MrBeast's recent job listings for a head of viral marketing, a viral marketing creative, and a junior producer of viral marketing give advertisers valuable hints at social's importance in the new year.

The pursuit of virality controlled earlier days of social strategy, but has lost its shine as marketers swap fleeting social media attention for sales and sustained growth. With the top YouTube creator (six years running) looking to expand his own viral ambitions, marketers are taking note of his team’s strategy.

By recruiting talent who can produce viral content, MrBeast (whose media company employs between 500 and 1,000 employees, according to LinkedIn) is looking for a blend of marketing and creator skills, signaling what may be in demand this year.

What 'virality' means in 2026

Some marketers see virality as the chase for visibility without a clear plan. While no one is disappointed when their content goes viral, it's much more difficult to tie social strategy to business outcomes on virality alone.

“Brands often chase virality, but the real opportunity lies in capturing attention at the right moment with contextually relevant, highly personalized content,” said Matt Grandchamp, vice president of sales at NowThis. “That’s where engagement and loyalty grow.”

While “going viral” can signal quick hits and flash in the pan moments, MrBeast’s team is betting that it can also work as a core discipline. Creators who have experience producing viral content will set themselves apart, but knowing how to turn that content into a sustainable strategy is key.

What MrBeast wants

The shift from chasing viral moments to building long-term value has already shaped hiring practices. Across marketing teams, “the discipline to invest in big foundational ideas over fleeting tactics” is the outlook for 2026, said Brian Stout, global strategy lead for Ogilvy Chicago.

“This means moving away from chasing fleeting viral moments, executing siloed channel campaigns, and optimizing for performance metrics that cannibalize long-term brand equity,” he said.

MrBeast’s recruitment doesn’t rely on virality alone. His team is hiring a head of viral marketing to “convert cultural moments into sign-ups, activation, revenue, retention, and repeat engagement.”

The job also comes with the expectation for repeat success, recruiting candidates who can “build engines, not campaigns.” This reframes virality as routine business, rather than a stroke of good luck.

The creator-marketer skillset

In 2026, “What is your experience with the algorithm?” and “How often have you gone viral in the past?” will be job interview questions, said Tameka Bazile, associate director of B2B social and content marketing at Business Insider.

“What MrBeast is looking for in this role is an intersection between creator, especially one that is really good at creating viral content, and marketer,” she said, “and a lot of people are not both.”

MrBeast's job posts hint at that expectation, asking for people who can “translate complex brand narratives into simple, entertaining, and viral-first content formats.”

“MrBeast is trying to find a middle ground between someone who can consistently strategize viral opportunities,” said Bazile, “with an additional element of making those opportunities for revenue building, conversion, and engagement.”

Calling on in-house creators

Content that comes from a creator themselves has indisputable marketing value.

Boosting creator posts (39%) is the top marketing activity that delivers ROI, according to July 2025 CreatorIQ data, and this content doesn’t solely exist on social media.

• Marketers use creator content for channels like their website (58%), email campaigns (43%), and events (37%), according to July CreatorIQ data.

If creator content performs and is worthy of making it to other marketing channels, turning these campaigns into full-time partnerships is a natural next step.

“Whether that’s growing in-house employee talent or contracting an influencer for the long term, influencers will become more core to brands than one-off transactional content,” said Kat Chan, senior director of brand marketing at Duolingo.

That shift is driven not just by efficiency, but by the relationship brands are building with individual creators.

“Rather than compete with them or pay them through influencer marketing, they’re bringing them into teams so they can create the same amount of community and virality for the brand directly,” said Bazile.