Creative Director jobs in Greater Toronto Area, ON

#EnterTheGame

Activate: What We Do

Activate is redefining how the world plays across Canada, US, and beyond into the global market. We’re a technology company that fuses a game, a workout, and a party into one unforgettable experience. We believe play should move people - physically and socially. Behind every room, you’ll need your reflexes, wits, and a team to beat the challenges - it’s easy to start, hard to beat.

Activate is experiencing significant expansion and are looking to grow our team with the addition of a Director, Creative. This is a full-time, permanent position. We are looking for this role to join our team at our Winnipeg corporate office, but remote out-of-province candidates may also be considered.

Visit playactivate.com to see Activate in action. Follow @activategames on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to stay locked in.

Position Overview

Enter The Role

Activate is one of the fastest-growing location-based entertainment brands in North America. The brand is real. The distinctive assets are coming into focus. The next chapter is breakthrough work — creative that gets us noticed, gets us talked about, and puts us top of mind when someone's deciding where to go on a Friday night.

In this position, you'll own Activate's creative. You'll build on the foundation our founders started — codify the distinctive asset system, scale it globally, hold the line on application. You'll build the global creative toolkit that corporate stores (AGS), international partners, and HQ teams all draw from — global assets built to flex local.

You'll lead the relationship with Activate's creative agency — a true creative partner that builds breakthrough campaigns aligned to Activate's Category Entry Points (CEPs). Work that puts Activate in the conversation when people are planning their next night out, team event, or birthday. You'll set the brief. They'll build the campaign. Your in-house team will pool it out — every channel, every market, every store — efficient, on-brand, and at speed.

The in-house team isn't where breakthrough comes from. That's the agency's job. The in-house team is how breakthrough becomes everywhere — adapted, scaled, executed without losing the thread. You own the organic social content calendar in-house too: culture-aware, trend-fluent, on-brand.

You'll treat creative as performance. You'll read what's working in market, cut what isn't, and refine what's close. Every round better than the last.

Work that breaks through. Not work that fills space.

The Duties and Responsibilities:

Owning the Brand & Toolkit

• Codify and scale the Activate distinctive asset system
• Build the global creative toolkit — assets, templates, guidelines — that global partners, AGS markets, and HQ teams all build from
• Apply the system everywhere — in store, online, social, partnerships
• Set the creative standards and hold the line on them at global scale
  
• Lead the relationship with Activate's creative agency partner — a true creative partner, not a production shop
• Brief breakthrough campaigns aligned to Activate's Category Entry Points — work that gets us noticed and top-of-mind
• Set the bar, hold the bar, make them earn the work — and earn the trust to make their best

Scaling the Work In-House

• Lead, hire, and develop the in-house creative team — design, video, social, production
• Pool out every agency campaign in-house — every channel, every market, every store; efficient, on-brand, fast
• Own the organic social content calendar end-to-end — read culture and turn it into work that's on-brand and on-the-moment
  
• Refuse the wallpaper - every asset earns its place

Performance & AI

• Treat creative as performance — read what's working, cut what isn't, refine what's close
• Partner with AGI and AGS to A/B test creative variants in market and let the lift shape the next round
• Use AI for production, ideation, adaptation — faster shipping, more iterations, broader reach
• Make AI the default, not the experiment

The Qualifications:

• 7+ years leading creative at consumer brands — entertainment, retail, hospitality, fitness, lifestyle
• Partnered with a creative agency to build breakthrough campaigns — set the brief, held the bar, made them earn the work
• Led an in-house team to pool out agency campaigns at scale — efficient, on-brand, every channel and every market
• Built or scaled a distinctive asset system — and held the line on application
• Built global creative toolkits used by franchise partners, JV operators, or multi-market teams
• Treated creative as performance — A/B tested in market, read the lift, refined what works
• Used AI to change what a team can ship — production, ideation, adaptation

The Perks:

• Competitive Salary
• Benefits package
• Paid time off
• Casual dress
• Employee discount
• On-site parking

Activate is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment. Activate is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs and activities. To request reasonable accommodation for a protected characteristic, contact hr@playactivate.com which is an email monitored for this purpose.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.