Role Description
The Vice President, Creative is the senior creative leader at Kanahoma, responsible for defining the agency's creative vision while leading a multidisciplinary organization of copywriters, designers, and videographers. Reporting directly to the CEO, this individual will oversee the agency's entire Creative Services product, balancing long-term innovation with exceptional day-to-day execution across every partner engagement.
This is a leadership role for someone who is equally energized by big ideas and operational excellence. You'll shape integrated brand campaigns, performance marketing creative, website experiences, commercial productions, and emerging creative capabilities while building and developing a high-performing creative organization. You'll partner directly with college and university presidents, CMOs, executive leadership teams, and boards while helping define where creative and the agency is headed next.
Role Responsibilities
Own Creative Services as a Product
Serve as the executive owner of Kanahoma's Creative Services product, defining its long-term vision, strategy, and continued evolution
Champion the intersection of creativity, brand strategy, performance marketing, AI, and emerging technology to ensure Kanahoma remains ahead of where the market is going
Develop new creative capabilities, services, frameworks, and best practices that strengthen the agency's competitive advantage
Partner closely with executive leadership on agency strategy, product development, and long-term growth
Collaborate with Sales on scopes of work and growth opportunities while supporting strategic partner presentations and new business development
Partner with account services and executive leadership on project scoping, budget estimation, and resource planning to ensure creative engagements are staffed appropriately and delivered profitably
Build & Lead a Best-in-Class Creative Organization
Lead and develop a multidisciplinary Creative organization of 10+ professionals across Copy, Design, and Video through a leadership structure of Associate Creative Directors
Recruit, mentor, and retain exceptional creative talent while fostering a culture of accountability, curiosity, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement
Develop leaders who can scale their respective disciplines while maintaining consistently exceptional creative quality
Build systems, workflows, and operational processes that allow creative excellence to scale without sacrificing speed or craftsmanship
Serve as the executive leader responsible for the overall performance, health, and continued development of the Creative organization
Lead Creative Strategy Across Every Channel
Provide executive creative leadership across integrated marketing campaigns spanning awareness through enrollment
Lead creative strategy across brand campaigns, paid social, paid search, websites, landing pages, digital experiences, video, photography, email, and organic content
Partner closely with Strategy, Paid Media, SEO, Web, and Account Services teams to deliver integrated marketing solutions that drive enrollment growth
Help partners uncover and communicate what makes their institution uniquely competitive in an increasingly crowded higher education landscape
Elevate Creative Performance
Apply a deep understanding of performance marketing to improve conversion across every stage of the enrollment funnel, from inquiry through enrollment
Ensure creative decisions are informed by strategy, audience insights, testing, and performance data, not simply subjective opinion
Continually evolve creative best practices based on campaign performance, market trends, and emerging consumer behavior
Lead Kanahoma Productions
Provide executive creative leadership for Kanahoma Productions, the agency's in-house production company
Lead six-figure productions with meaningful on-set creative direction and collaboration alongside producers, directors, production crews, photographers, and editors
Ensure every production reflects exceptional creative quality while supporting strategic marketing objectives and partner goals
Own Kanahoma Casting Deliverables
Play a consultative role in pitching new Casting projects
Develop bespoke Casting approaches for existing partner upsells
Lead all partner-facing Casting presentations
Work closely with the partner to determine audience pool
Develop email and survey content
With needed assistance from Agency Producer, coordinate interviews and follow-ups with respondents
Build out final casting book and, if a production is involved, consult with the wider team on best-fit cast members
Shape the Future of Creative
Maintain a strong point of view on emerging trends across AI, organic content, digital platforms, search behavior, creative technology, and the future of marketing
Explore and implement thoughtful applications of AI that elevate creative thinking, improve workflows, and strengthen outcomes without replacing creativity
Encourage experimentation, learning, and innovation throughout the Creative organization
Serve as a Strategic Agency Leader
Represent Kanahoma's Creative organization with confidence and credibility in executive presentations, partner meetings, pitches, and strategic consulting engagements
Present creative strategy to CMOs, university presidents, executive leadership teams, and boards of trustees
Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to partners, helping connect institutional objectives with creative solutions that drive measurable growth
Role Qualifications
10+ years of progressive creative leadership experience, including meaningful time within an agency environment
Demonstrated success leading multidisciplinary creative organizations spanning copy, design, video, web, and digital experiences
Proven experience managing and developing creative leaders while building high-performing teams and strong creative cultures
Significant experience concepting and leading integrated marketing campaigns that successfully combine brand storytelling with measurable performance marketing
Deep understanding of paid media creative, paid search, paid social, websites, landing pages, conversion optimization, and full-funnel customer journeys
Meaningful experience developing creative strategies that support complex, multi-step consideration cycles rather than simple awareness campaigns
Demonstrated experience leading website redesigns, digital experience initiatives, and cross-channel creative strategy
Significant experience leading six-figure commercial productions, including meaningful on-set creative leadership
Confidence presenting creative strategy and campaign recommendations to executive leadership, clients, university presidents, and boards
A passion for emerging technology, AI, and the future of marketing, with demonstrated experience leveraging AI to elevate creative thinking, workflows, and outcomes, not replace them
Meaningful higher education marketing experience is strongly preferred; experience in other highly competitive industries is equally valuable, and candidates who bring both perspectives are especially encouraged to apply
A creative portfolio demonstrating candidate experience is required
Kanahoma's Mission
Our mission is to build a better agency for organizations building a better world. Whether we're building a brand or driving the bottom line, we pride ourselves on being progressive performance marketers called to serve and support mission-driven organizations across the education and nonprofit industries.
By joining Kanahoma, you are committing to core values that define our (and your) success, and shape how we approach everything we do, every day:
We Find A Better Way
At Kanahoma, we are relentless in our pursuit of building a better agency. So when a solution isn't satisfactory we make our own.
Results Aren't Our Goal, They're Our Engine
At Kanahoma, winning is a prerequisite. We are constantly pushing to evolve and iterate our work to exceed expectations and ensure our partners get the results they deserve.
Just A-Players
We play and win as a team. We don't believe that confident, superior work should come at the expense of company culture.
We Seek to Serve
We embrace our role as a service business and seek opportunities to go above and beyond for our partners.
We execute on the above core values by balancing the four pillars of advocacy:
Self Advocacy: Asserting and clearly communicating your needs and interests while taking responsibility for personal well-being and decisions
Team Advocacy: Championing your team's needs, addressing their challenges and highlighting their achievements to ensure they have the resources and recognition to succeed
Business Advocacy: Supporting and promoting Kanahoma's goals, securing and/or requesting the necessary resources to make strategic decisions to drive growth and exceed goals
Partner Advocacy: Representing the partner's needs, goals, and best interests by ensuring their concerns are heard, providing solutions that align with their objectives, and delivering value to build trust and satisfaction
