EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Studio & Brand Storytelling / Client Projects & Profirst Narrative
Location: Rixensart (hybrid possible). Occasional travel to Paris.
Reports to: General Manager.
Key interfaces: Creative Director (Studio), Head of Business Development, Head of Communication The Merode, CEO
Contract type: Permanent (CDI), full-time. Senior freelance/consulting also considered.
Seniority: 10 to 15 years of experience
ABOUT PROFIRST
Profirst is an independent brand experience agency, headquartered in Brussels with an office in Paris, active internationally for more than 30 years. We design and produce brand experiences for the most discerning houses in luxury, beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. Pop-ups, international press launches, immersive showcases, dynamic driving experiences, curated dinners, lifestyle activations: our formats vary, our standard does not. We turn occasions into lasting impressions.
Clients come to us for the precision and refinement of our delivery. Our next chapter sits one step further upstream, arriving with an idea strong enough to set the direction of everything that follows. We are looking for an Executive Creative Director who thinks the brand before execution begins: someone who frames it, formulates it, and gives the work its meaning.
The role also carries the voice of Profirst itself, our positioning, our manifesto, what we choose to say about who we are.
The ECD turns client briefs into conceptual ideas with commercial weight, and gives the Studio strategic and creative direction throughout each project.
MISSION
The Executive Creative Director owns the conceptual dimension of client projects and the Profirst narrative. It is a pivotal role between strategy and creation, highly conceptual, deeply rooted in contemporary culture, and uncompromising in the pursuit of meaning.
Three areas of focus:
* Client pitches and major projects: defining the brand territory, formulating the central idea, sourcing insights, building the narrative, and delivering a brand brief that guides the Studio across scenography, hospitality, content, and graphic identity.
* Profirst narrative: consolidating and activating the agency's positioning, tone, and public voice. Working in close partnership with the Head of Communication The Merode to ensure cross-brand consistency.
* Brand intelligence and cultural thinking: bringing cultural signals, references, and points of view to the agency. Being the voice that answers “why now.”
Two further ambitions sit with this role: evolving Profirst toward a positioning as a creative agency, not only an event partner, and establishing Profirst as a leader in AI fluency within experiential marketing.
SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Upstream, before projects begin
* Leading strategic kick-off sessions: ideation workshops, brand immersion, brief decoding.
* Formulating the “big idea” that structures everything else: the one line that reframes the entire approach.
* Backing the idea with cultural, sociological, generational, and sectoral insights. Solid sources, not name-dropping.
* Writing the presentation narrative: vision document, manifesto, opening slide, pitch text.
During the project
* Carrying the big idea through to execution.
* Ensuring narrative coherence across all execution layers: space, hospitality, content, communication, press.
* Working in close partnership with the Creative Director and Studio Director on translating the idea into visual and experiential territory.
* Acting as conceptual editor on major strategic deliverables (Lexus RZ, Lexus LBX, international press launches).
For Profirst itself
* Co-creating the agency’s manifesto and brand territory with the GM and CEO.
* Defining Profirst's editorial grammar: tone, public voice, key language, the way the agency tells its stories.
* Being a credible strategic partner for the GM on positioning decisions across audiences, markets, and narrative.
* Owning Profirst’s strategic communication plan and its rollout. Setting priorities for communication, media, and public voice, in alignment with positioning and business development.
IDEAL PROFILE
Background
* 10 to 15 years of experience in a senior conceptual role: strategic planner, concept director, brand consultant, head of strategy.
* Background in one of the following: advertising agency / strategic planning, a brand experience / luxury agency (Bureau Betak, Villa Eugénie, Auditoire…), or an independent studio with a track record serving luxury brands.
* Direct client-side experience in luxury, fashion, beauty, or premium automotive is a must.
Skills
* Formulation: the ability to distil a 40-page brief into a single sentence that lands.
* Research and insight: spotting signals, cultural tensions, and generational dynamics without falling into cliché.
* Brand writing: drafting a manifesto, pitch narrative, or positioning text with genuine voice and integrity.
* Systemic thinking: understanding how a brand idea translates into space, service, content, and press.
* Languages: full fluency in French and English required. Dutch is a plus.
Posture
* Voice and conviction: brings a strong idea to the table and defends it without rigidity.
* Broad cultural curiosity: reads, watches, listens beyond the brief. Understands why a young brand resonates today.
* Collegiality: enters the Studio as a peer, working at eye level with creative director, architects, designers, and content producers.
* High standards on meaning: refuses the easy answer, the merely pretty, the idea that sounds hollow.
WHAT WE OFFER
* A central role to the agency's next chapter.
* Direct access to leadership (CEO, GM, CDO) and genuine influence on Profirst's positioning.
* Ambitious projects for international premium brands and institutions, hybrid formats between experience and media.
* A talented and disciplined Studio, ready to go further with the right conceptual voice.
* An international, multilingual, demanding, and warm environment.
HOW TO APPLY
Send your CV and portfolio to hr@profirst.com. We value conceptual thinking over visual execution: case studies, strategic ideas, and narratives matter more than production credentials here.
The process runs in three steps: an initial conversation with our General Manager, a strategic case study based on a real Profirst brief, and a final interview with our CEO and Creative Director.