HANDS-ON CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Insight & Problem Solving Session - The Scope, Hamburg
That's me, Craig Lovelidge, looking for answers—strategy first, execution second.
I'm an experienced senior creative director. I've used creativity to overcome brand issues, ignite new ideas, and create impressive outcomes for clients, companies and myself.
Clients want punchy, creative work. They want it fast. They want someone to take the lead in making this happen. This is where Craigology comes in.
From tackling brand challenges to solving in-house agency issues and helping achieve growth goals, click below so we can discuss your requirements, whether freelance or permanent—remote or hybrid.
In-house creative leadership, leading in-house creative
As Staples' European Creative Director, I led the super-talented in-house creative department, transforming the tired and lackluster print-based work of catalogues, brochures, and flyers into a fully integrated, sales-driven brand communication agency serving 17 countries. Over 30 creative teams, producers, and creators managed everything from ideation to creation to production. Above the line, digital, retail, and contract, Staples' creative work maintained a strong linear thread through every piece.
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To achieve this, everything within the Staples agency changed to operate as a full-service strategic creative agency: the people, the processes, and the business/agency relationships.
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Productivity soared. The Staples C-Suite loved the energy, and we loved our output. Collaboration increased, as did the budgets and the scope of projects. Staples' sales revenue rose by €126 million during my two-year tenure.
Global work for global clients
Winning a global account can be intimidating, but it's also an opportunity for learning and growth. As the international creative director, I knew this would be a challenge while being a fantastic experience.
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Despite the challenges, we worked hand-in-hand with the client. Through teamwork and hard work, we crafted and launched the Hello Tomorrow integrated brand campaign in over 150 markets worldwide.
The result: The Emirates brand grew by $398 million to more than $4 billion, making up 40% of the total enterprise value, the highest contribution of all Middle Eastern brands.
This experience taught me invaluable lessons and introduced me to a remarkable group of talented professionals who worked tirelessly to achieve a shared vision. Taking on the Emirates account was the most significant challenge of my career, and it yielded the most important rewards.
Craigology is an Adobe Professional, a WIX Partner and a Notion Ambassador
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Craig has been a pivotal creative problem-solver. From rebranding my business to completely overhauling our website to redesigning our entire suite of business communication, his knowledge, skills and output have been outstanding. Hiring Craig was a wise decision that paid off.
Marc Nicol
Founder & CEO - The Affinity Group
If you're looking for an inspirational CD, Craig is your man. A natural people's person with the creative smarts to elevate any grand ideas. He never switches off, combining strategy, customer insight and advertising nous. A pleasure to work with no matter how tough the brief is.
Chris Barton
Creative Director
Craig showed me where my company currently was and where it needed to be. He made it crystal clear, talking to me in my 'builders' language. He laid everything out in a workable plan and executed this by himself. I've never seen one person do the amount of business and creative work that he does. Thank you Craig!
Henk Verbeek
Owner & CEO - Wulverhorst
Craig is a passionate, knowledgeable and innovative creative director. His strength to drive creative thinking strategically and pragmatically brought tremendous value to the Staples Creative Agency.
His capacity to have a 360º view on all what he was working on, enabled him to work well in a multichannel environment.
Besides being an extremely valuable creative thinker, Craig was a passionate agency leader. He fully engaged with his team and motivated them during challenging times by understanding their strengths, weaknesses, as well as their key motivators, using all of these as levers to succeed.
He has an innate capacity to understand people and their challenges. Needless to say, he's a fantastic person to work with.
Viola De Bellis
Ex-MD - Staples Agency Europe
In a creative environment where the bar for creativity is high, the deadlines tight and the clients, to put it mildly, are difficult, Craig has proven to have a keen eye for talent, a limitless passion for creative work, photography and copy. While working extremely hard to achieve his creative goals, he remains a gentle and kind person, which is a rare find in this industry.
We worked together for more than a year on the Emirates 'Hello Tomorrow' campaign and it was an absolute pleasure working with him. Whenever you need a confident, reliable and hands-on creative director, hire Craig.
Julia Llamas
Sr. Exec. Producer / Art Buyer
I worked closely with Craig for 2 years. He has an exceptional creative mind, very innovative and inspiring.Craig has a very strong ability to think creatively about engaging diverse audiences with creative messaging and propositions in an omni-channel environment. His thinking is rooted in taking the customer on a believable journey that ultimately leads to sales. He has driven enormous value to Staples, engaging with customers across 17 European countries creating millions in revenue across contract, retail and online.
I would recommend Craig as one of the top Pan-European creative directors for omni-channel brand engagement.
Michael Williamson
Ex-VP Marketing - Staples Europe
