Creative Director, Concept

About CNC Agency

CNC Agency, previously known as Coffee 'n Clothes, is an experiential marketing agency rooted in culture and built around human connection. The team creates experiences, stories, and products that audiences genuinely care about while helping brands expand. Their approach combines strategy, creativity, production, and cultural insight to turn ideas into memorable real-world experiences.

The agency believes that brands perform better when they are designed for people rather than algorithms.

Role Overview

CNC Agency is looking for a Creative Director, Concept to partner on one of its largest accounts alongside an established Creative Director with a strong design and execution background. The role focuses on shaping culturally relevant, strategically grounded experiential ideas that connect brand goals, audience behavior, and physical experiences.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong perspective on culture, consumer behavior, storytelling, and emerging trends, and will translate those insights into concepts, narratives, and scalable experience frameworks. Strong taste and creative judgment are essential.

Working in tandem with a partner Creative Director, this person will help define the core idea and rationale behind the work while collaborating to ensure those ideas are executed at a high level.

This position sits at the overlap of strategy and creativity, but it is not a traditional brand strategy or account planning position. The focus is on generating ideas, concepts, narratives, and experiences rather than only delivering research or recommendations.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a Creative Director counterpart to guide a shared team across several simultaneous programs, maintaining creative consistency, strategic fit, and operational alignment for a large account.
• Develop experiential concepts, creative territories, strategic narratives, and experience frameworks across multiple brand programs.
• Turn business goals, audience insight, cultural change, and new behaviors into strong creative opportunities.
• Create experience platforms that connect brand purpose, consumer behavior, and live activations.
• Convert briefs, workshop outcomes, and early ideation into clear, actionable concepts and programs.
• Prepare persuasive presentations and creative narratives for both clients and internal teams.
• Lead ideation sessions, creative workshops, and collaborative working meetings.
• Keep concepts strategically grounded while continuing to raise creative ambition.
• Maintain a current understanding of culture, consumer shifts, emerging communities, and evolving brand engagement.
• Turn cultural insight into meaningful experiences rather than short-lived trend responses.
• Work with Strategy, Account, and Creative teams to uncover opportunities that improve brand relevance and differentiation.
• Assess work through both strategic and creative perspectives to ensure it is original, relevant, and feasible.
• Promote audience-first thinking throughout the creative process.
• Act as a senior creative presence in client meetings, workshops, and presentations.
• Present concepts, narratives, and creative rationale clearly and confidently.
• Build strong client relationships through thoughtful creative partnership.
• Guide conversations that move clients from uncertainty to agreement and action.
• Defend creative ideas while staying collaborative and focused on solutions.
• Work closely with the partner Creative Director so that conceptual thinking carries through into excellent execution.
• Partner with designers, art directors, strategists, producers, writers, fabricators, and outside collaborators during the creative process.
• Offer feedback that strengthens both the idea and the final execution.
• Stay involved through development and production to protect the original creative intent.
• Identify creative risks, gaps, and opportunities across project stages.
• Support activations, installations, and launches when needed to help deliver the experience as planned.

Requirements

• 8 or more years of experience in experiential marketing, brand experience, creative strategy, integrated creative, innovation, or a related field.
• At least 3 years in a Creative Director role or a similar leadership position.
• Proven work developing experiential concepts, creative platforms, and brand narratives for major consumer brands.
• Strong ability to turn strategy, insights, and cultural understanding into original creative ideas.
• Experience leading client-facing creative conversations, workshops, and presentations.
• Comfort working across design, strategy, production, and account functions.
• Excellent storytelling, communication, and presentation abilities.
• Experience supporting global consumer, technology, mobility, entertainment, lifestyle, or hospitality brands.
• Background across several disciplines such as experiential marketing, creative strategy, innovation, integrated creative, design, or brand consulting.
• Experience running workshops, vision sessions, and collaborative ideation exercises.
• Knowledge of spatial storytelling, environmental design, live experiences, and experiential production.

Compensation

The annual salary for this position is between $165,000 and $215,000. Placement within that range will depend on relevant experience, performance, specific skills, location, and internal equity.

The company regularly compares compensation against market data to keep pay aligned with the scope and impact of the role.

Equal Opportunity

CNC Agency is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. The company is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.

All qualified candidates will be reviewed without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other protected characteristic.