Performance Creative Strategist

Reports to: Founder

Office Location: Manchester, Northern Quarter

Working arrangement: Full-time, Remote

About Nero

Nero is redefining performance wear by replacing synthetic gym wear with luxury, high-performance natural fibers.

About the Role

We are not building a mass-market gym brand, and we are not looking to flood feeds with 20-year-old fitness influencers doing gym selfies. Our customer base consists of high-agency, affluent customers who appreciate understated luxury alongside health-conscious optimization, from founders tracking longevity to couples exploring endocrine health, fertility, and the biological impact of synthetic fabrics/microplastics.

We are looking for a Performance Creative Strategist to act as the strategic architect of our paid creative engine. You will focus 100% of your bandwidth on customer psychology, angle discovery, direct response scripting, and creative performance analysis.

What You’ll Do

• Niche & Angle Exploration: Mine customer data, health research, and cultural discourse to develop unique direct response angles across distinct pockets (e.g., quiet luxury, longevity/biohacking, microplastics vs. natural fibers, endocrine/fertility health, executive performance).
• Direct Response Scripting & Briefing: Write comprehensive, conversion-focused briefs for creators and video editors. You will map out spoken audio, 3-second visual hooks, pacing, B-roll cues, and precise calls to action.
• Directing Creator Operations: Define the exact creator criteria and personas needed for each campaign, handing off sourcing targets to our creator operations support to keep your pipeline supplied with raw footage.
• Post-Production & Iteration Engine: Work directly with video editors to cut raw creator footage into high-converting paid social ads. Systematically test hook variations, pacing, visual overlays, and text hooks against winning body concepts.
• Ad Account Creative Analytics: Partner with media buying to analyze creative performance (Thumbstop Rate, Hold Rate, CTR, CPA, ROAS). Identify creative fatigue early and rapidly produce iterations on scaling assets.
• AI-Leveraged Strategy: Leverage modern AI tools to accelerate research, script variations, voiceover testing, and creative performance insights.

What We’re Looking For

• 2+ Years in Performance Creative Strategy: Direct experience concepting, scripting, and briefing paid social ads within a fast-growing DTC brand or performance marketing agency.
• Advanced Direct Response Acumen: Deep understanding of consumer psychology, scroll-stopping mechanics, problem-agitation-solution frameworks, and commercial storytelling.
• Angle Versatility: Proven ability to tailor creative hooks and messaging to sophisticated, affluent demographics rather than relying on generic fitness tropes.
• Data-Informed Decision Making: You don't optimize for vanity metrics; you analyze hold rates, hook rates, and CPA to decide what gets iterated and scaled.
• Deep Paid Social Mechanics: Expert knowledge of Meta and TikTok ad formats, whitelisting/Partnership Ads, aspect ratios, and visual native styling.

What We Offer

• Direct Autonomy: Full ownership of creative strategy working alongside the founder.
• Competitive Salary: Based on direct experience, with significant progression as the brand scales.
• Bonus Structure for performance