Senior Director, Film Marketing & Creative Strategy

This is a Full Time Job

Position Overview

The Senior Director, Film Marketing & Creative Strategy leads marketing for a share of our theatrical and VOD/SVOD slate, from acquisition through release. Working closely with the President and the EVP of Marketing, you'll own the campaign for each of your films: its positioning, its audience, its rollout, and the creative that brings it to market.

You'll lead a team of managers and coordinators, direct agencies and creative partners, and work across Distribution, Publicity, Digital, and Production to turn distinctive films into cultural events.

This is a campaign leadership role, not a creative services role. You'll set the strategy and direct the creative, and your team and partners will make it. The best candidates are marketers first, with the creative judgment to know when a trailer or poster isn't working and how to fix it.

Working closely with the President of Marketing and the EVP of Marketing, you will help translate each film's unique voice, positioning, and audience opportunity into compelling creative campaigns that break through a crowded marketplace and build cultural momentum.

What you'll own

Campaign strategy and positioning
•      Set the marketing strategy for each of your films, from the first positioning conversation after acquisition through release and subsequent windows.
•      Define who each film is for, how they'll find it, and the single idea that will make them feel they need to see it.
•      Plan the campaign rollout: sequencing of trailers, key art, social, publicity moments, and experiential beats against release and festival dates.
•      Present and defend campaign strategy to filmmakers, talent, and senior leadership.
Audience, research and media
•      Use audience research, testing, and tracking to shape positioning, creative, and spend recommendations.
•      Partner with the media and Digital teams on paid strategy and channel mix, and manage campaign spend within budgets set by the department head.
•      Read campaign performance in real time and adjust creative, targeting, and rollout to move the needle.
•      Turn each campaign's results into learnings that make the next one sharper.

Creative leadership
•      Write the creative briefs that guide trailers, teasers, key art, digital AV, and social.
•      Direct agencies, editors, and designers, giving clear notes that keep the work true to the film and the strategy.
•      Ensure one strong idea carries across every audience touchpoint, adapted for each platform.
•      Oversee marketing-driven shoots and on-set marketing materials (specialty photography, BTS, EPK).

Digital and social strategy
•      Creator marketing: Identify the creators and cultural voices that matter for each film, and build creator strategies spanning organic editorial opportunities and paid partnerships.
•      Organic social: Partner with the Digital Marketing team to shape organic social rollouts, lead trend and creative brainstorms, and optimize AV and campaign creative based on platform behavior and performance.
•      Emerging opportunities: Spot emerging platforms, formats, communities, and cultural conversations where our films can break through.
•      Experiential: Develop experiential and culturally relevant ideas that extend campaigns beyond traditional advertising.

Team and partnerships
•      Lead, coach, and grow a team of managers and coordinators across multiple simultaneous campaigns.
•      Set the team's standards and workflows for creative development, approvals, and delivery.
•      Build strong relationships with agencies, creative partners, distributors, and publicists, and bring in fresh talent.

Brand stewardship
•      Ensure every campaign reflects both the individual identity of its film and the standards and reputation of NEON.

Cross-departmental leadership
•      Acquisitions, Production and Development: Shape marketing wish lists and production deliverables from acquisition, so every campaign has the materials it needs.
•      Post and Delivery: Make sure Marketing has timely access to assets, and keep workflows for marketing materials efficient and cost-conscious.
•      Digital Distribution: Extend campaigns into home entertainment and subsequent release windows, and help drive marketing for awards and FYC initiatives.
•      Legal and Business Affairs: Work with Legal and Business Affairs team to ensure campaign materials clear guild, legal, and paid advertising compliance review, and that freelance and vendor partners are properly onboarded.
•      Publicity: Coordinate with Publicity team to align trailer, poster, and other key material launches with publicity strategy, and manage talent participation in marketing initiatives.
•      Theatrical Distribution: Deliver in-theater materials on time and to MPA guidelines, and provide creative direction for exhibitor-specific digital AV.

The Ideal Candidate

The person we're looking for has run campaigns, not just made the materials for them. You can walk us through a release you led: the audience you went after, the bet you made, what the numbers did, and what you'd change. You know what makes a great trailer, poster, social idea, or campaign, and can articulate why. And you can give a sharp note on a trailer cut in the same afternoon.
You are equally comfortable brainstorming a provocative campaign idea, giving notes in an edit, presenting work to a filmmaker, reviewing key art, discussing audience strategy, managing an agency, or coaching a member of your team.
Most importantly, you understand that great independent film marketing isn't about applying the same playbook to every release. It's about finding the singular idea, audience, and cultural opportunity that makes people feel they need to see this film.

Location and compensation

We will consider candidates to join either our Los Angeles or New York office, with a hybrid schedule of three days a week in office and occasional travel between locations.
Our target salary range is $120,000-$150,000. Pay is based on location, experience, skills, and internal equity.

A note on the process
To keep the process fair, please don't reach out to us directly, we can't respond to individual inquiries. If your experience is a strong match, we'll be in touch.