Associate Creative Director

Associate Creative Director

Department: Content

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Reporting To: Group Director of Content

Compensation: $100,000 - $119,999 / year

Description

The Social Lights are a band of creative and energetic problem solvers who love nothing more than helping brands and individuals powerfully connect to their consumers, utilizing the power of social media. In other words, our superpower is decoding culture and creating social fandoms.


The Associate Creative Director has a relentless passion for social communities, social strategies, and the creative content that brings them together. This role oversees content that scales through audience, content, and conversation insights, builds platform-specific and holistic social strategies, identifies social channel and behavioral trends, and ultimately creates the strategic foundation for innovative, social-first content.


This role works closely with the Group Content Director and cross-disciplinary leads to nurture a culture of collaboration and advance content that decodes culture to build fandoms. To succeed, this person must be a self-starter, have a curious mind, be skilled in conceptual ideation, collaborate and work well with creatively-minded individuals, and exhibit an understanding of building social content strategies that answer clients' business objectives and inspire inventive thinking.

Key Responsibilities

Content Team Responsibilities

• Provide strategic counsel and a strong POV on topics that affect content (e.g., creative direction, ideation, strategy, influencer, activation, and engagement) for clients and internal partners
• Creative direct content team and SMM members' concepts and content, sharing feedback on their ideas and concepts that helps ideas improve and perform
• Deliver insights in new, fresh ways and present content concepts in an engaging, captivating, and persuasive manner
• Demonstrate strong presentation abilities by presenting ideas in compelling, inspiring ways
• Participate in new business development and pitches

Content Planning

• Lead and/or co-lead content planning for key clients, supporting priority accounts across the agency with guidance and oversight from Client Success, Strategy, Care & Engagement, and/or Content Producer(s)
• Provide platform-specific content recommendations and ideas that leverage cultural trends, platform trends, or resonant consumer insights
• Actively identify trends in the industry to help our clients innovate and elevate above the competition
• Share content creation and concepting/brainstorming best practices with the content team, SMM team, and broader agency, adapting and learning new social mediums (ex. TikTok, Reels, Pins, Stories)

Content Ideation

• Conceptualize breakthrough ideas that align with the overarching social strategy and help our clients achieve their objectives, ultimately driving their business forward
• Interpret creative briefs or real-time opportunities to develop creative concepts based on insights, trends, and business objectives
• Work alongside multi-disciplinary TSL teams to concept, develop, and execute social-first ideas
• Present social-first ideas in a compelling and inspiring manner, anticipating questions that may arise and being fully prepared with thoughts that go well beyond what is written on a slide
• Effectively present ideas to internal teams and clients, anticipating questions that may arise and problem-solving in real-time as needed

Content Creation

• Direct teams that bring ideas to life, nurturing them from thoughts and concepts to real-world expressions including storyboarding, shooting, direction, editing, and/or managing external production vendors and partners
• Oversee content using a variety of media, including video, stills, animation, 3D, audio and stock assets

Collaboration and Presentation Responsibilities

• Work alongside multi-disciplinary TSL teams to develop and produce social-first ideas
• Collaborate with cross-agency partners on behalf of client interests.
• Present strategic thinking and outputs to clients and internal partners

Agency Thought Leadership Responsibilities

• Promote and encourage a positive workplace culture dedicated to serving clients first and delivering high-quality work on their behalf
• Instill an agency-wide culture of curiosity, productivity, and proactivity, particularly related to content/engagement trends and innovation

People Management Responsibilities

• Coach and guide content team members
• Support other team members in ongoing content team education and learning initiatives

*This job description is not designed to cover or encompass a comprehensive listing of required activities, duties, or responsibilities. Specific functions may change, or additional ones may be assigned during the course of employment.


Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• 5-10+ years of experience, preferably in an agency setting
• 3+ years of community management experience
• Fluent in (and a student of) social media trends
• Client presentation expertise
• Quick to solve problems, improvise or propose solutions to barriers that may arise
• Growth mindset
• Able to thrive in ambiguity
• Stellar writing, editing and proofreading skills
• Proficient in MS Office software and G suite
• Excellent time management, organization, and prioritization skills
• Food-based social media portfolio a plus
• Experience with Apple (Keynote, Pages, Numbers)
• Experience with drones, volumetric content capture, VFX, A.I., and/or 3D a plus

Benefits

• Health Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• HSA + Company Contribution
• 401k + Company Match
• Generous PTO Policy
• New Macbook Pro
• Cell Phone Stipend
• Paid Employee Parking
• Summer Hours + Flexible Work Options
• Dog-Friendly Office