THE (CREATIVE) FUTURE IS FRACTIONAL
01.09.24 | ALLISON HENRY AVER
Besides running my branding agency, Letter A, I often get hired as a Fractional creative lead for start-ups just launching their brand through my involvement with THE BOARD. As a member of THE BOARD, I have the opportunity to embed myself within organizations in a short-term, yet long-on-impact capacity at the exact moment they need creative leadership.
And then, I pass the baton onto the full-time hire.
There is no brief I love more than building out a brand world from A-to-Z.
Envisioning how to infuse a brand’s personality and point-of-view through every thing a brand says and does is what I do best. It is what I have the most enthusiasm for and expertise in. This foundational creative work is crucial for all brands, but especially lifestyle brands that desire to move beyond a product or service and engage customers with emotion and experience.
But you don’t need to hire me full-time.
Rather, consider a fractional VP-Level Creative Director or fractional Chief Creative Officer for the first 6-9 months in those pre-GTM planning stages to establish your brand’s creative strategy through strategic, multi-channel thinking. (Bring them on early. Like, I mean, super early, not when you think it’s time for “creative”.) This person sits alongside your executive team to align the brand promise through a creative lens. These pre-launch decisions are crucial. Your brand’s values and aesthetic should guide and influence every choice you make.
Then just like that (LOL), you’re in the day-to-day of running your business.
Hire a full-time Creative Director to execute the day-to-day.
Now hire that full-time Creative Director or Senior Art Director to execute the vision. This level is skilled at managing your in-house creative marketing team, producing the work, and delivering on the guidelines we've established. Creative strategies should be like (tasteful) big houses — content niches and aesthetic variety galore, so there’s built-in space for the in-house team to push and pull creatively. They have freedom to keep the brand alive—and lively— every day, on every touchpoint, while still staying within parameters.
To me it’s a win-win. Everyone gets the right experience, the right talent at the right time for the right price.
#winwin #creativedirectors #fractional
