Freelance Influencer Manager / Talent Scout

About the role:

Waste is looking to hire a proactive and tenacious person to help run a new initiative at the agency. In collaboration with our client, one of the biggest in the mobile-gaming sector, we are designing a programme to find and nurture up-and-coming gaming creators. You will own and shape this programme, build relationships with these people, offer encouragement and guidance to help them reach their creator potential.

This person needs to be extremely organised, conscientious and hard-working, with a thorough knowledge of the gaming community. You must be able to demonstrate that you have either worked in the industry or take an active role in it (maybe you have your own YT/Twitch channel). You must be passionate about all things social media and have a strong knowledge of how creator channels work. We are looking for someone who has great initiative, efficient and a great communicator. You will be working as part of the Strategy department at Waste. This is a freelance contract that will sit inside IR35, therefore we will accept contractors who are paid via an umbrella company.

Responsibilities

• Running the scouting program at Waste.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Identifying and developing relationships with up-and-coming gaming creators that have yet to reach full potential
• Developing growth strategies for creators and their channels and working with creators to bring these to life
• Measuring and reporting on successful growth strategies. Providing learnings from strategies that didn’t work so well
• Help creators to develop channel content and formats
• The ability to act as a supporter, champion and ‘critical friend’ (when needed) for creators
• Updating the clients as and when relevant on any aspect of the scouting program.
• Acting as the main point of contact for the rest of the agency with regards to the scouting programme.
• Staying on top of gaming and creator industry developments and sharing insights with the wider team.
• Advising on compliance requirements for brand partnerships where necessary
• Forming connections and small communities between creators.
• Encouraging collaboration and mutual support.

Skills & Knowledge

• Have an understanding of the world of influencer marketing and work to stay at the forefront of this discipline
• Be genuinely enthusiastic about creator and internet culture
• Have a deep understanding of gaming culture
• Have a great sense of initiative – the ideal candidate would be a tenacious problem solver
• Organised and pragmatic with day-to-day tasks
• Have strong communication skills – this role involves talking to a range of people for most of the day, across Zoom, email, slack and social media channels like Discord
• Able to handle a lot of projects simultaneously, prioritising by what is most important.
• Strong brand safety understanding
• Experience with social listening and influencer identification tools
• High empathy & people management

Experience required / Desirable traits

• Community/Social Media Manager/Talent exec with at least 2 years’ experience. Maybe your current role is agency-side and you’re looking to step-up into a role with real responsibility and ownership, or maybe you’re already a creator and looking to share your skills and experience with others whilst shaping the creator landscape from the inside.
• Experience working in the gaming sector. But more than that, you must live and breathe this stuff.
• Open to learning new things, not afraid of change
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Must be flexible, a strong multi-tasker
• Ability to own your shit, roll your sleeves up and get on with it
• Ability to think big picture
• Knowledge of platform analytics (i.e., YouTube best practices) is a must
• Familiarity with effective research practices would be a plus
• The candidate must be UK based
• Working 3 days a week

Benefits:

Big opportunity for growth/progression
Remuneration dependent on experience

About us:

Waste is an independent creative agency founded in 2006. We connect entertainment brands with their fans, to drive creativity, culture and commercial success. A virtuous circle we call ‘Brands powering fans, powering brands’.

Clients include the mobile gaming giant, Supercell (Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars). Our remit is player acquisition and retention, built around community listening and high-speed, high-quality content creation. We also work with the mighty Nintendo, creating TV, OOH and integrated marketing campaigns, for both hardware and software. Other notable clients include Riot Games (League of Legends), Ubisoft, Sega, Verizon Media and most recently Zynga.

In 2020 we were named both “The Drum Content Marketing” and “Digital Industries (DADI)“ Agency of the year. Globally we employ 70+ specialists covering strategy, creative, social, content, experiential, OOH, and TV. We have physical offices in London & LA, and work with brands around the world.

Our approach to everything is shaped by The Waste Way (our company values), and an entrepreneurial spirit. It’s seen us win 100+ awards, including Art Director’s Club, Awwwards, BIMA, D&AD, Clios, Design Week, The Drum, The FWA, Marketing Week Masters, and The Webby Awards. We brew our own craft beer, the Waste Pale Ale, a favourite with clients and partners. And we’ve recently started our own animation production company, This Thing of Ours. We also support the UK based gaming charity, SpecialEffect.