Executive Creative Director - Brand
Dear Cleo Hiring Team,
Thanks for stopping by.
I see on LinkedIn that over 100 people have already applied for this position.
I better make this good.
I’ve pulled together a bespoke portfolio for you. It’s built out against the key criteria outlined in the job description.
I think it makes a strong case for me as a candidate for this position. I do hope that you agree.
Thanks.
What you’re looking for:
You are a visionary creative leader with the experience, credibility, and confidence to set a bold brand direction, define our creative strategy, and drive high-impact storytelling at scale.
I like to think I’m a visionary creative leader.
Over the 20+ years of my career I’ve sold a lot of big ideas to some very demanding brands.
20+ years in any business will give you confidence. I think for a while back there I was even a little arrogant. When you move up the ranks rapidly, that can be an unfortunate side effect.
I’ve fully grown into Creative leadership now, and I navigate on the right side of the confidence / arrogance parallel with ease.
I’ve had the privilege of being able to create high-impact campaigns, as well as some bold new directions, for brands like Target, AT&T, Lego, Taylor Swift, Bacardi, Polar, Sony, Ford, and Sonic (amongst many others).
I love the buzz that comes when a big idea is cracked and you can’t wait to share it. I love witnessing today’s intern blossom into tomorrow’s director and watching them own a room for the first time. I love experiencing the thrill of a big idea finally being executed, and being thankful for maintaining the team’s momentum through all the tinkering and revisions that it needed.
What you’re looking for:
You thrive at the intersection of big ideas, impeccable craft, and strategic vision, and you have a track record of leading teams to deliver exceptional creative work that resonates across channels.
In my experience big ideas, impeccable craft, and strategic vision don’t intersect until you’re looking at the campaign retrospectively.
In practice, it’s a journey that starts with a strategic vision, is then followed by a big idea, and as I tell all my teams constantly; once you have the idea, then the real work begins. The impeccable craft that ensures the idea is being articulated in the best possible way.
The campaigns below are case studies of strategic vision becoming a big idea that is then immpeccably executed.
Pose with the Pros
Strategic vision:
The vision started as a challenge. How do we get Cowboys’ fans on Game Day to give AT&T any attention? The answer was by giving them something of value in exchange.
The big idea:
What if AT&T could give every Cowboys’ fan their own personal selfie with their favorite players?
The impeccable execution:
Pose with the Pros. A first-of-its-kind AR concept that allowed fans to get a personal selfie with their favorite players, and a cultural phenomenon in the process. See the case study video opposite for the full experience.
RESULTS
33K+ Fan Interactions on opening day | 120k Million Media Hits | 500M+ Social Media Impressions
Helping Ford to drive their brand differently
Strategic vision:
The “Ford By Design” campaign was a brand refresh for the Ford Motor Company, and with it, a refresh on how they approached their advertising. Setting the Ford script free from the Oval was a great visual device for communicating brand evolution in a nanosecond.
The big idea:
The “Ford By Design” campaign was a brand refresh for the Ford Motor Company, and with it, a refresh on how they approached their advertising. Setting the Ford script free from the Oval was a great visual device for communicating brand evolution in a nanosecond.
The impeccable execution:
it came to a TV ad, our idea was less about car features and more about how a car can make you feel. We all instinctively know when we love something, when the design or the aesthetic speaks to us instantly. The reaction might be goosebumps, a warm feeling of butterflies in your stomach, a sharp inhalation of air. We wanted to convey these ‘instincts’ in a visually stunning way with the car no less the hero of every piece of communications.
Helping Ford to drive their brand differently (cont)
We continued the “Ford By Design” campaign locally in Miami by collaborating with the Huichol tribe of Mexico. Famous for their intricate bead work, their approach to design is unbelievable. They don’t sketch anything out, or plan their compositions, they just begin applying beads and the final results are astounding.
Their work was a perfect metaphor for the ‘By Design’ campaign; a work of art where every single detail of it is by design. We commissioned two billboards in time for Miami Art Basel. Ocean Drive, Aventura and Design District were just some of the locations where these billboards ran in Miami before being auctioned off, and all proceeds went back to the Huichol tribe.
Bringing a product to life for Adidas Boost
Now and again, a product comes along that really does deliver. That was the case with Adidas Boost. A revolutionary sole for their line of running shoes that absorbs and returns energy more effectively than EVA, which at the time was what 95% of running shoes were using.
Energy return is not a particularly interesting pre-dinner conversation. We had to get to an idea that would let runners experience Boost instead of just hearing about it from a sales rep. So we partnered with a company called Pavegen and built an energy harvesting walkway at the entrance to the Marathon expos. These walkways would harvest and store the energy from all 25k + runners arriving to pick up their bib numbers.
We then gave that energy back when runners would need it most: in the last mile of the race. The energy was used to power a digital billboard with personalized messages linked to each runner’s unique bib number.
What you’re looking for:
Demonstrated experience leading large, integrated creative campaigns with a strong understanding of how strategic communications, digital, strategy and content work intersect with creative.
Re-launching Stillhouse for Summer 2022
Stillhouse was acquired by Bacardi, and in 2022, the brand decided to re-invest in itself. It needed a target, strategy, positioning and then a campaign.
This is my idea of a dream brief. With its metal oil can packaging, Stillhouse is an icon in the making, and there’s substance to the brand also. Most spirits are sold in glass bottles, which makes them incompatible with a lot of activities. Whereas Stillhouse was ideal for that outdoor lifestyle. A perfect spirit for helping people to break out of the confines of modern life and get out and about. Strategically this made total sense also as outdoor activities were on the rise with 8.1 million more Americans hiking and 7.9 million more camping in 2020 compared with 2019.
We created The Unbreakable Nation, and brought it to life under the calling of ‘Good Times Go Where Glass Can’t Follow’. Boom! We had the essence of a brand, and now we just needed to bring it to life photographically, graphically and tonally. You can see that work in the gallery below.
With the brand figured out, we were then tasked with creating a summer launch campaign, And you can read about that in the module below.
The Stillhouse Unbreakable Summer
To bring The Unbreakable Nation into a participative campaign, we created The Unbreakable Summer. An ultimate weekend in the backcountry, featuring rugged adventure ― including ATV riding, zip lining, axe throwing, fly fishing, horseback riding and white-water rafting.
To enter, people just had to upload photos and post using the hashtag #UnbreakableChallenge. They could also improve their chances of winning by participating in a series of Summer Challenges:
Trailblazers Wanted: Show how you road trip with STILLHOUSE.
Made of Metal?: Show how your can goes the distance.
Get Your Can Out There: Take good times where glass can't follow. Find the highest peak in your hometown and snap a photo of your can (and the view).
We supported Unbreakable Summer with our own branded camper van. It travelled to six locations across the country, sampling product and introducing our target to Stillhouse and The Unbreakable Nation.
What you need from me:
Proven experience leading new business pitches, from developing big ideas to presenting to prospective clients.
My last Creative role was at Wasserman.
I was hired to build out their Creative Department from scratch. If you want to build a creative department, you start by winning some pitches.
By collaborating closely with new business, strategy, consulting and production, I played a primary role in converting over 30+ new business opportunities in my first two years.
I was in the room, leading the Creative portion of the presentation for every single one of these opportunities.
This relentless new business parade led to us locking down retainers with AT&T, Wells Fargo, Progressive, Molson Coors, as well as working continuously with numerous project based clients like Target, Lego and Ferrari.
By 2023, the Creative Department was 50+ CDs, ACDs, art directors, copywriters, and environmental designers with annual revenues in excess of $17m.
New business is primarily what I’ve been doing as a freelancer this last year, helping to convert client’s such as Moody’s, Pfizer, McDonald’s, Hasbro and Gilead.
Most of this work is under NDA, but I have some examples that I would be happy to walk you through.
Thank you!
I appreciate you reading this far. I have also submitted a resumé that talks to my other qualifications that would suit this role.
Like matching any candidate with any open position, I won’t have answered all your questions with the above. I would welcome the opportunity to answer any I’ve missed if, after reading this, you feel I would be a strong candidate for this position or others within Highwire.
Yours,
Marcos