VML & Ogilvy | Creative Director (Open X), Japan

JOB OVERVIEW:

As a Creative Director at VOJ, you are a pivotal leader responsible for inspiring, overseeing, and ultimately delivering brilliant creative products for our major brand clients. You are the driving force behind campaigns that not only meet business objectives but also make our clients and their brands famous, all while upholding the high creative standards of VOJ. You are the manager, the inspirer, the overseer, and the accountable party for the creative output, ensuring every piece of work is as brilliant as possible and contributes to client success and our agency's legacy.

Key RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Strategic Client Understanding: Deeply immerse yourself in understanding clients' business challenges and opportunities to ensure creative solutions are strategically aligned and impactful.
• Brief Development & Scrutiny: Critically question and refine creative briefs, ensuring they are unique, strategically sound, and directly linked to business objectives. If discrepancies arise, you will lead the process to correct them, then effectively communicate and inspire your teams with a clear, compelling vision.
• Creative Innovation & Expansion: Challenge and inspire your creative teams to develop brilliant, innovative responses to briefs. Furthermore, encourage and foster thinking beyond the immediate brief, proactively proposing smart initiatives that can significantly advance clients' brands.
• Project Leadership & Oversight: Maintain a consistent oversight of each project's progress, actively stepping in to provide motivation, strategic input, and creative solutions to ensure teams deliver the highest quality work, on time and within budget.
• Seamless Communication: Facilitate clear, frequent, and proactive communication across all project stakeholders to prevent misunderstandings and ensure smooth execution from conception to delivery.
• Executive Alignment: Regularly update and collaborate with the Senior Creative Director and above to garner their insights and keep them fully informed of project progress and key developments.
• Account & Client Partnership: Collaborate closely with account management to ensure they possess a thorough understanding of the creative work, enabling them to effectively present and "sell" ideas to clients. Be readily available to engage with clients directly to articulate the value and impact of the creative solutions, whenever necessary.

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS:

• At least 5 years of demonstrated experience in managing and leading creative teams within an agency or in-house setting.
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in producing impactful advertising, digital, social media, and content campaigns, with a proven track record of successfully collaborating with clients to achieve their marketing goals.
• Exceptional ability to articulate complex marketing strategies and agency ideas clearly, persuasively, and with confidence.
• Proven experience in conceptualizing and executing integrated creative work across a diverse range of channels, with particular expertise in digital campaigns, alongside strong experience in video production, brand activations, and promotional initiatives.
• Adept at managing, mentoring, and inspiring creative teams, with the ability to impartially judge work, identify the strongest ideas, and collaboratively develop them to their full potential.
• Native Japanese language proficiency is required. Conversational English or higher is a significant advantage.
• Proficiency in leveraging WPP Open platforms and a commitment to guiding junior and mid-level team members on WPP's AI policy, ensuring clear understanding and compliant application across all projects in collaboration with WPP AI and legal teams.