

• Conceptualize and guide strategic and creative solutions that effectively communicate the objectives for client accounts
• Develop leading-edge experiential and engagement programs and design concepts that meet the business objectives of the organization
• Improve the overall quality of the agency’s portfolio, measured by client satisfaction and award-winning work across all media types (meetings and events, video, web, etc.)
• Be recognized and utilized as a creative leader within the agency and by our clients
• Work with Creative Operations Manager and team to ensure that CPG provides the proper environment and necessary resources to consistently deliver a superior creative product while operating efficiently in a fast-paced setting
• Assists in work output by serving as a writer or director for projects when necessary

PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENTING

• Actively participate in the sales process resulting in measurable revenue growth
• Lead proposal concepting and strategy efforts
• Direct and review proposal design and production efforts
• Deliver highly effective presentations for new business and project meetings with existing clients

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

• Serve as Creative Team leader
• Recruit, onboard and develop the creative talent necessary to achieve CPG’s vision and goals
• Drive training of best practices across creative disciplines
• Nurture agency culture through positivity, integrity, clarity and transparent communication
• Participation in company leadership team, setting company direction and strategic planning

IDEATION / BRAINSTORMING

• Lead team brainstorming and creative sessions
• Champion creative innovation and creative excellence at CPG
• Help develop innovative new concepts and products for the agency

QUALITY ASSURANCE

• Devise and implement measures of creative operations success across the agency
• Assure final deliverables comply with company standards and client requirements
• Implement and monitor QA process, standards, and measures; educate staff on process

SKILLS

The core skills, abilities and knowledge key to success in this position include:

• High standards of quality, efficiency and effectiveness (high performance)
• High-level strategic thinking ability
• Broad integrated experience including live meetings/experiential, engagement and digital media
• Experience working with high-profile Fortune 500 global clients
• Proven ability to give persuasive, articulate presentations
• Ability to supervise and provide clear direction to creative staff
• Strong writing abilities
• Ability to work well with all levels of internal personnel, outside clients and vendors
• Adaptability, flexibility and problem solving
• Confidence, positivity and imperviousness
• Excellent communication skills (oral and writing)
• Ability to work and thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, under tight deadlines
• Ability to travel and work flexible hours (About 10-15% travel)

This is a full-time salaried position. Our downtown STL office currently operates on a hybrid schedule with three days in office and two days WFH. Preference will be given to St. Louis-based candidates or those open to relocation, but remote candidates will be considered.

CPG Agency, cpgagency.com, is a highly regarded experiential agency with an outstanding portfolio of Fortune 500 accounts including Southwest Airlines, Ulta Beauty, AB InBev, Carnival Corporation, Jimmy John’s and many others. We help our clients succeed in all areas of the employee and franchisee lifecycle: recruitment, onboarding, training, recognition and celebration. In our 38th year, CPG creates award-winning work in an environment of collaboration, strategic thinking and growth.

CPG is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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