Creative directors: Influence, don’t just direct
The title creative director implies control, but in today’s collaborative, multidisciplinary landscape, true leadership is about influence, not direction, writes Marcel Wijnen, creative director at Hulsbosch.
There is something that fundamentally bothers me about the title (my title) creative director. It feels limiting.
The creative director job title emerged organically in the 1950s and 60s, a period when advertising shifted from formulaic sales-driven messaging to a more idea-led, storytelling approach. Traditionally, copywriters and art directors worked in silos, but as agencies like Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) pioneered the creative revolution, a new leadership role was needed to unify the process. Figures like Bill Bernbach redefined agency structures, elevating creativity as a strategic function rather than a production step.
But in today’s fluid, collaborative creative landscape, is the role still necessary? The rigid hierarchies of Madison Avenue have given way to nimble, multidisciplinary teams, where ideas can come from anywhere – designers, strategists, even AI. The creative process is no longer top-down but networked, iterative, and data-driven. While leadership remains crucial, the traditional creative director may feel more like a relic of a bygone era than an essential driver of modern creativity.
If you’re only directing your team, you’re not truly getting the best out of them. Why hire brilliant creative minds if you’re simply going to direct them to execute your ideas of what and how things should be done? Your team and agency will be confined to the creative director’s vision. You might as well do the work yourself.
Of course, it is the creative director’s responsibility to ensure the team delivers, to set guardrails, clarify objectives and ambitions, and sprinkle in a healthy dose of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing. But none of these require issuing directives or acts of directing.
The risk of being overly directive is that it can quickly become overly controlling – and this stifling environment is exactly what makes designers cringe.
Strong creative agency cultures give everyone the safe space and time to contribute their ideas. Not just the big initial brand concept, but also the countless smaller ideas: how to make a design work better, how to give it a fresh twist, that intriguing font choice, that clever play on words, that perfect image selection—all those details that give a piece of work substance, depth, and a general wow factor.
The real role of the creative director (if we must use that term) is to influence – influence a culture of openness, collaboration, and trust; influence a way of working that fosters passionate, respectful debate, encourages bravery and risk-taking, and inspires everyone to support the best ideas.
When teams unite around the best ideas – regardless of who originated them – everyone can contribute to refining and improving the concept. This collective effort allows everyone to take ownership of building the idea.
Great creative solutions may begin with a singular spark of an idea, but it takes countless iterations and mini experiments to elevate creative work from good to great, and from great to iconic.
This is the kind of environment I want for my team, and the trust I freely give them. I’m not focused on whose idea it is or who contributed what. I aim to cultivate a culture where everyone is engaged, invested, and committed to delivering exceptional work – work that addresses the client’s challenges, resonates with the brand’s audience, and stands out from competitors in the category.
As a creative director, my role is to influence the team and shape this kind of culture. My advice to aspiring creative directors, don’t. Be a creative influencer.
Hopefully by the time you read this, my LinkedIn will be updated. Best I talk to my managing director (or should that be influence director) about this first.
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@@me. yeah nah, this piece says absolutely nothing new about the role. As CD I was canvassing the whole agency for ideas twenty years ago, and found an account service individual who was consistently good and able to contribute. And – shock horror – there were CDs who were doing this before me.
For the most part though, best remember everyone wants to be a creative and only few can actually be.
methinks a stupid title is a stupid title.
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oh dear, me thinks you miss the point entirely.
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Me thinks you don’t get the point of the article
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The task of ‘influenc(ing) a culture of openness, collaboration, and trust’ falls to the whole leadership of the agency; it is not the exclusive purview of the creative director.
The creative director’s main task is this. At some point a decision must be made as to what work is going to be presented to client. In any decent creative agency, that is the role of the creative director. They filter the inputs from the creative department (primarily), as well as from elsewhere if they so desire, and then determine what that work should be. While everyone may play a part, someone has to make a decision.
If you find the title limiting, you have the choice of ‘chief creative officer’, ‘head non-tinker’ or take your pick – in this age of socks and slides, anything goes.
So call yourself what you want, but your remit remains the same as it has been since the DDB days – overseeing (and directing where necessary) the flow of creative inputs so that they align with the brief and the client’s wishes.
Personally, I’d avoid the title ‘creative influencer’ because it makes the key creative role of an agency sound like someone spruiking weight loss programs and crypto opportunities to their acolytes online.
Or let me put it another way, does anyone in their right mind think ‘managing influencer’ an appropriate title for the chief suit?
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Thanks for the article. Marcel. One of my all time favourite pieces of work came from my workflow manager’s great observation. It was a gem.
You mention ‘uniting behind the best idea’. At your agency, who decides what is the best idea? Do you ultimately make the call or do you trust consensus?
I’m interested to know thank you.
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