“She has built an amazing system and an amazing flywheel.”

What separates a performance creative director worth hiring from one who just manages a content calendar? 

Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) dig into what it takes to hire a director of performance creative today, why the creative strategist role has split into two distinct skill sets, and how AI agents are emerging as a serious ecommerce conversion rate optimization play. 

They debate whether a great creative strategist should be an operator or an ideator. The answer is neither alone. Both hosts unpack why less prescriptive creator briefs are now producing better-performing ads than heavily scripted ones. The hosts close with a quick over-under on the retention tools most brands either overinvest in or ignore entirely. 

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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 

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Richpanel 

https://9ops.co/richpanel 

Aftersell 

https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops 

Haus 

https://www.haus.io/operators 

Operators Newsletter 

https://9operators.com/ 

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