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Creative Manager

# of Openings: 1
Category: Marketing
Type: Regular Full-Time

Sazerac Company Overview

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka.

We’re proud of our award-winning culture and distilleries. Our Louisville office has been named one of the “Best Places to Work in Kentucky” four times, and our Buffalo Trace Distillery has earned the title of “world’s most award-winning distillery” through the dedication of our craftsmen for well over 200 years. Whether you’re a recent graduate or an experienced professional, Sazerac provides extraordinary opportunities for growth with competitive salaries and benefits in an exciting, entrepreneurial industry.

Job Description/Responsibilities

As a Creative Manager, you will be a Team Leader on visual brand building throughout marketing/advertising platforms specializing in retail print and displays, with team members stretching across key visuals and visual world ideation for emerging priority brands. You will lead the retail design process for all priority brands in the portfolio, totaling upwards of 40 brands. This includes deliverables for off-premise, on-premise, eCommerce and B2B retailers. As part of retail design you may be hands-on or may manage external teams. It will be key to expand the in-house team’s capacity in this space. The responsibilities of the Design Manager include tightening strategic approach of client briefs, developing team members’ capabilities, and owning multiple external overflow vendor relationships. You will continue to refine cross functional processes as the team expands into new global markets.

Ensure our fiscal year growth by supporting all priority projects included in brand building blocks. Expand in-house capacity to achieve marketing and sales goals within allotted budget parameters. Save $500,000 minimum annually by completing assignments on time and on budget that otherwise would be outside agency expenses.
Create new retail design projects as briefed, delivering on initiatives on defined timelines. Prepare mechanical art based on approved designs and liaise with Production and Procurement as part of a coordinated effort in ensuring highest quality outcome. Coach and train other designers to support retail end-to-end from concept to implementation.
Lead a growing team of multiple designers to create compelling graphic design and communication materials for domestic and global brands. The growing team will support BTL needs, globally, including on-premise, off-premise, eContent & B2B needs.
Manage graphics execution in coordination with Account & Strategy team. Assist with review and approval of proofs. Manage agency creative work on due to capacity constraints, as needed.
Utilize PDS system to identify places for self improvement in order to improve effectiveness at job and achieve goals.
Develop and follow an action plan to gain the skills, learning experiences & results needed to meet career goals. Develop and retain bench of managers and future leaders in the marketing organization. Personally connect and coach high potential talent.
Ensure that world class customer service is provided to internal clients, agencies, vendors and consumers on a regular basis. Develop and maintain a method for systematic updates for internal customers. Successfully execute & manage design work in accordance with the priority setting on the project.
Ensure those on the design team are focused on the right priorities and delivering on time. Establish systems to communicate status on design projects across the team, when they are being worked, and where they fall in overall priorities compared to other requests in the system.
Create new retail design concepts for assigned initiatives on defined timelines. Prepare mechanical art based on approved designs and liaise with Production and Procurement as part of a coordinated effort in ensuring highest quality outcome. Coach and train other designers to support retail design end-to-end, from concept to implementation.