Brand Strategist - YouTube & Social Content

Join a dynamic team partnering with a leading consumer brand to elevate their digital presence! This is an exceptional opportunity to make a significant, immediate impact by shaping the YouTube strategy for a high-profile channel. You will be instrumental in maximizing audience engagement and growth for a brand with a global reach, contributing directly to the success of high-visibility programming and major live events.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced YouTube Strategist to lead the day-to-day strategy, management, publishing, and optimization of a major consumer brand's YouTube channel. This is a high-profile, approximately 10-week engagement where you will serve as the dedicated YouTube subject matter expert, collaborating with the broader Organic Social team to amplify high-visibility programming, live-event content, and supporting video across short- and long-form formats.

This is a hands-on role for a YouTube platform expert and experienced social strategist. You will seamlessly navigate between developing overarching platform recommendations and personally managing publishing workflows, optimization, reporting, channel organization, and cross-functional coordination. Your expertise will directly influence how millions engage with content, driving growth and enhancing the brand's digital footprint.

What You'll Do

As a key strategic partner, you will:

• Own the day-to-day strategy and management of the brand's YouTube channel throughout the engagement.
• Develop and execute a YouTube-specific platform strategy to maximize audience growth, engagement, viewership, and overall channel performance.
• Recommend tailored strategies for both YouTube Shorts and long-form/VOD content.
• Identify and implement opportunities to repurpose, clip, package, and amplify existing content specifically for YouTube.
• Recommend incremental YouTube-first programming and optimization opportunities based on platform best practices and audience behavior.
• Collaborate with the broader Organic Social team to ensure YouTube complements the overall social and marketing strategy.
• Strategize on how to maximize platform performance, even when available content is limited.
• Manage end-to-end YouTube publishing workflows across Shorts and long-form/VOD content.
• Oversee content scheduling and publishing for episodic programming, live-event content, and supporting pre- and post-event content.
• Optimize titles, descriptions, thumbnails, metadata, tagging, chapters, end screens, cards, links, and other discoverability elements.
• Manage YouTube-specific features including Premieres, playlists, Community posts, content hubs, chapters, pinned comments, and channel organization.
• Coordinate content calendars, approvals, assets, and publishing requirements, ensuring accuracy and timely delivery.
• Identify opportunities to extend the lifespan of existing content through resurfacing, repackaging, playlists, Shorts, and other native YouTube tactics.
• Conduct an audit and clean-up of the existing YouTube channel to improve organization, discoverability, consistency, and overall user experience.
• Maintain and optimize channel architecture, including homepage organization, playlists, featured content, content groupings, and navigation.
• Apply current YouTube best practices across both the consumer-facing channel and backend channel management.
• Continuously identify opportunities to improve channel health and performance.
• Serve as a key day-to-day point of contact with external platform partners.
• Coordinate platform recommendations, content calendars, approvals, opportunities, technical requirements, and event-related support.
• Partner closely with Social, Creative, Production, Marketing, PR, and other cross-functional teams.
• Manage multiple timelines and dependencies across a high volume of content.
• Proactively identify and communicate potential risks, gaps, or opportunities.
• Clearly communicate publishing plans, platform requirements, recommendations, and performance to internal and external stakeholders.
• Operate independently in meetings and confidently represent YouTube strategy and platform best practices.
• Monitor performance across Shorts, long-form/VOD, episodic programming, live-event content, and supporting assets.
• Provide regular reporting and actionable insights to support real-time optimization.
• Evaluate YouTube KPIs including views, watch time, audience retention, engagement, subscriber growth, traffic sources, and other relevant channel metrics.
• Translate performance data into clear recommendations for both immediate campaign needs and longer-term YouTube strategy.

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of social media experience preferred, with significant hands-on experience managing YouTube for a brand, publisher, entertainment property, agency client, or similarly scaled organization. Minimum of approximately 3-5 years of relevant experience; candidates with 5+ years are strongly preferred.
• Deep, hands-on knowledge of YouTube, including Shorts, long-form/VOD, YouTube Studio, analytics, Premieres, Community, playlists, channel architecture, publishing, and optimization.
• Demonstrated experience building AND executing YouTube strategies, rather than simply publishing content to the platform.
• Strong understanding of YouTube discoverability, audience retention, packaging, channel growth, and platform-native best practices.
• Excellent project management and organizational skills.
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.
• Ability to independently collaborate with internal teams and external platform partners.
• Comfortable working both strategically and hands-on.
• Able to work quickly and exercise sound judgment in a fast-moving environment with tight deadlines.
• Highly detail-oriented and comfortable managing multiple simultaneous workstreams.

Bonus Points

• Experience supporting high-profile, high-volume, episodic, entertainment, or live-event content.
• Strong organic social media background and understanding of how YouTube fits within a broader social strategy.
• Experience within fashion, retail, beauty, CPG, entertainment, media, or other consumer-facing brands.

Assignment Snapshot

• Assignment Type: Project-based contract
• Duration: Approximately 10 weeks
• Schedule: Full-time, approximately 40 hours per week
• Start: ASAP
• Travel: Potential limited travel associated with a major live event
• Hours: Candidates must have some flexibility for evening/weekend work tied to scheduled programming and the live-event period

About Aquent Talent

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world's biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits!

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.

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