Group Head of Creative Operations

Who we are

We are a leading partner for luxury across the Middle East. With more than 600 stores, 300 brands and over 65 years of experience in the region, we have become a major player in the beauty, fashion and gift sectors, by offering service excellence to our partners and delighting all our customers. We are moving fast from a traditional distributor and retailer for luxury in the Middle East, to a hybrid retailer bringing luxury experiences to the fingertips of customers everywhere.

To fuel the next stage of our growth we are looking to build a world class team. From physical retail through to supply chain and customer loyalty, we aim to use technology and data to continuously improve every aspect of our operations. We are looking for top talent to join us on this journey of exploring new horizons together.

What you will be doing

The role of Group Head of Creative Operations is to build, define, develop and execute the group’s content and creative factory while measuring the performance of the content and campaigns creation processes, and optimising these.

This role will be responsible for ensuring our brands have the right creative and content foundations and people to grow in the global retail scene ensuring brand excellence and stellar e-commerce, brand and campaign performances.

We require an exceptional leader who is passionate about content, photography, and advertising to support our mission of becoming the authority in luxury, beauty and fashion retail regionally.

Key responsibilities and Accountabilities

Strategy & Leadership:

• Responsible for creating the content factory’s operating model, governance model, SLAs, process flows, KPIs and measures of success
• Partners with the People teams to recruit best in class global creative, technical, operational and content champions
• Responsible for the P&L and management of the content factory budget
• Responsible for all technical operations of the content factory (engineers, lighting, supply chain, logistics, operations, service design, innovation, talent booking, planning, demand management, quality control, technical tools and software, output, people management…)
• Defines, designs and develops a fit-for future content and creative factory to service the entire organization and fulfil all creative and content needs
• Responsible for creating the vision and driving the transformation of how we revolutionize the inspiration stage, content, E-commerce, VM and social media content
• Responsible for defining and delivering the content and creative strategy, guidelines and principles
• Ability to design the strategy to fit specific channels from e-commerce, to social media, ATL, BTL, brand equity campaigns etc.
• Supports the brands’ and business expansion efficiently through the highest standards of stakeholder management and cost-effective management of resources, maximizing value, equity, profitability, and growth of the brands
• Directs the development and oversees the implementation of policies, guidelines and standards so that all requirements are fulfilled while delivering quality and cost-effective experiences to our customers
• Partners with stakeholders to help translate their challenges to opportunities and advise on way forward providing a structured plan with key KPIs
• Ensures insights inform all creative planning and therefore drive performance metrics ensuring health, growth & profitability
• Delivers high quality campaign results and insights to key business partners / stakeholders; marketing, brand, marketing, commercial and shopper teams
• Drives organisational content creation and creative capabilities through training and development to upskill the whole marketing organisation
• Promotes a culture of creativity and innovation that values learning and a commitment to quality, ensuring the vision and strategic roadmap are on track
• Collaborates with the Heads of Marketing to design all brand and tactical campaigns
• Advises and support the Heads of Marketing on any brand and marketing related activities
• Improves and optimizes the brand’s performance ensuring Heads of marketing budgets are adequately spent on key
• Work closely with the Vice Presidents, General Managers and Heads of Marketing in the brands to drive strong content and creative strategies
• Partner with the ecommerce leadership to execute content strategies and oversee the creation of any assets required
• Develop effective and positive working relationships across the organization as well as externally
• Participate in the design of all new projects and campaigns providing a distinct point of difference and an attractive yield
• Work closely with the Brand Strategy team to ensure consistency and innovation
• Present creative in various settings, partnering with key senior leaders to garner feedback, create alignment and attain resources
• Researches and analyses industry, market, and competitors to make informed strategic decisions

Creative development:

• Maps out a content and creative strategy that supports and extends marketing initiatives, both short- and long-term, determining which methods work for the brand and why. Continuous evolvement of strategy is a must
• Works closely with the GMs and retail directors and deliver all online and offline Visual Merchandising and trade marketing activities (Shop fronts, mall podiums, carts, promotional material, seasonal pop ups…)
• Ensures all content is on-brand, consistent in terms of style, quality and tone of voice, and optimized for search and user experience for all channels of content including online, social media, email, point of purchase, mobile, video, print and in-person. This is to be done for each buyer persona within the enterprise.
• Develop and approve functional content calendars throughout verticals and work closely with each of the verticals to support their content and marketing ambition
• Supervises copy writers, quality checkers, editors, content strategists; be an arbiter of best practices in messaging, writing, creative and style.
• Integration of content activities within traditional marketing campaigns
• Conducting ongoing usability tests to gauge content effectiveness. Gathering data and handle analytics (or supervise those who do) and make recommendations based on those results.
• Develops standards, systems and best practices (both human and technological) for content creation, distribution, maintenance, content retrieval and content repurposing, including the real- time implementation of content strategies.
• Leverages market data to develop content themes/topics and executes a plan to develop the assets that support a point of view and educate customers that leads to critical behavioral metrics.
• Establishes work flow for requesting, creating, editing, publishing, and retiring photos, videos and content. Work with technical team to implement appropriate CMS.
• Lead multiple projects simultaneously across all vehicles (digital, retail, omnichannel, print)
• Deliver all product and e-commerce SKU photography, videography, product reviews, etc… and create assets that are fit for multiple channels to visualize and execute creative concept
• Oversee all production of campaigns, photo shoots, video shoots, animations, and creative and art direction
• Lead on digital asset management initiatives, and ensure that best practices are embedded across the group

Brand Communication and campaign:

• Collaborates with the Heads of Marketing to design all brand and tactical campaigns
• Advises and support the Heads of Marketing on any brand and marketing related activities
• Improves and optimizes the brand’s performance ensuring Heads of marketing budgets are adequately spent on key

Collaboration:

• Work closely with the Vice Presidents, General Managers and Heads of Marketing in the brands to drive strong content and creative strategies
• Partner with the ecommerce leadership to execute content strategies and oversee the creation of any assets required
• Develop effective and positive working relationships across the organization as well as externally
• Participate in the design of all new projects and campaigns providing a distinct point of difference and an attractive yield
• Work closely with the Brand Strategy team to ensure consistency and innovation
• Present creative in various settings, partnering with key senior leaders to garner feedback, create alignment and attain resources

Success Criteria

The Group Head of Creative Operations is measured on:

• The output of content coming out of the factory (volumes/quantity, quality, usability)
• Speed, efficiency, and effectiveness
• SLAs and go to market of products
• Content performance on the website (Sales, CTR, average time spent on the product page, views…)
• Campaign performance
• Quality of stakeholder relationships and eNPS

Other KPIs will include:

• Positive brand health metrics, recognition and consistency across chosen published channels
• An increase in defined customer engagement metrics (measured by users taking the desired, conversions, acquisition, sign ups, purchase, etc.).
• Website and social media traffic growth
• Social media positive sentiment metrics
• CSAT, NPS and other CX metrics
• An increase in frequency and decrease in inter purchase interval
• Clearly defining content distribution during particular stages of the buying cycle (lead nurturing)
• Identifying up-sell and cross-sell opportunities through content analysis, and deploying content
• Increase customer lifetime customer value, customer satisfaction, and employee advocacy.

Capabilities:

• Content planning, creation, development and deployment
• Factory/facility operations (technical, engineering, photography, inventory management, supply chain, process management, logistics, time management, traffic management, quality control)
• Talent booking (models, stylists, Art Directors)
• Technical booking (photographers, videographers, editors, engineers)
• Campaign planning, insights and analytics
• Facility management
• Facility operations
• Quality control
• Innovation
• Social media and content strategy
• Product and fashion photography, videography and production
• Storytelling
• Content creation
• Project management
• Ability to lead and inspire large teams of creative, operational and technical personnel to achieve business goals
• Good understanding of project technical tools (software, Expert in creating content for social media channels like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, YouTube

What you'll need to succeed

• University degree in marketing, brand, design, visual communication or business graduate from a recognised business school or university
• Ideally holding an masters degree or MBA in a related subject
• 15-20 years of relevant experience working for a global agency or in a similar role
• Proven track record in brand building, campaign creation, storytelling, and creative transformation
• Must have experience in creative and content in retail, luxury, fashion, beauty and lifestyle

• Someone who keeps ahead of the curve, has a strong understanding of content, creative and advertising
• Someone who has grown brands from the ground up and grown them to become global brands with high brand equity
• Insight driven and analytical
• Equally creative and strategic and knows how to marry the Art and Science
• Innovative and thinks out of the box
• Understands working cross functionally
• Excellent communication to bring the ecosystem together
• People influencer and servant leader
• Ability to work in a complex environment with both line and matrix management

What we can offer you

With us, you will turn your aspirations into reality. We will help shape your journey through enriching experiences, learning and development opportunities and exposure to different assignments within your role or through internal mobility. Our Group offers diverse career paths for those who are extraordinary, every day.

We recognise the value that you bring, and we strive to provide a competitive benefits package which includes health care, child education contribution, remote and flexible working policies as well as exclusive employee discounts. To view all our perks and benefits, click here.