Cultural Insight Director

Who We Are

We are a global socially-led creative agency, with unrivalled social media and influencer marketing expertise. With over 1,200 people in four continents, we deliver a global perspective to our clients in a time when social media is shaping culture.

We're proud to be a multi award-winning agency, with Cannes Lions, One Show, Webby and Shorty Awards, to name but a few. Our most recent work has seen us help Amazon Music, Activision and Adidas deliver some of their biggest and most innovative campaigns to date.

As well as creating for clients, we help educate the wider industry. Our Instagram publication The Feed tracks culture at the speed of social. 6,500 people registered or tuned into our events last year, and our reports garnered more than 20 million views.

The Opportunity

Do you have proven experience designing mixed-methodology research proposals that get to the heart of the client's problem, and ultimately lead to insights that can inform strategies and inspire creativity?

Have you lead research projects end to end, from data collection through to delivery to our Strategy and Creative teams?

Are you looking to work with global clients and a talented team in a fast-growing social agency?

We are looking for a Cultural Insights Director to work across a number of forward-thinking brands, including Adidas, Amazon, and Carlsberg. The ideal candidate is a qualitative research specialist with extensive experience designing and running end-to-end research sprints incorporating methodologies like ethnography, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. This role is part of We Are Social's broader push to evolve the insights we offer, integrate qualitative and social data, and ground it in wider culture. We are seeking a socially-savvy qualitative researcher with a flair for strategic thinking and a passion for popular culture, who can support our team in building out new and exciting insights products for some of the most culturally relevant brands in the world.

What You’ll Have Delivered Elsewhere:

• Successfully designed and implemented mixed-methodology research proposals annually, delivering actionable insights that directly inform strategy and inspire creativity for clients.
• Driven insight generation in large-scale research projects, contributing to social strategy, audience profiling, competitor analysis, and the understanding of broader societal trends affecting clients’ brands.
• Led multiple research projects concurrently, ensuring they are completed from data collection through to final delivery to the Strategy and Creative teams, with a focus on timeliness, quality, and client satisfaction.
• Developed and applied socially-led insights in client engagements, contributing to the creation of socially-led propositions.
• Delivered clear, concise, and engaging final deliverables, ensuring a cohesive narrative that is easy for clients to digest and implement.
• Led and mentored junior team members, ensuring they gained a comprehensive understanding of social insights and their application to client briefs.
• Overseen the strategic direction of key clients, achieving a higher client retention rate and fostering long-term partnerships.
• Led client presentations, delivering impactful insights that align with clients' business objectives and drive actionable outcomes.
• Drafted research proposals, ensuring clarity in scope, methodology, and deliverables that meet client needs.
• Contributed to pitch presentation, leveraging social insights to win new business and enhancing the agency’s thought leadership by contributing 2-3 articles or insights pieces annually.

What Else Are We Looking For?

• Strategic thinking – this person must be experienced in applying insight to a range of businesses, categories, and business problems.
• Storytelling – this person must demonstrate a talent for collating decks that communicate insights and applications in an engaging way.
• Cultural intuition – this person must be engaged with current affairs and popular culture, be actively curious about it, and have a knack for pulling out insights around it that are useful for our brands.
• Excellent understanding of qual research survey writing, planning, and moderating focus groups, ethnography, or other qual methods.
• Manage a team over the year -- carrying out reviews, devising development plans, managing resources.
• Supporting our Strategists in the creation of Social/Brand Propositions for clients.
• Working closely with our creative and content teams in creative ideation and concepting.
• Managing and leading a sub-team, including being an active member of The Feed.

Our Culture and the Nice Stuff

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion runs in the water here at We Are Social. We are transparent about the changes that are needed, we are focused on making real strides, both internally and within the industry and we strive to truly be a workplace that represents, supports and advocates for ALL. Our Charter for Change in the UK  can be found here which details our focus areas across People, Work and Culture in 2025.

If you require any support, adjustments or accommodations for any reason whatsoever during the recruitment process, please let us know via recuitment@wearesocial.net

So let’s get to the good stuff,  we offer all those things you would naturally expect; 25 days holiday, pension scheme & life assurance. But what we love most is connection, so we have our WAS Passport and Work From Anywhere schemes which allow you to truly connect to colleagues all over the world! 

But what’s life around here really like day-to-day? Well, we ask our people regularly what they think about us/their role and here are some of the most common things they say:

• I value my manager we have a good relationship
• We love to ‘get social’ with the people I work with
• Trusted to get on with the job, without ‘micro-management’!

If this all sounds like the place you have been waiting to find then apply now! What are you waiting for?