What does a marketing and creative director do?
A marketing and creative director is in charge of planning, designing and marketing campaigns for clients. They also interpret marketing plans and guide their creative development across different projects. In this position, their duties include working with the creative team to plan and deliver strategic visions to clients, identifying potential customers, tracking the campaign to find out if it was successful, directing the team that prepares campaign products, coming up with original marketing concepts, and dealing with the budget requirements for the marketing and advertising plans.
Marketing and creative director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real marketing and creative director resumes:
- Manage SEO and PPC campaigns.
- Manage multiple PPC and retargeting campaigns to increase awareness and sales.
- Focuse on social media ad buys through Facebook & LinkedIn to capture leads.
- Manage schedules, lists and planning, including in-house files, testing, forecasting, response analysis and print production.
- Lead comprehensive rebranding initiative to build brand equity.
- Develop and manage strategic B2C and B2B integrate marketing plans leveraging digital and traditional marketing efforts.
- Hire to bring all creative marketing activities in-house.
- Create advertisements, brochures, tournament logos, fliers, social media promotions, and banners.
- Develop new home site marketing materials including: logos, brochures, floor plans, interior and exterior signage.
- Improve processes and offerings such as creating a CRM database and integrating economical, environmentally friendly materials into product mix.
- Prepare files for HTML development.
- Maintain and operate direct to consumer web site personally, including new product development releases, and basic html programming needs.
- Develop sales and marketing strategy align with corporate revenue objectives for B2B/B2C product marketing and communications strategies for acquisition and retention.
Marketing and creative director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 7% of Marketing And Creative Directors are proficient in Graphic Design, Creative Direction, and Video Production. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Interpersonal skills, and Organizational skills.
We break down the percentage of Marketing And Creative Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Graphic Design, 7%
Initiated graphic design and marketing internship program with a local university.
- Creative Direction, 6%
Develop and direct the marketing effort and creative direction for a nationally franchised babysitting referral company.
- Video Production, 5%
Created Video Production Department to produce television commercials, marketing, motivational and training videos.
- Creative Strategy, 5%
Work included creative strategy, concept, design and comprehensive branding for a wide variety of clients.
- Marketing Campaigns, 5%
Led new product development strategy for puzzle which included proposition development, cause- marketing campaigns and consumer targeting.
- Digital Marketing, 5%
Developed extensive distribution and digital marketing plan.
Common skills that a marketing and creative director uses to do their job include "graphic design," "creative direction," and "video production." You can find details on the most important marketing and creative director responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a marketing and creative director to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization." Marketing and creative directors often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "manage all outside marketing initiatives including industry and trade magazines, thomasnet search engine, yellow pages and industrial online databases. "
Interpersonal skills. Another essential skill to perform marketing and creative director duties is interpersonal skills. Marketing and creative directors responsibilities require that "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." Marketing and creative directors also use interpersonal skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "mastered project management, team building, negotiating, needs analysis and interpersonal communication skills. "
Organizational skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of marketing and creative directors is organizational skills. This skill is critical to many everyday marketing and creative director duties, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "write media and organizational communications such as press releases, mailings, emails and grants. "
Communication skills. marketing and creative director responsibilities often require "communication skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "managers must be able to communicate effectively with a broad-based team made up of other managers or staff members during the advertising, promotions, and marketing process." This resume example shows what marketing and creative directors do with communication skills on a typical day: "brand marketing strategy, product design and communications director, created marketing dept. "
Creativity. Another common skill required for marketing and creative director responsibilities is "creativity." This skill comes up in the duties of marketing and creative directors all the time, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas." An excerpt from a real marketing and creative director resume shows how this skill is central to what a marketing and creative director does: "led small creative teams through concept, design, and copywriting. "
The three companies that hire the most marketing and creative directors are:
- Tonal Systems9 marketing and creative directors jobs
- Alston & Bird
4 marketing and creative directors jobs
- Apple3 marketing and creative directors jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable marketing and creative director resume templates
Build a professional marketing and creative director resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your marketing and creative director resume.
Compare different marketing and creative directors
Marketing and creative director vs. Director of communications and marketing
A director of communications and marketing spearheads a company's marketing and communication projects in adherence with the company's vision and mission. Being the director, they have the authority to make decisions, delegate responsibilities among managers and teams, and direct the project and program cycle from planning to execution, solving issues and concerns if any would arise. They also set goals and budgets, establish timelines and requirements, and conduct regular assessments. Additionally, as a director, they must lead and empower employees in a joint effort to reach goals and industry standards.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, marketing and creative director responsibilities require skills like "creative strategy," "creative concepts," "creative solutions," and "sketch." Meanwhile a typical director of communications and marketing has skills in areas such as "strategic communications," "external communications," "project management," and "social media marketing." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Directors of communications and marketing tend to make the most money working in the professional industry, where they earn an average salary of $78,844. In contrast, marketing and creative directors make the biggest average salary, $128,179, in the real estate industry.The education levels that directors of communications and marketing earn slightly differ from marketing and creative directors. In particular, directors of communications and marketing are 6.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a marketing and creative director. Additionally, they're 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Marketing and creative director vs. Senior director of marketing
A Senior Director of Marketing supervises all marketing operations of the company. They are also responsible for developing objectives and policies for the sales and marketing departments.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, marketing and creative director responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "graphic design," "video production," "creative strategy," and "creative concepts." Meanwhile, a senior director of marketing has duties that require skills in areas such as "email marketing," "sr," "saas," and "crm." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Senior directors of marketing earn a higher average salary than marketing and creative directors. But senior directors of marketing earn the highest pay in the media industry, with an average salary of $170,669. Additionally, marketing and creative directors earn the highest salaries in the real estate with average pay of $128,179 annually.senior directors of marketing earn higher levels of education than marketing and creative directors in general. They're 11.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for marketing and creative directors in the next 3-5 years?
Mark Charney Ph.D.
Director, Texas Tech University
Marketing and creative director vs. Head of marketing
The head of marketing primarily oversees all marketing departments and operations, ensuring to convey the message of the brand. Their responsibilities revolve around devising strategies and business plans, preparing and allocating the budget for all departments, identifying new opportunities and assets, and analyzing consumers' needs. There are also instances when the head of marketing has to produce progress reports and presentations, monitor the competition, spearhead the hiring activities, and manage schedules. Furthermore, one must lead and encourage staff to meet all goals and deadlines in the joint effort to improve brand awareness and strengthen the client base.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, marketing and creative directors are more likely to have skills like "graphic design," "creative direction," "video production," and "creative strategy." But a head of marketing is more likely to have skills like "kpis," "google analytics," "content strategy," and "brand management."
Heads of marketing make a very good living in the media industry with an average annual salary of $134,857. On the other hand, marketing and creative directors are paid the highest salary in the real estate industry, with average annual pay of $128,179.When it comes to education, heads of marketing tend to earn higher degree levels compared to marketing and creative directors. In fact, they're 12.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Marketing and creative director vs. Chief marketing officer
A Chief Marketing Officer defines marketing strategies and oversees all marketing operations of a company. They are responsible for building a highly efficient team of marketing professionals.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between marketing and creative directors and chief marketing officers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a marketing and creative director might have more use for skills like "creative direction," "video production," "creative strategy," and "creative concepts." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of chief marketing officers require skills like "cmo," "patients," "sales strategy," and "project management. "
In general, chief marketing officers earn the most working in the media industry, with an average salary of $125,889. The highest-paying industry for a marketing and creative director is the real estate industry.In general, chief marketing officers hold higher degree levels compared to marketing and creative directors. Chief marketing officers are 10.7% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 1.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of marketing and creative director
Updated January 8, 2025
