Creative Strategy Director Job Description 

Role: Creative Strategy Director 

Department: Strategy & Creative 

Location: London / Hybrid (Monday & Wednesday fixed +1 floating weekday in office). International travel required. 

Reports into: Managing Director 

Works closely with: Founder & CEO / Managing Director / Client Services Director / Account Directors / Production Team / Marketing Manager (when hired) 

Salary: £65,000 – £80,000 plus benefits 

Contract: Permanent, full-time 

Start: April/May 2026 

Why we’re here 

Experience12 is a specialist pop culture experiential and events agency based in London, working globally. We work with entertainment, video game and non-endemic brands to produce marketing campaigns that deliver on creative, execution and client KPIs. We also operate Popcultr, our industry media and community platform, including the Popcultr Marketing Summit at MCM Comic Con London. 

Why you’re here 

As Creative Strategy Director, you will turn deep audience understanding into creative strategies and activation concepts that win pitches, command premium pricing, and deepen client relationships. You will work directly with leadership, client services, and production to ensure every deliverable is grounded in genuine audience insight. 

Ex12 has spent over a decade building deep knowledge of fan communities and the cultural mechanics that drive them. That knowledge currently lives in the heads of the team. This role makes it visible, structured, and commercial. You will lead the development of strategic frameworks, audience-led creative concepts, and the substance behind our pitches and client relationships. 

This is not a traditional agency Creative Strategy Director role. It is not about managing a design team or approving artwork. It is about being the bridge between what we know about audiences and what clients see in a pitch room. If you want to shape how a growing agency defines its creative and strategic identity, this is the job. This role suits someone heavily invested and passionate about pop culture fan culture and is part of the culture rather than an observer of it, you will be fan native: someone who understands fandom – it’s what we live for. 

What you’re here to do 

Strategic Research & Audience Insight 

  • Lead audience insight and cultural intelligence that informs creative strategy across all client work. 
  • Conduct audience and cultural research for prospective and existing clients, identifying opportunities competitors miss. 
  • Build strategic frameworks for pitches and proposals grounded in genuine audience understanding, giving clients evidence-based recommendations. 
  • Stay ahead of cultural trends across gaming, entertainment, anime, and pop culture to keep Ex12’s thinking current and actionable. 

Creative Direction & Concept Development 

  • Translate audience insight into creative concepts for pitches, including visual narratives, activation ideas, and experience design. 
  • Develop campaign concepts grounded in audience understanding that command premium pricing and reduce rounds of client revision. 
  • Set and maintain the creative standard across client deliverables, ensuring every concept connects back to a genuine audience truth. 
  • Collaborate with production and client services to ensure creative intent survives from pitch to delivery. 
  • Direct the visual and narrative quality of pitch decks, case studies, and client-facing materials. 
  • Drive creative ideation sessions, pitch processes and strategy development across the agency alongside the Client Services Director and Managing Director. 

Client Development 

  • Lead proactive insight presentations to existing clients, identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities. 
  • Support client services with strategic depth on key accounts, turning project relationships into retained partnerships. 
  • Act as a Independent lead in having strategic conversations with clients to bring in new and exciting briefs 
  • Evaluate campaign results and actively promote them to demonstrate commercial value to clients. 

Thought Leadership 

  • Produce insight-led content: presentations, written thought leadership, podcast contributions, and industry commentary. 
  • Provide a credible strategic voice beyond the Founder and MD, building Ex12’s reputation in audience-first experiential marketing. 
  • Contribute to industry speaking opportunities, panel discussions, and award submissions. 
  • Work with the Marketing Manager to ensure thought leadership content is packaged and distributed effectively. 

Tools and Technology 

Ex12 is a technology-forward agency. We actively adopt AI and emerging tools to work smarter, move faster, and deliver better insight to clients. Every team member is expected to embrace new technology and actively look for ways to improve how we work. 

  • Comfortable using AI tools as part of your daily workflow – for research, content drafting, data interpretation, and creative exploration. 
  • Curious, willing to experiment, and ready to adopt new tools quickly. You do not need to be a developer or data scientist. 
  • Actively educate and support the wider team in adopting AI tools and new ways of working that benefit their roles. 
  • If you wait to be trained on new tools rather than exploring them yourself, this is probably not the right environment. 

People/Culture 

  • Drive Experience12’s creative standards and best practice across all client-facing output. 
  • Act as mentor and coach to team members on strategic thinking, creative development, and client presentation. 
  • Educate the team on cultural trends, audience behaviour, and innovative campaigns to keep the agency ahead of competitors. 
  • Champion a positive team environment that facilitates mutual respect, collaboration, and quality. 
  • Proactively raise issues regarding agency process or approaches and collaborate with management to find solutions. 

Skills and Experience 

  • Demonstrated Experience n a strategy, creative strategy, or creative direction role within experiential, entertainment, gaming, or cultural marketing. 
  • Proven ability to turn audience insight into creative concepts that win pitches and command premium pricing. 
  • Experience across brand, entertainment, and games sectors. Deep knowledge of at least one; genuine curiosity about all three. 
  • Track record of delivering strategic recommendations to senior client stakeholders, not just producing creative work for internal review. 
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication. You will write strategic documents, pitch narratives, and thought leadership content. 
  • Comfortable interpreting research and data, and turning audience insight into something a client will pay for. 
  • Visual storytelling ability. An instinct for how ideas translate into physical and digital experiences. 
  • An understanding and passion for the entertainment, gaming, and pop culture sector. 
  • Strong understanding and experience of working in the experiential marketing and live events industry. 
  • Commercially minded. This role is measured on revenue impact, not creative awards. 
  • Experience developing and presenting pitches to clients. 
  • A portfolio or examples of creative work you have shaped or directed. Does not need to be design-led, but should show the journey from insight to tangible creative idea. 

Nice to Have – Creative Output 

  • Ability to produce scamps, sketches, or rough visual concepts to communicate ideas quickly during pitch development and ideation. 
  • Working knowledge of design software (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Canva, or similar) to produce or refine visual materials when needed. 
  • A strong sense of visual identity – how brands express themselves across physical and digital environments and how to maintain consistency across activations. 
  • Experience art directing freelance designers, illustrators, or production partners to bring concepts to life. 

Desirable 

  • Experience with international activation or campaign work. 
  • Understanding of the convention circuit (San Diego Comic-Con, Gamescom, NYCC, MCM London, PAX, and similar). 
  • Experience building or contributing to a thought leadership platform, podcast, or industry publication. 

How to Apply 

Send your CV and a short covering note telling us what you would do in the first 30 days at our agency to our HR Team at hello@experience12.com.

We also require that all candidates share a portfolio or examples of previous work which you are proud of. 

We do not require a degree for this role. We are interested in what you have done, what you can do, and how you think. 

Ex12 is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. If you require any adjustments to the application or interview process, please let us know. 

Agency Values 

Give Energy

  • Bring energy to meetings and the workplace
  • Start discussions from a place of positivity
  • Find moments to support each other in business and personally

Drive for Output

  • Strive for efficiency and prioritise time
  • Be proactive in seeking work
  • Offer solutions to other’s challenges

Take Responsibility

  • Take pride and ownership in work
  • Own mistakes and learn from them
  • Push yourself, don’t wait for others to push you

Be Challenged 

  • Take on new challenges to drive professional growth
  • Self-reflect on areas of improvement
  • Embrace and act on feedback

Communicate and Collaborate

  • Be open and accessible to teammates
  • Ask questions – the answer is in the room
  • Work together to a shared vision

Benefits  

  • Family Friendly – enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption, IVF and miscarriage policies 
  • Sickness Policy – enhanced sickness policy, critical illness cover, group life assurance  
  • Holiday – up to 24 days holiday including Christmas Closure, with additional holidays for every year worked  
  • Employee Bonus Scheme – annual bonus scheme subject to company targets, employee referral scheme and new business bonus  
  • Work from Home – hybrid policy with 3-days a week in office, along with £150 work from home allowance  
  • Training – Regular training courses for all staff along with additional £250 contribution to other training  
  • Company items – MacBook Air, iPhone (or contribution to personal phone use) and company expense card  
  • Private Medical Insurance after 2 years service