Entertainment Marketing Recruiters for Studios, Streamers and Agencies
We recruit the motion designers, creative directors, producers and marketing leads who sell a film or a series before anyone has seen it.
Entertainment recruiters at KORE1 fill the marketing and creative seats at studios, streamers, networks and the agencies that build their campaigns, from creative directors and motion designers to producers and heads of marketing.
Last updated: October 14, 2026
Where those seats are has changed, though. Los Angeles County lost close to 50,000 motion picture and video production jobs between 2022 and 2025, by the federal count. Over the same three years, the industry code that holds the streaming services grew. The jobs didn’t just disappear. Some of them moved.
For anyone hiring a campaign team, that changes the search. The person you want may have spent the last five years at a studio, a streamer, an agency or all three, and the employer bidding against you may not be the one you’d guess. We work studio, streamer and agency searches side by side, and we’ll tell you early which of them is winning a given candidate.
- This desk
- Marketing and creative hiring for entertainment. Creative and copy leadership, AV and motion design, producers and project managers, campaign strategy, publicity and social, and the heads of marketing who run it.
- Next door
- Studio engineering and streaming platform roles go to media and entertainment IT staffing. Game studios go to our gaming recruiters, and buying the media itself to media agency recruiting.
Entertainment searches run through the KORE1 marketing recruiters desk. The senior searches are Samantha Litman‘s. She has recruited across entertainment, media, creative and marketing for over 25 years.
The Chart Entertainment Recruiters Read First
Entertainment marketers read the weekend box office every Monday. Rank this week, rank last time, and the percent change. Here’s that chart for the industries that employ the people who make the campaigns.
Private jobs by industry, Los Angeles County, 2025 against 2022
-
1
LW1
Motion picture and video productionStudios and production companies
LA jobs78,902
vs 2022down 38.8%
New Yorkdown 18.4%
Avg pay$162,049
-
2
LW2
Streaming, social networks and content providersStreamers and online media platforms
LA jobs24,784
vs 2022up 10.3%
New Yorkdown 7.4%
Avg pay$262,684
The only line on the chart that added jobs in Los Angeles, and the one that pays the most.
-
3
LW3
Advertising agenciesCreative and campaign agencies
LA jobs14,504
vs 2022down 10.5%
New Yorkdown 14.7%
Avg pay$148,577
-
4
LW4
Teleproduction and postproductionPost houses, editing and finishing
LA jobs6,569
vs 2022down 25.7%
New Yorkdown 25.7%
Avg pay$123,025
-
5
LW6
Television broadcasting stationsBroadcast networks and local stations
LA jobs3,749
vs 2022down 11.3%
New Yorkdown 11.1%
Avg pay$191,416
-
6
LW7
Public relations agenciesPublicity and PR firms
LA jobs3,400
vs 2022down 6.6%
New Yorkdown 9.1%
Avg pay$120,955
-
7
LW5
Graphic design servicesDesign studios, including key art
LA jobs3,341
vs 2022down 30.4%
New Yorkdown 26.0%
Avg pay$101,675
Source: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2022 and 2025 annual averages, private ownership. TW is the 2025 rank by Los Angeles County jobs and LW is the 2022 rank. New York is New York County (Manhattan), change in jobs since 2022. Average pay is per job across the whole industry in Los Angeles County, every level included.
Start at the top. Production is still the biggest employer in the county by a mile, but it’s down 38.8% from 2022, a fall from 128,884 jobs to 78,902. Part of that drop arrived with the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, and the count kept falling after they ended. Post houses lost about a quarter of their people. Design studios lost almost a third.
Now look at row two. One up arrow. That’s it. That code holds the streaming services, along with social platforms and other online content networks, so it’s broader than the three or four names you’re probably thinking of. It grew 10.3% in Los Angeles while it shrank 7.4% in Manhattan and 5.6% nationally, and at $262,684 a job it pays more than anything else on the chart.
What a hiring manager should do with it
If you run an agency, your toughest competitor for a senior creative is probably an in-house team at a streamer or a platform, one that can outspend you on base salary and still tell the candidate the job comes with fewer pitches and saner hours. You win on the work. And the variety, and the people. If you’re on the in-house side, you’re hiring from studios and agencies that have had three rough years, and those candidates will ask about stability before they ask about title. A warning about the codes, though. The government files each employer under its main line of business, so a studio’s marketing department counts under production and an agency’s entertainment practice counts under advertising. Treat the chart as a map of where the headcount and the money are moving, not a count of marketing jobs.
What Entertainment Recruiters Learn From One Agency Over a Decade
Before she joined KORE1, Samantha spent more than ten years as the outside recruiter for one entertainment marketing agency, and placed more than 20 people there, from motion designers and producers to creative directors, project managers and several of the senior leaders who ran the shop.
That many hires at one company gives you a view a single search never does. You get to see who’s still there three years on. A lot of them were, and they weren’t always the people with the best reel when they interviewed. What they had in common was that they fit how that agency worked, how it fought over a cut or a tagline, and how it handled a delivery date that slid again on a Thursday night.
She brings that to every entertainment search. In a shop that creative, fit carries as much weight as the title on the offer letter. A motion designer who does their best work with quiet and a long runway won’t last in a room that recuts a trailer overnight, however good the reel is. So we ask about the room early, and we ask the candidate where they’ve done their best work.
Pay is the other conversation. Samantha has seen recent creative director searches land around $200,000 plus upside, and motion designers anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000 depending on level. Our motion designer salary guide and creative director staffing page go deeper on both seats.
78,902
motion picture and video production jobs left in Los Angeles County in 2025
38.8%
fewer of those jobs than in 2022
10.3%
Los Angeles growth since 2022 in the code that holds the streamers
92%
of people KORE1 places still in the seat after twelve months
Sources: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2022 and 2025 annual averages, Los Angeles County, NAICS 512110 and 516210. KORE1 placement records.
Why Entertainment Recruiters Now Work Both Sides of the Lot
Samantha’s read on the market, from her own searches this year, is that entertainment companies are going after work their agencies used to own. There was always a wall between the studio and the shop that made its trailers and key art. It’s a lot thinner now.
You can see it in the requisitions. An in-house team at a streamer wants an agency-trained creative director, because that person has pitched, lost and pitched again. An agency wants someone who has sat in a studio marketing meeting and knows how a release date really gets decided. The best candidates for either seat have often done both.
So we recruit across the wall on purpose. It doesn’t always work. Not everyone crosses well. Agency people can chafe at how many approvals an in-house team needs, and studio people sometimes miss the structure once they’re in a shop that moves on instinct, which is why we screen for it before you meet anyone.
Timing depends on the seat’s history. A brand-new role with hiring managers who answer email can close in a few weeks. A seat that’s been posted for months and already failed once with an internal hire runs longer, often a month or two. With budgets tight, more of Samantha’s clients are asking for contract-to-hire on campaign roles, and leadership seats are still usually a direct hire.
The Seats Our Entertainment Recruiters Fill
Four groups, from the first pitch on a campaign to its last social cutdown. At a smaller shop one person often covers two of these, which works when the posting is honest about it.
Creative
Creative and copy leadership
Creative directors, associate creative directors and senior writers who own the idea across trailer, key art and social.
AV and motion
Motion and AV craft
Motion designers, AV editors and finishing artists who turn one cut into a full campaign of spots.
Production
Producers and project managers
Producers, executive producers and project managers who keep a campaign on budget and on its release date.
Marketing
Marketing and strategy leads
Heads of marketing, campaign strategists, publicity and social leads at studios, streamers and networks.
Several of these seats have a page of their own. Producers and heads of production are covered on executive producer staffing, campaign project managers on creative project manager staffing, and writers and designers on copywriter staffing and art director staffing. Agency hiring that isn’t entertainment-specific goes to advertising agency recruiters, and deals between a studio and its sponsors to brand partnerships recruiters.
The bulk of our entertainment work is in Los Angeles and New York, the two markets on the chart. If the open seat is a platform engineer or a data lead at a streamer rather than a marketer, the studio and streaming IT team takes it. Whichever team fills it, we hold ourselves to one number afterward, and 92% of the people KORE1 places are still in that seat twelve months on.
Common Questions
What do entertainment recruiters actually do?
Entertainment recruiters fill the marketing, creative and production seats at studios, streamers, networks and entertainment marketing agencies. At KORE1 that means producers, creative directors, motion designers, project managers and marketing leaders, hired direct or on a contract-to-hire basis.
Is Hollywood still hiring marketing people after all the job losses?
Yes, just not in the same places. Los Angeles County lost 38.8% of its motion picture and video production jobs between 2022 and 2025, while the industry code that holds streaming services and content platforms grew 10.3%. Hiring has followed that shift toward in-house teams.
What does an entertainment creative director earn?
$200,000 plus upside is where Samantha Litman has seen recent creative director searches land. Federal wage data can’t isolate the entertainment seat, so we price each search against the side of the business it sits on, studio, streamer or agency, and the work it carries.
Should we hire from agencies or from studios?
Both pools work, for different reasons. Agency people bring pitch muscle and speed, and studio people know how release strategy and approvals really run. The strongest candidates have often done both, so we screen for how someone handles the other side’s pace before you meet them.
Do you recruit for entertainment IT and engineering roles too?
Not on this desk, but KORE1 does. Studio and streaming engineering, data and IT roles go to KORE1’s studio and streaming IT team, which works alongside this one when a launch needs both marketers and engineers.
How long does an entertainment marketing search take?
A few weeks, when the role is new and the hiring managers move quickly. A role that’s been posted for months, or that didn’t work out with an internal candidate, takes longer, often a month or two. For a campaign surge, contract-to-hire lets you staff now and keep the ones who work out.
What Are You Trying to Fill?
Send us the role, which side of the business it sits on and when you need someone in the chair. We’ll come back with who’s realistic, what they cost and how long it should take.
Let’s Talk →Prefer LinkedIn? Samantha Litman takes messages there too
