Manager, Creative Strategy (Digital Gaming)

Company Description

CREATIVITY IS OUR SUPERPOWER. It’s our heritage and it’s also our future. Because we don’t just make toys. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire fans, entertain audiences and develop children through play. Mattel is at its best when every member of our team feels respected, included, and heard—when everyone can show up as themselves and do their best work every day. We value and share an infinite range of ideas and voices that evolve and broaden our perspectives with a reach that extends into all our brands, partners, and suppliers.

The Team:

Mattel Game Studios’ mission is to harness the power of Mattel's iconic brands and IP to create a wide variety of engaging digital games. Our team is guided by industry leaders with decades of experience in various facets of the gaming industry. We are seeking talented individuals to join us in our mission to create innovative and engaging digital experiences that resonate with our beloved brands. If you are passionate about gaming and eager to be part of a dynamic, forward-thinking team in family entertainment, this is the opportunity for you! 

Job Description

The Opportunity: 

Mattel Games Studio is seeking an experienced Creative Strategy Manager to lead the ideation, development, production, delivery, testing, and optimization of user acquisition, retargeting, and ASO creatives across our global portfolio. This role will blend creative vision with analytical rigor - turning performance insights into high-impact concepts that resonate with diverse player audiences. You will establish and own our in-house creative strategy function, partner cross-functionally to ensure creative excellence, and set the standard for how beloved Mattel brands become global mobile gaming hits. 

What Your Impact Will Be: 

• Develop and own a portfolio-wide creative strategy that adapts to each title's lifecycle stage, using data-driven plans to fuel performance across UA, Retargeting, and ASO. 

• Translate strategy into structured briefs, hypothesis maps, and creative testing plans rooted in benchmarks and player motivations. 

• Manage the end-to-end creative lifecycle: from ideation and partner briefing to production, iterative testing, and executive-ready reporting. 

• Track emerging creative trends across ads, competitors, and UGC; distill insights into concepts, hooks, and narratives that inform testing 

• Develop and execute creative experiments designed to isolate variables, optimize early-funnel signals (CTR, IPM), and translate insights into modeled performance outcomes. 

• Drive funnel conversion and App Store performance by developing storefront creative strategies (icon, screenshots, video) in close collaboration with UA, Live Ops, and Brand teams. 

• Streamline creative production through AI-assisted tooling, taxonomy/versioning systems, and scalable workflows. 

• Safeguard brand/IP integrity and ensure platform compliance by setting performance-optimized guardrails in collaboration with Legal and Brand. 

• Oversee timelines, budgets, and vendor/agency resources to maximize throughput and output quality. 

• Adapt and localize creatives for international markets without compromising brand consistency or performance goals. 

Qualifications

What We’re Looking For:

• 4+ years in creative strategy / UA creative / product marketing for mobile games, with clear KPI impact (CTR, CVR, IPM, CPI, ROAS). 

• Strong analytical chops: comfort with campaign dashboards and competitive intel (e.g., Data.ai, Sensortower) to generate actionable insights. 

• Advanced knowledge of ad platform ecosystems such as Meta, Google, TikTok, Unity Ads, AppLovin. 

• Demonstrated ability to envision, articulate, and document strategies that connect player motivation, brand/IP, and performance KPIs. 

• Proven ability to synthesize data into creative insights, run structured experiments, and scale winners. 

• Excellent cross-functional communication and stakeholder alignment skills. 

• Experience managing creative agencies, vendors, or internal production resources. 

• Passion for mobile gaming and a curiosity for creative innovation. 

• Demonstrated a growth mindset by staying curious and continuously learning, embracing challenges, and improving themselves.

​Nice to Have 

• Familiarity with privacy-centric performance constraints (e.g., SKAN signal loss considerations) and how to design tests accordingly. 

• Experience with creative automation / DCO and