In-House Essays: Creative C-Suite

I think it's useful to understand what a Chief Creative Officer does before I explain how I got the title.

There's the day-to-day operations of the studio and marketing team, which involves the amount of work we make, the quality of the work, staying on budget, people management, etc.

Another aspect is managing the brand experience of the company; how we’re perceived in all the touchpoints we have with users, customers, and internal stakeholders.

There is the strategy aspect; what are we aiming for, what is the vision, and how do we translate the company's ambitions into day-to-day actions that help us achieve our goals.

Then there's the cross-team aspect of the role; educating the business about brand experience, and giving everyone the tools and help to achieve their goals with copy, design, marketing, etc.

And the final one is being a supportive and trusted member of the leadership team with the company’s best interests at heart.

When I took on the role of creative director at what3words this wasn’t my official job description, but I did think the role should exist.

I felt it was important that a company, or any organisation, should have a Chief Creative Officer who sits next to the Chief Marketing Officer, the Chief Product Officer, or the Chief Technology Officer.

If brand experience is valuable to the company, it only makes sense.

Any business that competes on customer experience should treat the Create function equally to Finance or Tech.

But of course, I’m biased.

During my career in advertising, I became interested in how organisations work. I was ambitious to lead and read a lot of business, leadership and management books, and did as much training as I could get access to. I understood that to make bigger, more impactful creative work, I needed to understand the business. I educated myself about things that people in creative studios generally avoid, aren’t included in, or feel intimidated by.

When I joined what3words I had the space to try a new approach with the marketing leadership team. We learned how to translate the codes of brand experience and marketing into a what3words language that makes sense to all the departments, whatever their discipline.

I’ve always understood my role as helping everyone in the company create the brand because that builds value. It's also much more efficient and satisfying to create a brand story as a team.

A Chief Creative Officer helps to lead an organisation, not just their department.

In short, how do I get this title?

In my case it took a plan, five years of work, belief that this role should exist, and trust from the leadership team.