XDs not CDs. Moving from creative directors to experience directors.
The ad industry shift
Modern marketing achieves branding though channel agnostic customer experiences. Branding should no longer be laid out in a brief for a ‘branding campaign’.
From digital platforms, call centers, social content, product innovations and big budget campaigns - everything is a creative opportunity and everything should be considered together as the sum of a brand.
Creative directors need to assess ‘the work’ considering all possible consumer touch points. This means a greater understanding, collaboration and influence across departments is needed in all creative director roles.
The Marketing context
CMO’s (Chief Marketing Officers) are merging or partnering with CTO’s (Chief Technology Officers) and CXO’s (Chief Experience Officers) have now clearly taken a seat at the decision making table with the rise and importance of digital customer experience.
All this has blurred the lines of what ‘marketing’ is and many thought leaders predict that CXO’s will soon replace the traditional CMO and CTO roles. The fact is consumer experiences of a brand are the key to building powerful modern brands.
The creative agency context
Creative directors that have the personal ability to collaborate and influence all departments of today’s multidimensional workplace ultimately shape more interesting and integrated work.
However, this is not the result of formal systems, more in spite of it.
This personal influence is often limited with formal titles still tying that person specifically to one department - in the eyes of the client and often between departments. They are the “creative person”.
So, should creative direction evolve to brand experience direction? Can the role of an XD be the formalization of this? And, should agency titles and structures change to meet the changing experience roles seen in marketing?
2 aims of an XD role
> Greater work that considers all touch points of consumer experience.
< Less internal walls through the formalization of 360 degree creative direction.
< Less internal walls through the formalization of 360 degree creative direction.
What are the needed capabilities of an X-role?
1/ Understand client needs and collaborate with account service to find the best process that works for the client and the work.
2/ Influence and understand strategic methodology.
3/ Asses and direct creative thinking in the context of the brands business problem.
4/ Lead and craft production including design craft, film craft, photography craft, copy craft, and digital platforms)
X-roles are the evolution of creative direction roles with a more formal 360 degree role in the business of creativity.
What are the potential issues?
A. Internal understanding. Namely that creative direction should formally happen across all stages of the work and that in-turn creative directors need additional training (compared to industry standards) to be successful at this.
B. Since the term ‘UX’ was born out of the rise of digital experiences the challenge is that the term still has strong association to ONLY being digital. However, as digital becomes more ubiquitous it’s a fair bet to say that this pigeon hole will blur? After all why is a customers experience on a digital platform any more or less important than any experience a customer has with a brand, be it a subscription, an ad or an event.
A long term goal might be to formally transition all creative director roles into x-roles but that would require positive feedback with one or two roles to start. It is not a matter of just changing a title, it's a matter of education - for the role and how your agency and clients interact with this role.
The industry is changing and looking for new ways of working, some agency’s will lead, others will follow and some will argue that they are perfect until their end.
