Associate Creative Director - Health Copy

Associate Creative Director (Health/Scientific Copy)
Location: London (Hybrid)
Salary: £80-£95k
Agency Detail: A strategic and highly creative agency working with Health, Pharma and Medical clients.
Overview of the role
A superb strategic and creative agency who are currently a team of 17, are looking for an Associate Creative Director (ACD) to join the team and complement our Creative Director in design-based creative leadership. This role is a significant senior hire for the agency, and one that they hope to grow into the CD position as the agency founders begin to hand over the reins to the next generation of leadership. For this role we are looking for someone who wants to grow with the agency.
This person should have a background in life sciences, with strong experience as a Scientific Copywriter in health agencies, a firm grasp of strategy, and a curious, creative mindset. Beyond that, they're looking for someone who feels like one of their team, and is excited by the opportunity to help them grow into the next phase of their agency journey.
Creative strategy and vision
• Direct and Lead on concept development and creative execution for a variety of health brands, ensuring alignment with client objectives, brand guidelines, and strategic goals
• Provide strategic direction and manage scientific copywriting and overall creative delivery for a range of work that meets client needs, ensuring our creative output is of a high standard
• Deep knowledge and appreciation of medical copywriting and scientific data, alongside strong creative and conceptual stills that will elevate the work beyond the content
• Understanding and interest in human behaviour and how to best engage a wide range of audiences with our message
• Understanding of design and art direction and how they partner with copy to deliver strong creative execution, working closely with the designers and art directors to develop and deliver a shared creative vision
Creative ownership and management
• Alongside CD, drive creative excellence across the team, taking overall responsibility for the agency’s creative output
• Ensure projects reflect the brief, and demonstrate a thorough understanding of clients' objectives
• Ensure everyone in the creative team feels and takes ownership of how they work and the work they produce. Plan and oversee creative and copy workflow and resource planning, in conjunction with other departments and external partners
• Address short- and long term resource needs through the monitoring of schedules and project pipelines
• Encourage excellent organisational skills, quality control, time management, and following of agency processes and procedures
Team leadership and people management
• Lead our team of talented and ambitious scientific/medical Copywriters in delivering innovative, original and truly impactful work, maintaining high creative and scientific standards
• Directly line manage three copywriters, including mentoring, supporting their developing, providing guidance and feedback, and helping them to progress in their careers
• Inspire and drive confidence across all areas of the creative department, with a particular focus on the copywriters, and across the wider agency departments as a valued member of our senior leadership team
• Foster a team of creatives that are eager to grow and further develop their craft in copywriting, storytelling and concepting; through effective line-management, providing them with training and development opportunities and by considering their passions and individual career aspirations
• Alongside the Creative Director, take ownership of the creative department’s operational approach; driving improvements to the way we deliver creative work to the highest possible standards
• Support in briefing and brainstorming meetings with copywriters and wider teams
• Ensure the Copywriters in particular feel well supported and encouraged in their roles
Innovation
• Proactively drive and champion innovation and creative thinking throughout the team
• Apply knowledge of strategic brand marketing to elevate account plans, tactical planning, ideation and delivery , across existing client work, proposals and pitches
• Support with scientific expertise for wider teams in the development of new business pitches and proposals
• Maintain broad awareness of developments in relevant therapeutic areas and disciplines, and the health sector overall
• Drive industry updates in the health sector, and trends, inspiration and advances in creative delivery
• Champion conceptual thinking to develop unique, compelling ideas that elevate creative work and ensure strategic and emotive storytelling
Quality control
• Review creative content, ensuring the accuracy of data, information and language for a range of deliverables
• Oversee the wider creative process from concept to final execution, ensuring high-quality standards and solid strategic alignment throughout
• Support the creative team, and Copywriters in particular, to recognise and improve quality control across the work they produce
Client management and cross-team collaboration
Drive the department to exceed the expectations of our clients and other stakeholders
Build exceptional client relationships, taking them on the journey towards bold, brave and exciting work
Strong presentation skills and the ability to sell ideas, engage, and inspiring others to do the same
Ability to listen, adjust and adapt to client feedback, while remaining true to the creative direction and overall brand strategy
Collaborate across all teams to champion innovative and compelling concepts and copy
Liaise with clients and the Account Management team to agree specifications, set appropriate budgets and timelines, and take ownership of keeping these on track for the creative team throughout project delivery
Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, ensuring their vision is brought to life in any final design or copy work, while offering creative solutions to their challenges
Support the Account Management team in ensuring that all financial forecasts, timesheets and hours are tracked and monitored to make sure projects remain on budget
Agency leadership
• As a member of the agency leadership team, help drive the agency forward towards a healthy future, guiding and advising the leadership team, brining experience and insight to support decision-making
• Taking ownership of specific parts of agency operations, running these and proactively reporting on progress and challenges
• Provide proactive contributions and suggestions, bringing new ideas to the team and the agency
• Be an ally to the agency vision, culture and values (transparency, curiosity, integrity, community and humanity), and actively live these through your day-to-day work and interactions
For this role we will require someone with an appropriate scientific or health related background who is aware of varying clinical/therapy areas