My role as Creative Lead at Caraffi

Building a future-focused creative function

Creative Lead – Caraffi

Role: Creative Lead

Years: 2023 – Present

Intro

As Creative Lead at Caraffi, I’ve had the privilege of driving not just creative output, but culture, innovation, and strategic growth. My focus has been on building a future-ready team that blends creativity with cutting-edge AI technology, delivering results that make a measurable impact on the business.

I am responsible for leading the creative team at Caraffi, managing talented creatives and being hands-on in the delivery. Under my management I have led the creative team to new heights, and delivered big-impact work for clients including B&Q, Ocado, Drax, West Midlands Police and many more across a huge range of industries, and have been responsible for winning the agency's first awards.

Building a Stronger Team Culture

To keep creativity fresh and the team connected, I launched weekly informal ‘Friday Sharing’ sessions. Each week, every team member brings a piece of creative inspiration to discuss – whether it’s a design trend, a campaign, a film, or a tech innovation. I have also built a culture of continuous informal sharing of inspiration through our team group chats, which for a mainly-remote team has been crucial for keeping thinking fresh. These sessions and culture has boosted team engagement and collaboration, creating a more agile and innovative environment that ultimately contributes to better project outcomes.

I also launched monthly 'Case Study' sessions, which give each member of the team a chance to do a deep dive on a project they've seen in the wild, or one they've worked on themselves. This has meant team members are able to develop their critical thinking, storytelling and presentation skills in a safe environment where they get feedback to help them develop.

Raising internal visibility

One of my key initiatives was launching Caraffi’s first internal newsletter, designed to shine a light on our team’s work and achievements. This newsletter improved collaboration between the creative team and client-facing teams, providing fresh inspiration that has helped drive client conversations and business growth.

I tasked one of our junior designers to create the identity for and run this newsletter, allowing them to build an identity which reflected our team and stretch their design skills, and gaining personal exposure within the business and wider team as she managed stakeholders to collect content and send it out to the entire business monthly, with brilliant feedback from C-suite and the wider business. Newsletters have now been developed for every team across the business following the success of ours.

I also regularly present at company town-halls, sharing creative projects, success stories, and the impact we’re delivering for clients. These efforts have increased our visibility among senior leaders and across the business, securing recognition and investment support at the highest levels.

Driving Innovation with AI

Embracing AI has been a game changer. We’ve responsibly integrated generative AI tools responsibly into our workflows, enabling us to deliver campaigns that outperform industry benchmarks by 7x through the use of AI. This has improved campaign effectiveness and client ROI while cutting production time and costs, freeing us up to do more strategic thinking, and leading to us being highly commended with work for our smallest-budget client.

Our partnership on AI-driven social media tools has also enhanced employee-generated content, speeding up turnaround times and strengthening client relationships as our clients' colleagues are empowered to become influencers.

I also tasked our videographer who has a passion for AI, to upskill the rest of the team (and themselves in the process) by running quarterly AI lunch and learns. In the session they present the latest AI tools and how they can be used in our workflows. This allows for us to stay on top of trends, as well as developing this team member's presentation skills in the process.

Redefining the Caraffi visual identity

Aligning Caraffi’s brand with our business goals was a priority. We redefined the visual identity to reflect a data and AI-led approach – positioning us as a future-focused organisation that’s strategic, innovative, and better equipped to support our clients' business growth in a rapidly evolving market. We even developed the tone of voice section to include an AI-prompt page, which will allow colleagues across the business to write in the Caraffi-way by training their GPT to speak to our brand voice, increasing brand consistency across all touchpoints.

Strategic Advocacy and Future Planning

I actively champion the creative team to the C-suite, securing vital investment to expand and elevate our offerings.

I ensure we are visible across the business, right to the top, ensuring everyone gets excited about the growth of our team and creative outputs at Caraffi. I drove investment into the video offerings of our team, securing investment in equipment and training to improve our offering to clients and allow for account growth and slashing spend on freelance support and equipment rental, increasing profitability of the team and wider business.

Right now, I’m focused on implementing AI to fuel sustainable growth and support our future expansion – ensuring the creative team remains a key driver of business success.

Awards and external recognition

Our work speaks for itself. We’ve been shortlisted for the IHR awards three years running, shortlisted in the 2025 EBMAs in two categories and received 'Highly Commended' for Best Creative Concept at the 2025 PPMA awards. These honours highlight the quality and effectiveness of our campaigns and reinforce the value we bring to the business, and they have been brilliant for increasing our exposure as a creative offering externally in the market. I led the awards strategy for Caraffi in 2025. At the beginning of my tenure as creative lead, nobody knew who Caraffi were – 2 and a half years later that's no longer the case.

Outside of awards I externally represent the creative team at Caraffi regularly, building my network within the industry by attending talks and networking events, judging awards shows, and hosting a webinar to talk about our work in front of the UK's leading network of public-sector HR and OD professionals.

A closing note

During my two and a half years so far I've taken pride in transforming the creative function and employer brand offering at Caraffi. I have overseen promotions, new joiners and leavers and have been immensely proud of the development of members of my team and of the work produced. The creative team has transformed in the last 2 and a half years from a make-shift creative function piggy backing off the wider business to a standalone business driver making waves in the industry.