Leading a marketing campaign is a tricky task. One slippery slope and all your investment and effort go down the drain. The creative director prevents that from happening.
They are individuals with a sense of what works and what doesn’t and ideas that take your marketing to heights of success. They are simply the guardians of excellence, the reason for their client’s success, and the face of their agency.
If you want your marketing campaign to stay in the right direction, you need to find a creative director who knows his stuff and has a proven history of leading successful projects. And that’s who we will talk about in this article.
Below given is the list of the Top 10 creative directors in 2022. With them handling your project, your marketing campaign is sure going to work at its best:
1. Susan Credle, Global Chief Creative Officer, FCB
Mentioned as a creative powerhouse, Susan Credle is the person behind many famous or rather iconic advertising campaigns, including M&M’s “Human” and Allstate’s “Mayhem.”
Susan holds many accolades to her name; the most recent ones include induction into AAF’s Hall of Achievement and being named a Matrix honoree by New York Women in communications.
Currently working as a Global Chief Creative Officer at FCB, Susan has a prior work experience of more than 20 years. Her Resume includes working with BBDO and being CCO of Leo Burnette USA before joining FCB. She has also been the president of the Titanium Jury at Cannes Lions 2020/2021.
Notable achievements and honors include being named into Spot-on Advertising Age’s “100 Most Influential Women” list and Forbes’s “Most Creative Women in Advertising” list.
With a strong desire to transform the advertising industry, Credle is a champion of rising talent and has always advocated inclusion in the industry.
2. Alex Safavinia- Creative Director, Kasra Design™
Alex Safavinia is an award-winning creative director and CEO of Kasra Design™ (Explainer Videoly Pte. Ltd). He began to work as a motion graphics artist back in 2006 and soon gathered up a creative team to start his own animation company, focusing majorly on 2D, 3D, and 2.5D animations.
With Alex as a creative director, the team has produced more than 800 successful animation videos for different brands in the form of explainers videos, TV commercials, Corporate videos, and much more. Their clientele includes everyone, from simple startups to fortune 500 and anyone in between.
In Alex’s leadership, the company has received numerous accolades and awards, including “Video of The Day” in Motion Design Awards 2022, Gold Award in Indigo Design Awards, and “Best Commercial” at Los Angeles Animation Festival 2018, Leading Asia Video Agency Award and many more.
The secret to his success lies in his motivation to learn something with each project; as he said in one of his interviews, “No matter how skilled you get at something, there’s always a room for improvement, a chance to learn something new. You know, each animation project brings an unforgettable lesson with it.”
3. David Droga, Creative Chairman, Droga5
David Droga is a name well known in the creative world and is often mentioned as a prodigy in his field due to his multiple exceptional achievements in a very short time, besting improbable challenges for most of his career.
David became a partner and Executive Creative Director of OMON when he was just 22. After working there for 6 years, David moved to Singapore and became the Executive Creative Director of Satchi & Satchi.
He led Satchi & Satchi to be named Regional Network of the Year by Media Marketing, with Advertising Age naming the Singapore office of the company as “International Agency of the Year.” When he was 31, Advertising Age named him” The World’s Top Creative Director.”
Currently, David leads his own ad agency, Droga5, which has achieved many milestones since its inception, including winning multiple awards from Advertising Age, Adweek, and Cannes.
4. Gerry Graf, Co-Founder, Chief Creative Officer, SlapGlobal
Beginning his creative journey as a staff writer in university, Gerry Graf is another name well-known in the creative world due to his sheer excellence in advertising.
Gerry Gaf started his professional career when he joined BBDO/NY in 1995, where he quickly rose to the spot of creative director and hasn’t looked back ever since.
Unlike many creative individuals on the list, Gerry’s employment history and creative journey are pretty diverse, with his work experience encompassing a long list of advertising companies.
In his entire career, Gerry has been the recipient of many awards. His ad “Monkey” was named among the Top 5 Super Bowl Ads of all time, with three other commercials in the Top 20 of the same category.
Gerry started his own advertising agency in 2010, which was named “Top Agency to Watch” by Advertising Age in 2011, and has remained on its A-list ever since.
Gerry Gaf continues to help business scale through creativity, and currently works as a Chief Creative Officer at Slap Global
5. Judy John, Chief Creative Officer, Edelman
Ranked No. 1 in Advertising Age’s Awards Report 2015, Judy John has remained one of the most prominent creative directors in the world ever since the start of her career.
Currently serving as Global chief creative officer at Edelman, she has been associated with Leo Burnett for most of her career and has received numerous awards.
One of the most prominent examples of her creative genius includes the Always #LikeAGirl campaign, which won an Emmy award for outstanding commercial, Black Pencil at D&ad, Titanium, Grand Prix, and Glass Line at Cannes. Moreover, it was also named among the top three super bowl commercials of all time.
Named among “30 Most Creative People of The Year” by Business Insider in 2014 and the “Most Creative Person of the Year” by Advertising Age, Judy John continues to build brands through her super creative marketing techniques.
6. David Lubars, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO
David Lubars joined BBDO as a Chief Creative Officer in 2004, almost 17 years ago. Since then, the advertising company has been winning awards, remaining agency of the year for 15 years consecutively by numerous publications.
However, the personal profile of David Lubar is even more astonishing; he has over 160 Cannes Lions and 150 One Show Pencils. Additionally, his video for BMW holds the honor of being the first-ever titanium winner at the Cannes Film Festival. It is also a part of MoMA’s permanent collection.
In a recent publication by Forbes CMO, David Lubars has been named one of the 10 best creative directors of all time!
7. Pete Favat, Chief Creative Officer, Deutsch
From Golden Lions at Cannes to Gold Pencils at One Show, British D&AD, and anything in between, Pete Favat has won almost every award there is to win in advertising.
Throughout his long-stretched career, Pete Favat has created multiple award-winning advertisements and ran the biggest Anti-tobacco campaign in American History.
One of the most prominent works includes his highly acclaimed documentary for MTV, called ‘I can’t Breathe.’ Since March 2015, Pete Favat has been working as the Chief Creative Officer of Deutsch, helping brands achieve their goals.
8. Rob Reilly, Global Chief Creative Officer, WPP
Recipient of many accolades throughout his career, Rob Reilly is another big name in the creative marketing world. He has many achievements, the most notable ones with McCann.
Rob was named “The Most Creative Person of The Year” in “Creativity 50” in 2016 and has been the genius behind many successful marketing campaigns.
Besides helping McCann win numerous awards, Rob has also been actively chairing a number of award shows, including Cannes Titanium and Promo Interactive Juries.
Currently, Rob is a member of The One Club Board, the Co-president of the Ad Council Review Committee, and the Global Chief Officer of WPP.
9. Tham Kai Meng, Advisory Board Member, Rethink Food
Former Worldwide Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather, Tham Kai Meng, is a name quite familiar when we talk about the most outstanding creative directors of all time.
Honors like being named “One of the world’s most influential people in the communication business” by AdAge, featured in Forbe’s “Top 14 Creative Directors you want on your speed dial“, and “Number one most awarded executive creative director in the world” by The Drum and The Big Won Rankings are enough for Tham’s introduction. Not to mention that D&AD invited Kai to serve as their president.
Currently, Kai is the Advisory Board Member at Rethink Food and a member of Facebook’s Creative Council and Twitter’s Advisory Council. Moreover, he is also a contributing writer for Forbes, Campaign, and The Guardian.
10. Margaret Johnson, Chief Creative Officer, Goodby Silverstein, and Partners
With one of the most diverse portfolios and unquestionable expertise as a Creative Director, Margaret is a 25-year veteran Goodby Silverstein and Partners creative officer with many design awards to her name.
The most notable campaigns she ran during her career include those for Haagen-Dazs, Yahoo!, and Logitech, which also won her most of her accolades.
She has also been named “One of the Most Powerful Women in Advertising” by Forbes. Margaret continues to work with Goodby Silverstein, converting ideas into visuals that inspire, convince, and convert!
Wrapping Up
When investing in marketing in a marketing campaign, the last thing you want is to put out something that doesn’t convert, whether it’s a written copy or a video. You want to ensure that the published piece is perfect to its tiniest bits.
To make that sure, you need someone who’s a master of his skill. And that’s precisely who we talked about in this article. The enlisted names are individuals at the top of their work as Creative Directors, with vast market knowledge, experience, and a proven history of success.
We hope this article has been helpful. See you with another one!
