Full-Time
Social Creative Director
Viral Nation
501-1,000 employees
Influencer marketing and social media partner
Compensation Overview
CA$150k - CA$170k/yr
Canada
In Person
Bachelor's
 Creative Production |
|---|
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- At least 10 years of experience in creative strategy, social media, integrated marketing, or content strategy, preferably within a fast-paced agency or digital-first environment.
- Experience developing social-first creative strategies and campaign concepts that align with brand objectives and drive measurable performance.
- Strong understanding of social platforms, creator ecosystems, and platform-native storytelling, with the ability to translate trends and cultural signals into creative opportunity areas.
- Ability to use performance data, platform insights, and post-campaign learnings to inform strategy and strengthen future creative approaches.
- Experience partnering with analytics or business intelligence teams to translate data into actionable insights, strategic recommendations, and client-ready narratives.
- Leadership experience guiding strategists or cross-functional teams, elevating output quality, strengthening strategic rigor, and mentoring team members.
- Experience shaping strategic narratives, leading client discussions, and translating strategy into clear creative direction.
- Experience working across creative, strategy, media, client services, and production teams to deliver cohesive campaign execution.
- Ability to manage multiple workstreams, align stakeholders, and maintain high standards across complex client engagements.
- A university degree or college diploma in marketing, communications, business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- Own the end-to-end quality of creative strategy output, ensuring strategic thinking is the through-line behind every creative idea delivered.
- Serve as the accountable final pass for creative strategy deliverables across priority work, with a focus on clarity, platform-native thinking, and performance relevance.
- Drive the development of social-first creative concepts, campaign ideas, and strategic recommendations aligned with client objectives.
- Partner with Strategy and Business Intelligence to translate cultural, platform, and performance signals into clear creative opportunity areas.
- Operate as an anchor leader within the division across multiple opportunities and clients, guiding the pod’s strategic-to-creative output.
- Use performance data and post-campaign insights to refine creative strategy frameworks and translate learnings into stronger future concepts and platform approaches.
- Provide direct leadership by improving output quality, sharpening strategic rigor, and raising the standard of social-first thinking.
- Serve as the primary point of alignment for senior creative partners to maintain cohesion, quality control, and strategic consistency.
- Shape and strengthen strategic narratives, pitches, and creative storytelling for new business and client engagements.
- Support and, when required, lead client presentations by translating strategy into clear creative direction and actionable next steps.
- Advise on creative direction during content development and production, ensuring alignment with platform trends and performance insights.
- Develop and evolve repeatable creative strategy frameworks, including platform playbooks, concepting structures, and signal-to-idea methodologies.
- Translate cultural trends, platform updates, and performance insights into actionable creative guidance for clients and internal teams.
- Contribute hands-on to ideation and concept development when needed to unblock teams or elevate creative thinking.
- Partner with Business Development, Client Services, Media, and Measurement teams to ensure strategy and creative recommendations convert into cohesive, effective execution.
- Align stakeholders early, clarify inputs and owners, and drive decision-making to keep work moving and standards high.
- Contribute forward-looking ideas and thought leadership to support innovation and strengthen the company’s creative approach.
- Act as the connective layer between Strategy, Creative, Creator Relations, and Community Management to ensure creative ideas translate seamlessly into execution across the social ecosystem.
Viral Nation is a social media and influencer marketing agency that combines influencer campaigns with paid performance media, owned social channels, and creative content services for brands. It uses machine learning and AI-powered technology to plan, optimize, and safely transition brands to a social-first approach, blending organic and paid efforts to boost social commerce. The company differentiates itself with proprietary tech and an end-to-end service across influencer collaborations, paid media, ownership of social ecosystems, and creative production, delivering measurable results like higher ROAS and lower CAC. Its goal is to help brands become social-first, maximize social media value, and achieve predictable revenue growth through influencer marketing and paid/social strategies.
Company Size
501-1,000
Company Stage
Late Stage VC
Total Funding
$183.3M
Headquarters
Chicago, Illinois
Founded
2014
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Rocket named Viral Nation social AOR in August 2025, validating enterprise demand.
- The company says its 2026 AI pilot drove $17 million attributed pipeline.
- $250 million financing from Eldridge and Maverix funds technology expansion and market capture.
What critics are saying
- AI Discovery commoditizes quickly; agencies and SEO shops will copy it by 2027.
- Viral Nation depends on platform algorithms; TikTok, YouTube, and Meta policy shifts can slash demand.
- If client spending weakens, the 300-person model and fixed talent costs squeeze margins fast.
What makes Viral Nation unique
- SocialAI scans creator video frames and historical profiles across hundreds of thousands of creators.
- Viral Nation Secure prices, vets, and matches creators with brand-safety intelligence.
- The firm launched AI Discovery in August 2026, blending creators with GEO.
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Benefits
Flexible Work Hours
Remote Work Options
Professional Development Budget
Mental Health Support
Wellness Program
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 1%1 year growth
↑ 0%2 year growth
↓ -5%Viral Nation launches AI Discovery a social-first GEO offering. Viral Nation launches AI Discovery a social-first GEO offering to connect consumers with brands via AI-driven discovery NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Viral Nation, a leading social-first agency and technology company, today announced the launch of AI Discovery, its social-first Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) offering designed to help brands shape the signals, authority, narrative and intelligence that influence how AI systems understand, trust and recommend them. AI is changing how people discover brands. Consumers are increasingly using AI platforms to ask questions about which brands they should consider, which providers are best and how options compare. As a result, discovery is becoming both fragmented and answer-led, creating a new challenge for marketers. It is no longer just about high search rankings. Brands need to be accurately understood, trusted and recommended within the answers customers receive. This shift is structural, not incremental. AI search doesn't return ten blue links. It answers, summarizes, compares and recommends. When a buyer asks an AI platform which brand, provider or agency to consider, the answer itself becomes the shortlist. Brands that are absent, inaccurately described, or miscategorized in that answer lose consideration before a human ever enters the funnel. Viral Nation is introducing AI Discovery now because this shift is already underway across the categories its clients compete in, and waiting to react after the shortlist has formed is no longer a viable position. AI Discovery is not replacing social, but it is learning from it. While technical optimization matters, AI systems do not learn from websites alone - like search does. They learn from the broader digital ecosystem, including owned content, creator content, community discussion, brand authority, executive visibility, earned media, third-party validation and cultural relevance. The challenge is bigger than SEO. It is a brand ecosystem challenge. Viral Nation's AI Discovery offering combines technical optimization, content strategy, creator ecosystems, community engagement, authority building, social intelligence and measurement into one integrated operating model. The offering is designed to help brands improve visibility and influence across AI-driven discovery environments by shaping the signals AI systems learn from and the answers consumers receive. "We are helping brands shape how AI understands them," said Joe Gagliese, Co-Founder of Viral Nation. "AI learns from signals, and those signals are increasingly shaped by content, creators, communities, authority, culture and conversation. For more than a decade, Viral Nation has helped brands influence how they are perceived, discussed, trusted and understood across digital environments. AI Discovery does not represent a departure from our business; it validates it." AI Discovery is structured around five connected modules: * Diagnostic: AI visibility baselines, prompt mapping, citation audits and competitive benchmarking to establish how a brand currently appears across AI-driven discovery environments. * Foundation: Technical optimization, entity clarity, and answer-ready content that gives AI systems a clear, consistent basis for description. * Signal: Creator, community, earned media and cultural strategy that shapes the broader ecosystem AI systems learn from. * Measurement: Prompt visibility, mention share of voice, AI referral traffic and pipeline tracking, connected to business outcomes. * Integration: Ongoing monitoring and reporting that connects AI Discovery to a brand's broader digital and social strategy rather than treating it as a standalone function. Engagements begin with the Diagnostic module and scale based on findings and client priorities. Before launching AI Discovery externally, Viral Nation built and tested the methodology on itself over the past year and a half. Results include 84% prompt visibility, 52% share of voice in mentions, 256% growth in AI referral traffic, and an additional $17 million in directly attributed pipeline. AI Discovery does not replace Viral Nation's existing services. It amplifies their value. Strategy creates clarity. Content creates understanding. Creators build trust. Community shapes conversation. Authority strengthens credibility. Business Intelligence measures impact. Together, these signals influence how both people and AI systems understand brands. Viral Nation's AI Discovery offering is available now. To request an AI Discovery Baseline, visit: https://www.viralnation.com/services/ai-discovery About Viral Nation Viral Nation is the enterprise operating model for social, helping the world's largest brands turn social into a measurable, scalable growth channel. The company brings intelligence, technology, creators, and end-to-end execution together across strategy, creator marketing, content, community, paid media, experiential, commerce, and measurement. At its core is SocialAI, Viral Nation's proprietary intelligence layer, which transforms social, creator, content, audience, safety, and performance signals into faster, smarter decisions. Viral Nation Secure(TM), its AI-powered brand safety and creator intelligence platform, helps brands select the right creators, assess brand fit, and manage risk at scale. Viral Nation works with brands including e.l.f. Cosmetics, Kimberly-Clark, MGM Resorts International, Microsoft, and Conaire, and represents leading digital talent worldwide. Learn more at viralnation.com and follow Viral Nation on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X.
Viral Nation has launched AI Discovery, a generative engine optimisation offering designed to help brands shape how AI systems understand and recommend them to consumers. The service addresses the shift in consumer behaviour towards using AI platforms for brand discovery and recommendations. The offering combines technical optimisation, content strategy, creator ecosystems and community engagement into an integrated model. It consists of five modules: diagnostic, foundation, signal, measurement and integration. Before the external launch, Viral Nation tested the methodology internally over 18 months, achieving 84% prompt visibility, 52% share of voice in mentions, 256% growth in AI referral traffic and $17 million in attributed pipeline. The service is available now and complements Viral Nation's existing social-first agency and technology offerings.
Plus Company appoints Alice de Vries as VP, Marketing and Communications to lead its go-to-market. by Cossette Brands no longer buy agency services discipline by discipline. They buy outcomes. Delivering them requires creativity, media, data and technology to work as one. That shift is redefining how agencies go to market, and why Plus Company has appointed Alice de Vries as Vice President, Marketing and Communications for its agencies, including flagship Cossette. A go-to-market leader shaped by creative, social, and emerging technologies, she will lead a more integrated, client-facing approach designed to make the network's full offering easier to understand and act on. In her new role, de Vries will translate what brands need into what Plus Company delivers, turning a complex, multi-disciplinary offering into clear, compelling and actionable solutions. She will lead go-to-market strategy, marketing and communications, helping clients access and leverage the network's capabilities, from Cossette's creative, media and production expertise to Munvo's martech and transformation offering, as well as Plus Company's investments in media tools, agentic AI and its partnership with Gemini Enterprise. Her mandate is to ensure the network shows up as one: coherent, coordinated, and built to drive business impact at the intersection of creativity, technology and business impact. As client expectations continue to evolve, this role will help shape how Plus Company brings its integrated model to market. De Vries joins from Viral Nation, where she served as EVP, Go-to-Market, Marketing and Communications, building a track record of category-defining work, including industry-first formats such as a live Super Bowl ad show that drove measurable engagement and brand visibility. She previously served as COO of early-stage company Tiary through its successful exit, and spent five years at Publicis Groupe UK leading creative work for Procter & Gamble. "Plus Company is building an end-to-end strike force that spans across creative, media, and marketing technology, and our recent client wins show that model is working. Alice brings the ambition and clarity to translate that into something clients actually feel, turning what a brand needs into what our whole network delivers." Mélanie Dunn, President of Plus Company Canada and CEO of Cossette "I've spent my career making brands and agencies impossible to ignore. What convinced me here is that Plus Company and Cossette aren't just talking about creativity, data and technology working together. They're building it with every client partner, and that's exciting. My job is to be the voice that makes that connection obvious to every brand we work with in unforgettable ways." Alice de Vries, VP Marketing and Communications
Viral Nation launches The Culture Quotient measurement at Brandweek. Viral Nation's new measurement offering looks to replace impressions. There's big news to come out of Monday's edition of ADWEEK's Brandweek in Atlanta: Viral Nation is announcing the launch of its new proprietary measurement framework, The Culture Quotient, CQ. The framework is a first-of-its-kind offering for measuring cultural relevance and business impact, according to Viral Nation. CQ utilizes advanced AI and social intelligence to measure how a brand is represented in culture, translating social signals - such as engagement growth, conversation volume, and sentiment - to tangible results. "The Culture Quotient is the next evolution of measurement. It's benchmarkable, trackable, and tied directly to business outcomes," said Joe Gagliese, Viral Nation CEO. "It's a framework that tells brands not just how loud they are, but how deeply they resonate in culture." CQ is looking to replace traditional social metrics like earned media value (EMV) and impressions, which only measure visibility, not value. According to Viral Nation, these measurement methods show reach rather than resonance. "Culture drives business," said Richelle Batuigas, Viral Nation's executive vice president, business intelligence and data strategy. "When brands connect authentically to what people care about, we see it in the data - consideration, loyalty, sales. The Culture Quotient finally gives marketers a way to see and scale that connection." With social media as the main playground for relevance, Viral Nation notes that its data consistently shows that when people perceive a brand as culturally relevant, it drives everything from consideration to purchase intent and loyalty. According to the company, cultural connection is the new currency of trust. "We realize [EMV] is a metric that doesn't actually give us true insight into performance or cultural relevance," Batuigas told ADWEEK. "That's why we want to do away with it and introduce this new score that actually gives you true insight." For Batuigas, the value comes down to measuring the impact of all communication and going beyond quantity. "It's about thinking more deeply about the quantity and the quality, and also about how you arrived at those outcomes so you can drive better results and better connections," Batuigas said. Mark Mwachiro is a TVNewser contributor who has been writing for the blog since March 2022. Based out of New York, Mark has also contributed to ADWEEK.
Viral Nation's first work as Rocket's social AOR arrived earlier this year during the Super Bowl.