About Us

At Ear to the Ground, we build brands that lead culture by understanding the future of sports, gaming, and entertainment fandom. Our approach is rooted in Fan Intelligence®, a global network of over 11,500 fans who provide real-time insight, shaping the most effective brand strategies in the industry.

Our work spans long-term partnerships with Nike, PlayStation, Sony, 2K, New Balance, and Coca-Cola, delivering culturally relevant, fan-first campaigns that drive engagement, influence behaviour, and deliver real business impact.

The Role

As Strategy Director, you will be a senior strategic leader within the Digital & Social team, responsible for shaping high-impact content and social strategies that integrate influencer, paid media, and performance-driven approaches.

You will lead content, social, and paid media planning, ensuring that everything we create is optimized for effectiveness, audience engagement, and business results.

You will champion marketing effectiveness, ensuring strategies are data-led, measurable, and continuously optimized.

With two Social & Digital Consultants reporting into you, you will mentor a team that blends creativity with effectiveness, ensuring our work not only resonates with fans but also delivers measurable ROI for our clients.

Key Responsibilities 

Content & Social Strategy Leadership

✔ Shape and develop content and social strategies that blend creativity, platform-first thinking, and performance insights.

✔ Ensure content is built for to social engagement, maximizing organic reach including earned media, paid amplification, and influencer impact.

✔ Lead social-first storytelling approaches, ensuring brand content is culturally relevant, fan-first, and aligned with platform best practices.

✔ Work closely with creative and influencer teams and campaign analyst to ensure content is high-performing across social and digital channels.

Paid Media & Performance Strategy

✔ Oversee paid media planning, ensuring the integration of organic, paid, and earned content strategies.

✔ Develop content distribution models that maximize audience reach and engagement through paid social, influencer amplification, and media partnerships.

✔ Build effective communications strategies and effective consumer journeys, demonstrating how social content fits into wider digital ecosystems of client campaigns including CRM, OOH and Web

✔ Utilize performance analytics, audience segmentation, and testing with fans to refine content effectiveness.

✔ Lead the development of measurement frameworks that track brand engagement, media efficiency, and overall campaign effectiveness.

Influencer & Creator-Led Strategy

✔ Develop strategic approaches for influencer and creator campaigns, ensuring partnerships are authentic, brand-aligned, and measurable.

✔ Identify and collaborate with content creators, gaming influencers, and media publishers to produce high-impact social content.

✔ Ensure creator content is effectively distributed and optimized for engagement and reach.

Marketing Effectiveness & Measurement

✔ Champion content and campaign effectiveness, ensuring data-led decision making is embedded in all strategies.

✔ Collaborate with the Fan Intelligence® team to leverage real-time insights that shape social and content strategies.

✔ Define effectiveness benchmarks for social, influencer, and paid content, ensuring clear ROI and performance tracking.

✔ Provide strategic recommendations to optimize content formats, messaging, and media investment.

Client and Team Leadership

✔ Act as a trusted strategic advisor to clients, guiding them on content, digital, and social effectiveness strategies.

✔ Manage and mentor two Social & Digital Consultants, ensuring they develop into highly skilled digital strategists.

✔ Partner with the Head of Digital & Social to evolve the agency’s content, paid media, and effectiveness framework.

✔ Support new business efforts, contributing to pitch strategies, content frameworks, and effectiveness methodologies.

Innovation & Thought Leadership

✔ Stay ahead of platform evolutions, audience behaviors, and social content trends, ensuring our clients remain at the cutting edge.

✔ Drive experimentation with new content formats, influencer collaborations, and digital storytelling techniques.

✔ Lead internal training and client workshops to elevate knowledge on paid media, influencer marketing, and content performance.

Key Requirements

✔ 8+ years’ experience in strategy roles within a creative, digital, or media agency.

✔ Strong expertise in content strategy, with a track record of developing social-first brand campaigns.

✔ Deep understanding of paid media planning, audience targeting, and content amplification.

✔ Experience in influencer marketing, creator partnerships, and media publisher collaborations.

✔ Expert knowledge of social platforms, algorithms, and content best practices (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, Twitch, Discord).

✔ Strong analytical mindset – able to translate data into strategic content recommendations.

✔ Passionate about fan culture, sports, gaming, and entertainment.

✔ Excellent storytelling and presentation skills – able to sell-in strategies to clients and internal teams.

✔ Strong leadership and mentorship skills, with a track record of developing and growing teams.

What We Offer

✔ Private Medical Insurance & Medical Cash Plan

✔ Work From Anywhere policy

✔ Enhanced Maternity, Paternity & Shared Parental Leave

✔ Mental Health Support, including free counselling

✔ Personal Development Coach for career growth

✔ Hybrid working model (minimum 3 days in Manchester office)

✔ A dynamic and culture-led agency working with some of the biggest brands in

sports and gaming

Location: Manchester (Hybrid – minimum 3 days in office)

Reports to: Head of Digital & Social

Direct Reports: Two Social & Digital Consultants

Salary: Competitive, based on experience.