Creative Director - Video

Benefits and culture

This freelance Creative Director - Video role from Bryson Gillette is onsite in Washington, DC. You will lead end-to-end video creativity with a data driven mindset, collaborating across teams and external partners while staying ahead of digital and cultural shifts. The role emphasizes mentorship, strategic storytelling, and measurable impact on campaign performance.

• Comprehensive coverage for you and your dependents, including PPO health, dental, and vision plans.
• 401(k) with employer match to support long term financial goals.
• Flexible time off policy with no vacation caps after a 90 day introduction period.
• Generous paid parental leave to support life events beyond work.
• Discretionary year end bonuses recognizing contribution and outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Steer end-to-end creative development across formats, from long form storytelling to short form cuts for social channels like Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
• Oversee concepting, scripting, and production, guiding editors and motion designers from concept through final delivery, including management of external partners.
• Bridge strategy and production by translating campaign goals into creative briefs and giving clear direction to all contributors to ensure assets support overarching objectives.
• Coordinate with production crews and freelance editors to ensure quality, efficiency, and alignment with client goals.
• Collaborate with paid media strategists to align creative direction with targeting, budget, and performance targets.
• Stay ahead of platform shifts and emerging formats, bringing fresh ideas to the team.
• Contribute creative vision to new business proposals, helping to envision, design, and present campaign concepts to prospective clients.
• Mentor teammates, sharing expertise and fostering growth within the group.
• Monitor and interpret creative performance data across platforms to understand what resonates and why.
• Design and evaluate A/B and multivariate creative tests, translating results into actionable changes.
• Translate insights into creative action by adjusting scripts, visuals, and copy based on engagement, retention, and conversion trends.
• Partner with clients and internal teams to connect creative performance to campaign ROI and overall objectives.
• Build or maintain performance dashboards to track outcomes and share learnings across clients.
• Remain fluent in analytics tools and emerging optimization technologies to continuously improve creative effectiveness.

Requirements

• Experience delivering across public affairs campaigns, nonprofits, political initiatives, and private sector brands, or demonstrated ability to navigate those domains confidently.
• Comfort directing editors and contractors, with a clear ability to articulate vision and extract peak performance from collaborators.
• Strong grasp of social and paid media metrics, with the ability to interpret data and optimize creative accordingly.
• Experience designing and analyzing creative tests (A/B or multivariate) and iterating based on results.
• Familiarity with analytics and visualization tools (Google Analytics, Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Creative Center, Looker, Tableau).
• Collaborative mindset with excellent communication skills, able to translate ideas into strategy and strategy into visuals.
• Curiosity, adaptability, and a knack for spotting cultural and digital trends early.
• Strong written and verbal communication abilities.
• Growth mindset and a proactive approach to learning and improvement.

Technologies

• Google Analytics
• Meta Ads Manager
• TikTok Creative Center
• Looker
• Tableau

Nice to have

• Motion graphics or animation experience
• Experience with UX, landing page creative, or integrated digital storytelling
• Experience producing for broadcast or linear TV
• Multilingual capabilities or experience creating multilingual content
• Background in diversity, equity and inclusion or social justice advocacy campaigns
• Client relationship experience
• Good sense of humor

Compensation

The annual base salary range is $90,000 to $125,000. This range represents starting pay and does not cap future growth within the role.