Creative Marketing Director
From positioning to the product page.
I run brand, content and commerce as one function. This is the method: the structures I build,
the levers I pull and the teams I lead to deliver it.
Portfolio results across Elevate Brands and SellerX, 2022 to 2026. Every figure is portfolio-level, not single-brand.
What I own
Four areas, one function.
Deciding what the brand is for, before anyone spends money saying it.
- Category and consumer insight
- Positioning and brand architecture
- Multi-brand portfolio strategy
- Repositioning and transformation programs
- Identity systems and tone of voice
ProofSix repositioning programs, +7% YoY conversion. Two carried through to acquisition in 2026.
Finding the question the category answers badly, then building the answer.
- White space identification
- New product development
- Range architecture and portfolio expansion
- Launch positioning and go-to-market
- Packaging and structural design systems
ProofNPD pipeline and launch positioning directed across the portfolio, from ideation through packaging to market entry.
Directed and produced in-house, so the brand is not translated by a third party.
- Creative direction across photography, video and design
- End-to-end production: casting, location, crew, set, post
- Content systems where one shoot feeds every channel
- Campaign and always-on asset libraries
- Brand guidelines and asset governance
Proof5,000+ design assets directed in 22 months, around 20,000 including photography and video, roughly 30% above committed volume.
Where the brand argument gets tested against a transaction.
- Channel architecture across Amazon, DTC, retail and B2B
- Amazon listing, A+ content, rank and velocity strategy
- Conversion rate optimization and structured A/B testing
- CRM, retention, subscription and lifecycle
- Paid social and systematic creative testing
Proof130+ Amazon listing optimizations directed and +51% combined DTC portfolio revenue growth, 2025.
The operating model
One brief. One standard.
Eight stages, run with a team I lead and work alongside, rather than by separate suppliers briefing each other. Many companies split these across separate functions and spend the year reconciling them. The position set at stage one is the position that reaches the product page.
The question
What the brand is actually for, decided before anyone spends money saying it. Consumer and audience insight, category map, competitor analysis, the white space worth owning.
BrandThe position
Architecture, naming, tone of voice. Written tightly enough that a designer, a copywriter and a media buyer all build the same thing.
BrandThe identity
Identity system, packaging, structural design. Pressure-tested against the shelf and the thumbnail before it reaches a printer or a tooling quote.
BrandThe shoot
Casting, location, crew, set, direction, post. Art-directed on the day by the person who wrote the positioning, which is why nothing drifts.
ContentThe library
One shoot feeding Amazon, DTC, CRM, paid, social and retail. Campaign and always-on assets cut to the specs of the places they actually run, governed by a live guideline.
ContentThe storefront
Amazon listing, A+ content, PDP and DTC build. Where the brand argument stops being a deck and starts being a transaction.
CommerceThe test
Structured A/B testing, paid creative rotation, CRO. Creative treated as a hypothesis with a number attached, not a matter of taste.
CommerceThe compound
Retention, subscription and lifecycle, so equity and conversion rate rise together instead of trading off.
CommerceThe commercial levers
What I pull to move a number.
Creative's cleanest fingerprint is conversion rate, because it is the one metric a head-to-head test can isolate. These are the mechanisms I reach for first.
More people buy
- Hero image and PDP hierarchy tested before anything below the fold changes
- Paid creative rotated against a held control, one variable moving at a time
More customers return
- Replenishment timed to the actual reorder gap, before the product runs out
- Pause, skip or swap offered inside the cancellation flow, not after it
Investment works harder
- One shoot planned to the specs of six channels, so a day on set is costed per channel
- Baseline forecast first, so paid is judged on incremental revenue rather than ROAS alone
The brand is easier to choose
- White space defined as a question the category answers badly, not an empty shelf slot
- Identity pressure-tested against the shelf and the thumbnail before tooling is quoted
Revenue is never moved by one function. Product, pricing, stock and media all contribute. My job is to find what is constraining growth, change it, and measure the effect. Saying where creative's contribution ends is the difference between a creative argument and a commercial one.
Jekyll & Hide · Direction & Production · Beholder × one.fiction
How I lead
I build the function, not just the work.
I go hands-on where the work needs it, not because there is nobody else. My value is not in personally producing every asset. It is in making sure every team, channel and touchpoint is building the same brand.
I set the strategy, build the operating system and lead the teams that deliver it. The job is to create clarity: getting commercial, product, NPD, Amazon, DTC, retail, CRM, performance and creative aligned on one proposition and one set of priorities.
Planning and prioritization
Quarterly priorities, monthly strategy, weekly execution and live KPI tracking. I established this operating cadence across the portfolio; it was not in place before. Briefs, creative traffic and asset governance run in Asana, having previously worked in Monday.com, Airtable and Jira. The workflow gets decided before the software.
Team and leadership
Global teams across design, copy and production, supported by an extensive freelance network, working across multiple time zones. I set the standard and allocate the effort, working in step with the commercial, buying, planning and performance teams so creative decisions are made with the trading picture rather than alongside it. Twelve and a half years running my own creative marketing and PR agency first, so I brief agencies the way I wanted to be briefed.
Commercial accountability
I own the marketing forecast for every brand, alongside channel priorities, resource allocation and creative volume, and production budgets end to end. Paid spend is the one input I do not authorize. I present plans, performance and creative decisions at CEO and board level, and defend the forecast line by line to the people who can say no.
Governance and scale
Live brand guidelines, one asset library, one standard across markets. Work is measured against the standard rather than routed through me. AI is integrated across research, concepting, production and commerce, which widens what can be explored without moving where the judgment sits.
The practical facts
Where I am, and what I am open to.
Based in Cape Town
Full UK and EU hours since 2022. Based at UTC+2 with no daylight saving, so full or near-full working-day overlap year round. An established South African entity supports international contracting where required.
Two sides of the table
Twelve and a half years running my own creative marketing and PR agency, then four years brand-side as creative marketing lead across an aggregator portfolio.
Channels
Amazon, DTC, retail and B2B, owned together rather than one at a time.
Open to
Director and Head-level remits spanning consumer brand, creative marketing, portfolio strategy and go-to-market.
Brands built to scale,
not simply launch.