Creative Director - Copy

Seniority Level: Senior Level

Employment Type: Full-Time

Field: Creative

Location: New York

Ability to work in office 3 days per week on Tuesday - Thursday (subject to change based on business requirements)

Company Overview

Barrows boasts over 30 years of expertise in the global retail design sector, continually evolving to meet the diverse needs of the regions we serve. Our unwavering commitment revolves around a singular mission: crafting solutions that ignite shopper conversion. From strategic insights to seamless execution, our comprehensive suite of services spans insights and strategy, design conceptualization, all the way to engineering and implementation. With a strong foundation in manufacturing, our designs are steeped in technical proficiency, ensuring tangible real-world impact. We pride ourselves on delivering remarkable solutions tailored to our clients' unique requirements.

Our global team of Barrows employees, irrespective of background or role, shares a common ethos characterized by a can-do attitude and a relentless drive to deliver excellence. This collective spirit not only fosters top-tier work but also cultivates a sense of camaraderie rarely found in multinational agencies.

The Role

Barrows is growing and is seeking a Creative Director-Copy with exceptional shopper experience to lead the development of creative strategy and high-impact ideas for global brands across a range of industries. This role will develop strategic concepts and copy for integrated shopper marketing programs and experiential retail designs at mass retail across North America. A deep understanding of activating in these channels will be critical to success in role. The role will oversee all copy-related needs for the creative team to unlock big ideas that engage US and global audiences and produce compelling content that supports our clients' stories.

Responsibilities

• Work in partnership with Creative and Strategy Directors to concept and plan execution of integrated shopper marketing programs and copy across a wide range of media and platforms
• Drive creative process from conceptual thinking through to execution to develop experience-driven, connected shopper marketing solutions
• Serve as a leader, creative mind, and project manager in one
• Connect the dots between creative and strategy to tell the client’s story
• Create and write program ideas with strategically-aligned copy accurately against the required brief and revert
• Develop compelling activations and tactics which bring creative concepts to life and achieve program objectives 
• Collaborate effectively with the cross-functional team, including account, strategy, design and project management
• Work collaboratively with the strategy and client service teams to identify key insights to help drive creative programming and ensure all concepts are on brief
• Manage multiple jobs simultaneously; managing and providing direction to other team members as needed 
• Be an effective leader with strong communication and interpersonal skills in order to cultivate beneficial relationships both internally and externally
• Prepare and present client creative presentations
• Work quickly and independently, with a can-do attitude
• Proactively track trends in business and marketplace relevant to client business.
• Work with CD to address performance, workflow, and quality issues and help develop long-range plans for the creative brands
• Be one of the faces representing Barrows creative to clients and agency partners, relying on deep understanding of brands and the trade
• Confidently articulate and defend our work; ideate and solve problems with clients
• Work with the client service team to identify growth opportunities with current and prospective clients
• Craft the appropriate story and copy associated with the client’s brand/project
• Provide a strong creative point of view regarding storytelling, copy and messaging hierarchy
• Generate strategically sound concepts and copy for in-store communication
• Develop and implement processes and structures to achieve creative vision
• Generate exploratory mood boards by gathering literature and internet references
• Be an effective leader with strong communication and interpersonal skills in order to cultivate beneficial relationships both internally and externally

Qualifications

• 8 years of overall creative storytelling and copywriting experience, preferably on leading brands
• Strong portfolio of prior professional work (shopper is a plus)
• Solid understanding of CPG shopper marketing
• Team leadership experience required
• Creative strategy and copywriting experience strongly preferred
• Shopper activation experience preferred
• CPG and/or spirits experience preferred
• Elevated understanding of the retail trade environment, including omnichannel and physical/digital retail integrations
• Experience presenting and successfully selling creative concepts
• Proven experience in creating standout creative work
• Ability to lead and drive client solutions through ambiguity
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities