“That’s f*cking awesome!”

If that short sentence is the response you like to hear when people see your work, please read on – you may be the person we’re looking for. 

Hi. We are Gorilla, an award-winning creative digital agency with offices in Johannesburg and Durban. Our mission, in a nutshell, is to put work out into the world that makes our clients and their customers say “That’s f*cking Awesome!”

We’re looking for an experienced Creative Director to join our Jungle and lead our young, ambitious and all-round awesome team of creatives. Before we get into the type of person we’re looking for, it’s important you know a bit about us first. 

• We’re an independent Jungle which makes us agile, invested and passionate. We’re level 2 BBBEE and are fierce supporters of transformation in the industry. Growing and sustaining an awesome culture is one of our 6 core values. Having fun for no other reason than it’s fun is another. 
• We’re digital partners to all of our clients and integrated partners to a few of them. That suits us just fine because a social post has every right to be as awesome as a TV spot. 
• We are privileged to work with some of the most loved brands in South Africa with more than a few relationships close to a decade long. Loving the work we do and the teams we do it for is way more important to us than the size of the retainer. 
• The Relentless Pursuit of Awesome means that everyone in our Jungle is expected to say no to average, acknowledge good and then get cracking on making it awesome. 
• We’ve divided our agency into multi-disciplinary teams called Amazon, Borneo and Congo. The Creative Director will oversee the art directors, designers and writers in each of them and report directly to the CEO / Chief Creative Officer. 
• We’re called Gorilla because when we were founded 14 years ago our grand plan was to specialize in guerilla tactical marketing. Yes, our website needs to be refreshed with a new CI. WE KNOW! Maybe if we had a great creative director in place it wouldn’t be taking us so long. 

So, that’s us. 

Now onto you – this role is incredibly important to us so we’re going to throw the kitchen sink at finding the right person. If it’s you then the answer to the questions below will be a resounding “yes!” 

Are you a strategic thinker?

Effective-creative is important to us. We’re looking for someone with a more than solid understanding of brands and marketing, who can unlock insights and solve problems in an awesome and effective way. 

Are you an experienced, strong and kind leader?

The happiness and development of each of our Gorillas is vitally important to us. Our leaders are expected to invest themselves in building their teams and to take the lead in The Relentless Pursuit of Awesome. 

Can you manage a department?

Our creative director will work across several permanent multi-disciplinary teams and must have a strong handle on department budgets, team capacity and studio workload. If the situation demands it, our creative director will also be required to access and manage freelance resources to ensure that awesome work gets delivered on time and in full. 

Are you a strong communicator? 

We like to sell ideas in as few slides as possible. We like to present them in a way that leaves people no choice but to shout out “That’s awesome!” The person we’re looking for has a great way of weaving words and imagery together to tell a story. 

Do you believe that average is unacceptable?

We never want to be average. Or even just good. That means we’re only happy when a concept, a campaign or even just a piece of copy makes us say “yeah, that’s awesome!” Our perfect creative director is a perfectionist when it comes to their craft. 

Are you comfortable bringing awesome to life across any channel or medium? 

We are a channel-agnostic big-idea agency but there is no getting around the fact that the world we live in demands a solid understanding of the digital ecosystem. 

Do you have a portfolio of work to share that will make us say “That’s awesome!”

We’re looking for someone that has been there, done that and got the Lion. Or the Loerie. We’ll even settle for an Oscar. 

Are you the Creative Director we’re looking for? 

Are you awesome? 

If so, introduce yourself via iwannawork@gorillacreativemedia.com