Creative Director - Motorsports (Remote, USA)

Are you a motorsports enthusiast who is driven to create and lead? Are you motivated to leave your creative mark on the motorsport industry? Can you take a company vision and turn it into a visually stunning creative strategy that sells? If this sounds like you, then Apex Wheels has an exciting opportunity for you.

Apex is a leading provider of high-performance automotive wheels and accessories, catering to the motorsport and performance car enthusiast community. Our mission is to provide wheels that deliver real and measurable performance and to protect consumers from a misleading industry full of fashion-focused wheels. 

We recently completed a major rebrand and now we’re focused on team expansion. We’re in the midst of rolling out the branding changes with our new website launching mid-June. Under the leadership of our new CMO, your primary goals are to lead and further build our creative team, and deliver awesome media and educational content everywhere it’s needed. You’ll serve as the creative voice of our brand for all assets. We’re doing a ton of things really well, but our creative team is lacking leadership and direction. Your vision and talents will supercharge everything we do.

Following the teachings of the book Play Bigger, the work of establishing our new brand category and unique POV is done. But there’s still work to do - now we need you to live and breathe the POV and use it as your creative north star. It’s your turn to utilize your strong leadership and creative talent to put that POV into action. Although we’ve committed to a long-term, high-level, creative direction, there’s a tremendous amount of room for you to leave your mark on our brand, and our industry. Our new POV relies heavily on educating our audience, and we need you to help us deliver. Not only should content be more engaging, viral and on brand, but the things we are doing well should scale up and not be dropped for the next shiny object. 

Our small but mighty marketing department is growing into the largest department within Apex, and we’re just getting started. You’ll shape the creative team by coaching and mentoring existing team members, and keep us sharp and balanced by bringing fresh talent onboard. You may need to partner with external agencies for larger or short-lived projects. We want you to build a team that will take our content to the next level. We expect to meaningfully grow the team, and we need a leader who can balance beauty, passion, and fun with business needs like ROI and systemization. 

How to apply: In your cover letter, tell us: How your passion for motorsports will enable you to understand and wow our target audience. Give us some examples of how you would effectively and impactfully bring our ‘Real Performance’ POV to life. Include how, beyond vanity metrics, you would measure if/when our audience is really ‘getting’ the POV. Finally, if you don’t live within commuting distance to Pleasanton, CA, tell us how you plan to provide creative direction via a remote work model.

Responsibilities:

• Brand Champion: Responsible for leading the creative direction of our POV and brand messaging to communicate what makes us different. Blend an ROI-focused approach with creative experimentation to figure out which messages and mediums effectively connect with our customers, and scale-up the winners. Ensure we further develop our brand look and feel, and treat our formal brand guidelines as a living document. Expand two major types of content quickly; high funnel level awareness content, and lower funnel level educational content. Find ways to develop and use educational content at the awareness level, whether that stems from in-house resources, or industry and influencer partnerships.
• Brand Reach: Come up with awesome, viral, and in-demand content that significantly grows our social media following. Grow Facebook and Instagram audiences. Develop a serious Youtube channel worth subscribing to. Establish a meaningful presence on TikTok. Pick the right battles when resources are stretched, to deliver the best ROI.
• Brand and Business Management: You’re artistic and creative, and you also enjoy focusing on efficiency and ROI. You understand that data drives decisions and ROI delivers even more ammo for your creative arsenal. You’ll partner with our new CMO to not only manage our brand and execute our POV, and also to make sure your creative projects fit budgets and deadlines. Not fighting against that grain is your unexpected CD superpower. 
• Promotions: Responsible for all creative assets for paid and organic campaigns, ecommerce, shows/events, and more. Produce fresh, innovative work that translates complex ideas into compelling assets and experiences for sophisticated audiences. 
• Collaboration: Partner with our CMO to develop and execute a creative strategy. Provide creative feedback to team members to optimize the effectiveness of campaigns. Stay informed about industry trends, competitor activities, and emerging technologies to drive innovation. Work closely with other departments to align marketing efforts with overall business objectives. Work with the marketing team to determine hardware, software, and technical equipment needs to take our media projects to the next level, then acquire the needed resources and ensure that staff are trained and effectively using the tools. Ensure that media assets are organized and stored securely to support a hybrid and remote workforce.
• Project Management: You’ll be supported by a project manager who works to keep all marketing and creative projects on track. However, you’ll also understand the importance of keeping yourself and your team organized, on time, and on budget. You’re willing to use our project management software to update projects daily and will encourage your team to do the same. 
• People Management: Build and manage a team of creatives including graphic designers, copywriters, and photographers/videographers. Manage all phases of your team members’ employee life cycle, from recruitment and hiring to exiting. Responsible for implementing on-set safety efforts. Use Lattice to document and track department-level and individual-level goals. Regularly check in with staff members on goal achievement, performance feedback, and career development. Foster a collaborative and supportive work environment that encourages creativity and professional growth.
• Adapt and Scale: Be adaptable to a changing work environment as the team size and resources grow. Contribute to building a strong, scalable, and contagious company culture of collaboration. Accept wearing many hats initially, but rapidly expand the team so those hats can be handed over to others. Ensure systems and processes are created so new creatives can join the team successfully.
• On-Site vs Remote Creative Direction: Our original vision was for you to spend a significant amount of time on-site with our creative team, meaning you’d be located within a commutable distance to Pleasanton, CA. However, in staying true to our mostly remote work model, we’re open to hearing your plan on how your creative direction could be executed via a hybrid work model.

Requirements

• 10+ years of relevant experience, with 5+ years as a creative director in an agency or corporate setting preferred
• Experience in creating marketing/advertising campaigns, from developing the vision and messaging to overseeing production, on time and within budget
• Experience in creating integrated content across all marketing channels: digital, social media, paid media, mobile, offline, and print
• Proven ability to develop successful concepts
• Proficiency in leading and scaling a team of diverse, talented creatives
• Strong creative vision, with an eye on business objectives and ROI
• We’ll give strong preference to candidates who are within a commutable distance to Pleasanton, CA, but we’re open to hearing your plan on how your creative direction could be executed via a remote work model

Benefits

• $120k - $160k base annual salary, but some wiggle for an absolute rockstar
• 100% Apex paid employee medical, dental, and vision benefits with buy-up options
• Robust company contributions towards dependent medical benefits
• 401k with employer matching
• 2+ weeks of paid vacation leave - earn more as you grow
• A flexible working environment where work/life integration is encouraged
• Paid Sick Leave
• Paid Holidays
• Support your track addiction with reimbursements for HPDE and autocross event registration fees
• Eligibility for the SEMA college grant and loan forgiveness program
• Casual in-office dress environment where T-shirts, jeans, and shorts are welcome
• Employee discounts and freebies on Apex products and swag
• Participate in company activities including karting, spectating at races, track days, and more