Creative Director

About TBWA\Media Arts Lab

Media Arts Lab (MAL) is the exclusive global advertising agency dedicated to Apple. Our mission is to create smart, simple, and iconic work that transforms business and shapes culture for the world’s most iconic brand.

We’re looking for a Creative Director who thinks originally, leads decisively, and writes with unmistakable craft. Someone who can stand at the front of the room with energy and clarity, and also sit beside the team when the work calls for it. A leader who can feel where culture is heading, shape ideas that rise above the noise, and help carry forward the legacy.

Fluency in Korean and business-professional proficiency in English required. Visa sponsorship may be available.

The Work

• Lead and collaborate with writers, art directors, designers, music supervisors, strategists, producers, and the wider agency to concept and craft ideas rooted in brand truth and emotional resonance.
• Set the tone for the team, mentoring, motivating, guiding, while also rolling up your sleeves to write, rewrite, and refine until the work sings.
• Make bold creative decisions backed by insight, taste, and courage. Bring uncompromising dedication to detail, execution, and excellence across every deliverable.
• Keep a sharp eye on every creative output, TV, social, experiential, OOH, print, ensuring each piece is elevated, coherent, and deeply considered for the market.
• Confidently pitch ideas to leadership and clients in English and Korean, articulating the strategic and creative rationale with simplicity and conviction.
• Partner closely with production teams to bring global campaigns to life with clarity, intention, and integrity.
• Collaborate with creative leadership to review, refine, and pressure test work ahead of client presentations, sometimes leading the room, sometimes standing shoulder-to-shoulder with leadership.
• Work with top-tier directors, editors, and creative partners to ensure the work is executed with the highest creative standard.
• Occasionally partner with our geo offices from briefing through final delivery to ensure global creative alignment and intentionality.
  

Who Thrives in This Role

• Obsessed with ideas and how they are expressed.
• Brings feeling, humor, heart, and edge, whatever the moment calls for, and knows how to create thoughts or moments that stay with people. 
• Fueled by culture, with worlds like art, design, music, film, fashion, and beyond shaping taste, point of view, and the work being led.
• Deeply invested in developing talent and coaching, shaping, and inspiring the next generation of creatives at MAL and beyond.
• Brings a clear point of view while remaining open to new ones; able to generate original ideas and help push others’ ideas further.
• Conceptual and strategic, equally comfortable writing a headline and articulating how an idea ladders up to broader brand and business goals.
• Entrepreneurial at heart, curious, restless, and always searching for better ways to approach a brief or an idea.
• Possesses a deep understanding of client brands and audiences across global markets, using that insight to craft work that resonates universally.
• An excellent communicator and storyteller, able to articulate the “why,” not just the “what.”
• Meticulous about details while gifted at simplifying ideas to their purest, strongest expression.
• Collaborative, open-hearted, and driven by collective success.
• Culturally aware and globally minded, focused on creating work that meets the moment. 
• Passionate about all forms of creative expression, from large-scale cinematic brand films to sharp digital executions, bringing equal care to each.