Performance Creative Strategist, Contract

About the Role

Mass Culture helps brands grow with intention and integrity by closing the gap between brand and performance. Our sister agency, Brains, makes brands people choose, not just consider. This role stands right between the two, which is a great place to stand if you like knowing why things work.

You read the account, with data and intuition. You find what's working, what's tired, and what nobody has tried yet. You get to know the human needs behind the numbers, map the gaps, and decide what we test next. Then you write the brief, and Brains takes it through a full creative process and makes it real. You don't design or edit the ads. You decide what they need to do, and how we'll know if they did it.

This job done well is a flywheel: performance signal in, sharper (and more importantly bolder) creative out, and better signal back. Done badly, it's a deck about a deck that produces boring creative that’s been done before. We’re hiring you for the first one.

What You'll Own

• Creative diagnosis: read creative performance across Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and the rest, and say plainly what's working, what's fatiguing, and why. Hook rate, hold rate, CTR, CPA, ROAS, and MER are working tools here, not a vocabulary test.
• The people behind the numbers: build the persona and angle work for each account. Who we're talking to, what they believe, what stops the scroll, and which angles we haven't tried yet. Nobody owes a brand their attention, so we go earn it.
• The testing roadmap: every concept carries a hypothesis, every launch gets a readout, and every readout changes what we brief next. Test it, learn it, write it down.
• Briefs: write briefs the creative team can run with, no decoder ring required. The problem, the audience, the angle, the hook, the proof, the formats, and the platform specs.
• The bridge: be the person media and creative both trust, and both actually call. You give media a clear read on the creative, and give creative the context to make its best work.
• Learning that travels: what we learn on one account should make the next one smarter. Keep the angle library, and bring it to every brief.
• Client conversations: present creative findings in QBRs and working sessions alongside account and media leads. Explain the why. Skip the abracadabra.

How We Work Together

• Mass owns the why, Brains owns the how. You set direction and define success. The creative team runs concepting and production. Push the work, and respect the craft.
• Growth is the only proof. Beautiful ads that don't move the business are a magic show. We're not great at magic shows.
• Platform first, then pretty. If a format has constraints, the brief says so up front, so the work gets built right the first time.
• Bring the numbers. You'll have our client portal and the analysis tools behind it. Opinions are welcome. Opinions with data get built.
• Say when something is wrong, including when it's a brief you wrote. Safe is expensive. So is staying quiet when a good bet just doesn’t pay off. 

What We're Looking For

Required

• 3 to 6 years in performance creative strategy, agency-side or at a high-growth DTC brand.
• Real fluency with Meta creative and Ads Manager, and working knowledge of TikTok and YouTube. You can open an account and tell the story of what the creative is doing.
• Briefs that turned into ads that scaled, and the ability to explain exactly why. Luck happens. We'll want to know what wasn't luck.
• Direct-response instincts: hooks, angles, awareness levels, offers, and proof.
• Experience running structured creative testing, not just launching variations and hoping.
• Clear writing. Most of this job is a brief, a readout, or a recommendation.
• An ad you were sure about that lost, and what you changed because of it. We will ask. We'll tell you one of ours, too.

Nice to Have

• Experience in supplements, wellness, CPG, or other subscription and continuity categories.
• Creative analytics tools like Motion, Triple Whale, or whatever you swear by.
• Briefing UGC creators and influencer content.
• Amazon creative: A+ content, Brand Store, and Sponsored Brands video.
• Experience partnering with a brand-led creative agency.
• A non-traditional path. Ex-founders, recovering copywriters, and media buyers who got curious about the creative are all welcome here.

Engagement

Contract, remote, and ongoing, starting at 20 to 30 hours a week across a focused set of accounts. Rate is agreed up front. If it's working for both sides, there's room to grow into a full-time role.

To apply, send a note and two or three briefs or creative readouts you're proud of, with the results. Real numbers, please.

Why Mass Culture

We are not a traditional agency. We work inside our clients' businesses, connect media to margins, and measure ourselves on their growth, not our output. Our sister company, Brains, is a world-class branding agency, and that relationship is real. We love brand as much as we love performance.

Senior people do actual work here. We spend a client's money like we made it. And we still see our families and have book clubs and such.

No hacking. No smoke and mirrors. Real growth.