Creative Director

As a leader in luxury retail in the Middle East, Al Tayer Group's retail division, Al Tayer Insignia, hosts a portfolio of some of the world’s best luxury brands in the fashion, jewellery, home and department store categories. Complementing its position in luxury retail, Al Tayer Insignia has also built new frontiers in lifestyle retail, representing leading brands in the Beauty, Home, Fashion and Hospitality sectors. Our brands include Bloomingdales, Harvey Nichols and Armani to name just a few!

About the Role

The Creative Director is the driving force and creative ambassador behind our brands, responsible for building and delivering a 360 creative strategy and imagery for our seasonal, brand and BAU campaigns across our various platforms (store, email, banners, media, social media, e-comm), focusing on the various segments (women’s, men’s, kid’s, accessories, home, beauty) of our business. The Creative Director will operate with a solid grasp of brand aesthetics and work to elevate and evolve the brand aesthetic with the creation of compelling campaigns season after season.

The Creative Director will liaise with key stakeholders (content, marketing, buying, commercial) and translate commercial and brand strategies into engaging stories and see projects through the development and design phase to the final campaign imagery/videos, working with external suppliers and internal production teams.

The Creative Director will facilitate complex conversations between these departments, and varying levels of management and support a team of Art Directors, Producers, and Stylists with guidance and encouragement.

This role requires a highly creative and conceptual person, with strong communication skills, excellent presentation skills and a very strong fashion aspirational visual focus balanced with business acumen and understanding the commercial focuses of the business to drive sales.

In addition, this role requires the close management of the overall production budget and ensuring we are thinking outside the box to maximize the budgets.

What You’ll Be Doing

Functional Roles & Responsibilities

1. Oversee the creation and execution of Campaign and BAU shoots.
2. Define and implement creative brand strategies according to business needs for each season.
3. Oversee creative visuals/mood board creation with a strong ability to articulate the creative vision in a way that is easily understood and engaging whilst evolving the fashion direction to ensure that our brands remain at the forefront of customers' minds.
4. Oversee the creative shoot concepts with brand consistency across all touch-points, ensuring that these meet key business and departmental KPIs.
5. Work closely with the Content team to understand asset needs across our various platforms.
6. Oversee initial ideation and be able to take ideas and concepts forward, executing these alongside the creative production and editorial styling teams.
7. Guide team in confidently pitching concepts to internal stakeholders and at times external partners.
8. Work with external brands on key brand exposures and brand partnerships, bringing these to the customer in the form of creative imagery and video.
9. Ensure a regional approach to all creatives with a focus on localization, understanding cultural differences and sensitivities.
10. Define and implement a 360 creative strategy in line with Business objectives and Brand vision, for all physical and digital content across brand portfolios.
11. Define and manage yearly budget strategy and drive budget optimization as per business needs.
12. Manage creative department, ensuring on-time delivery of work and overall quality of execution in line with brand standards.
13. Define brand art direction guides; review and implement updates throughout the year to ensure it is up to date and evolving.
14. Work closely with procurement teams in ensuring costing is per industry standards.
15. Drive relevant communications among pertinent departments in line with creative needs.
16. Align with the Content and Marketing teams for performance insight feedback on imagery/campaigns.
17. Partner with the Retail and Marketing teams to support in-store and out of home exposure, providing strategic alignment and advisory so the overall program is in line with the creative vision.
18. Manage a team of art directors, producers, stylists.
19. Conduct development reviews and performance appraisals.
20. Target and KPI setting based on business requirements.
21. Support and mentor members of the creative team to ensure growth and development.
22. Provide constructive feedback to the team to ensure that the team remains motivated and passionate about executing the creative brand strategy.
23. Effectively delegate projects throughout the team to support workload and utilize resources.
24. Manage stakeholders on a regular basis, ensuring alignment on campaign directions.

About You

Education/Certification and Continued Education

Bachelor’s degree in Fashion, Arts, Advertising or similar.

Years of Experience

7 to 10 years of marketing experience, with at least 2 years in a managerial role working with/for brand conscious organizations in a relevant retail industry.

Knowledge & Skills

1. Impeccable creative eye for brand vision and ability to lead creative teams.
2. Strong understanding of luxury brand market.
3. Ability to develop and drive content using data metrics and customer behavior.
4. Navigate and develop strong relationships with other departments.
5. Experience in creating content for luxury multi-branded retailer, omnichannel, advertising agency or multilevel editorial magazine group.

Garhoud, Dubai - UAE, Dubai, United Arab Emirates