Content Writer (Freelance to Perm), Cape Town

Rival is looking for a Content Writer to freelance with and eventually join our Cape Town-based team.

As a Content Writer you will be focused on developing written content for our media properties (e.g. Scratch CMO Podcast, Punchy Marketing News, Rival Playbooks, Zag, etc)and marketing activity for our consultancy. This will include writing for a wide range of content channels - podcasts, video scripts, email newsletters, white papers, social content calendars, brand breakdowns and regular articles.

As a Content Writer, you will be an integral part of how we build the media business at Rival. You will also have the opportunity to help conceptualize new formats and campaigns for our marketing activity. This role requires someone who understands the world of modern marketing and has a particular passion for challenger brands. 

Role

• The focus of this Content Writer role will be working with our London-based Executive Producer and in-house marketing team to write, ghost-write, and edit the written content we need for our Rival Media editorial calendar and roadmap
• Aside from autonomously managing the end-to-end research and writing of content for our evergreen properties, you’ll spend time concepting new content across many different channels. 
• You will also have the opportunity to work with our Boston-based creative team on concepts and campaigns for client work and new business pitches

Opportunity

• You will be joining the Rival at an exciting time - we are two years in, growing quickly, and have big plans for the next few years!
• You’ll be joining a media team which is set to disrupt the news/publication space for modern marketers 
• On the agency side, we have a global audience and client portfolio - you’ll get a truly global perspective and be exposed to brands and projects in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia
• We are a small (but mighty!) team of about 20, so you’ll have the opportunity to learn and work on a wide variety of projects - strategy, paid media, creative, data/martech, and our own product development 
• This role holds a ton of potential for the right person, as you’ll be working closely with the founding team shaping the future of our business

Requirements 

We'd like to hear from you if…

• We do not require a minimum years of experience, but you do need to have experience in an agency or media company writing content about the marketing industry (topics, trends, brands, etc) 
• Strong organizational skills along with the demonstrated ability to work to a deadline
• You’re a top performer and can creatively collaborate with a global team 
• Native English proficiency and exceptional grammar skills
• A start up mentality and personality: you're mission driven and not afraid to get stuck in
• Willingness to travel for client engagements as needed and for company retreats once a year 
• No university degree required - we value your experience and skills

We would be particularly excited if... 

• You have experience in an early stage start-up and/or a marketing agency/consultancy

Compensation

• Our compensation philosophy is to “mid-market base, top-market upside”. As a start-up we can’t compete with big agency/consultancy salaries, but we offer everyone the opportunity to share in the upside of what we’re building together 
• There are three components to our compensation package
  • Base Salary - market average for marketing consultancy/agency
  • Profit Share - eligibility for a profit share distribution twice a year (after one year of employment) based on company and individual performance
  • Employee Liquidity Plan -  eligibility for our “shadow stock” plan (after one year of employment)

Benefits 

• 28-days vacation days for South African employees + public holidays
  • 21 discretionary vacation days
  • 7 company ‘recharge days’ during the year - these are mandatory days that everyone takes off to relax and focus on family, friends and ourselves.
• Profit Share and Rival Employee Liquidity Plan (ELP)
  • ELP aka “shadow stock” has all the financial benefits of options, but without the cost to exercise and tax implications
• Office-first but flexible working environment 
  • Everyone must be in the office one day a week (currently Tuesdays), and it’s strongly encouraged to be in the office 1-2 additional days. Most people in hub offices (London, Boston, Cape Town) are in 2-3 days a week. 
• The equipment and technology you need to be successful, plus additional support if you need to enhance your work from home set-up
• Quarterly ‘Team Weeks’
  • Where “hubs” come together to focus on planning, team building, and professional development
• Annual ‘Rival Retreat’
  • All-expense paid trip once a year for team building and fun!
• Various surprise and delights & Rival events throughout the year

About Rival

Rival is an integrated marketing consultancy that builds challenger brands, strategies, and capabilities to change categories. 

We exist to understand what drives the growth of successful challenger brands and enable any business to become one. We combine the brains of a management consulting firm with the executional capabilities of an agency and the technology of a software company to develop the insights and ideas that drive challenger growth. 

We work with start-ups to help them scale and incumbents to help them innovate across four main areas of the marketing function: brand & GTM, creative & production, paid media, and data & technology. Our passion is working hard but having fun with ambitious partners who want to challenge the status quo, just like we do. 

Our Hiring Ethos

We want to build a home for the world’s best marketing talent while advancing diversity in our industry. Hiring is the most important thing we do at Rival. Finding and attracting the best talent in the industry is key to our long-term success and day-to-day happiness, but it’s also the most direct way we can have an impact on driving positive change in our industry and for our clients. 

Our goal is to deliver a best-in-class interview experience for candidates:

• Upfront alignment on what good looks like 
• We compensate candidates time for any interview that requires a task
• Timely, respectful communication 
• Opportunity for all candidates to provide feedback 
• All employees undergo unconscious bias training
• Global Equality Collective membership to upskill ourselves in all aspects of hiring

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At Rival, we're invested in a thoughtful, long-term hiring approach that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion. We care about creating a global community with a combined mission, but not at the expense of losing individual identity, which is critical to our innovation. It’s essential that we bring our authentic self to work every day, no matter our age, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, neurodiversity, or otherwise.

We listen to our employees, take direction and are taking continual action to better ourselves in this mission. Inclusion isn't just an initiative at Rival. We strive to embed it into all aspects of our business model and how we operate.

B Corp

Rival is proud to have gained B Corp Certification in 2023, we joined a fleet of B Corp businesses around the world who all have the same goal, driving global social and environmental change. We aim to set a new standard for corporate social responsibility in our industry. We believe we have a responsibility to not just do well for ourselves and our clients, but do good for others and the world at large. We don’t believe we can change the world on our own. But we do believe we can make a meaningful difference in this industry and set a meaningful example for others to follow.

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