About the role
In 1947, a copywriter named Frances Gerety was working late on a campaign for a diamond company with a problem: it controlled most of the world's diamond supply, but diamonds weren't seen as particularly special. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds — any gemstone would do. Gerety needed to change how people thought about diamonds, and the entire engagement ring category. She wrote four words: "A Diamond Is Forever" and within a generation, diamonds had become the only acceptable symbol of commitment. De Beers reframed the entire market for engagement rings with one campaign. Banking* hasn't had that moment yet. Most entrepreneurs choose their bank like something to check off the list before the real work starts. But Mercury has spent years building something founders actually love: a product so thoughtfully designed it feels like it was made by someone who understood what it means to build a company. The opportunity — and the job as Mercury’s Head of Brand — is to take that love and turn it into a category-defining narrative. One that reframes what founders should expect from their bank, makes Mercury the obvious answer to a question they didn't know they were asking, and builds the campaigns, community, and cultural moments that make it impossible to ignore.
What you'll do Reframe the category, and put Mercury at the center: build the story for what it means for a tech company to own a bank, and how that will fundamentally change the relationship between founders and their finances Build and own the multi-channel brand system and budget: campaigns, content (editorial and educational), social, community, and events/experiential that keep Mercury in the founder conversation Drive earned attention — create programs, moments, and stories that founders share and engage with because they're actually worth sharing, not because they're promoted Build a brand measurement framework that tracks awareness, sentiment, and cultural presence in the founder community, so we know when something is working and can scale it up Take smart, creative risks: create a team culture that goes for bold swings and knows that playing it safe is actually a recipe for failure You should have Deep personal fluency in the startup and founder ecosystem — you're embedded in this world and you understand how founders think, what they trust, and how ideas spread between them A track record of building brand presence that got talked about — not just campaigns that ran, but work that founders shared, referenced, and associated with a company's identity Strong narrative instincts: you can find the story in a company and tell it compellingly across formats — a campaign, an event, a tweet, a one-liner at a dinner Cultural fluency: a genuine pulse on art, fashion, music, and the broader cultural conversation; you can sense where Mercury fits into the zeitgeist, not just what's trending Experience owning a full brand surface — campaigns, content, social, events, community — and translating that into a coherent system, not a series of disconnected activations
