Director, Media Strategy & Planning

Location: On site in locations listed in job posting

Overview

First Horizon is seeking a Director of Media Strategy & Activation to lead the evolution of our media function into a modern, strategic, and integrated media engine. This role will serve as the internal leader for media strategy, responsible for translating business objectives into clear, full-funnel media plans that drive both brand impact and business outcomes. The Director will partner closely with our media agency of record to co-develop media strategies, ensuring a strong point of view, clear direction, and alignment across all stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Media Strategy & Integrated Planning
• Translate business goals and marketing objectives into clear, actionable media strategies
• Define audience approach, channel mix, investment strategy, and phasing across the funnel
• Lead development of annual, quarterly, and campaign-level media plans, including investment allocation, channel roles, and phasing across the funnel
• Ensure media strategies clearly connect media KPIs to business outcomes, with a strong understanding of how channel performance drives broader business goals
• Provide POV on creative strategy within media, including messaging alignment, creative rotations, format selection, and ensuring the right message is delivered in the right place at the right time
• Partner with media agency to co-develop integrated media plans
• Establish and communicate a strong POV on what we should and should not be doing in media
• Agency Leadership & Governance
• Serve as the primary internal lead for the agency relationship
• Partner with agency to co-develop strategy, challenge thinking, and ensure alignment between media approach and business objectives — not operate in a purely executional or handoff-based model
• Provide clear direction, feedback, and accountability to agency partners
• Establish and manage ways of working, including planning cadence, communication structure, and decision-making frameworks
• Ensure agency output aligns with business priorities, brand standards, and performance expectations
• Cross-Functional Leadership & Integration
• Partner closely with:
• Integrated Marketing & Regional Marketing
• Brand & Content Strategy
• Social & Community
• Digital Experience (Website)
• Analytics & MarTech teams
• More specifically, partner with brand, creative, content, digital, and analytics teams to ensure media activations reflect:
• brand positioning
• messaging and creative strategy
• localized execution where appropriate
• on-site experience and path-to-conversion (e.g., landing pages, CTAs, branch/locator integration)
• Lead cross-functional planning and alignment sessions
• Ensure media strategies are fully integrated with content, creative, and customer experience
• Audience & Data Strategy
• Define and guide audience strategy within the broader marketing ecosystem, ensuring alignment across media, content, CRM, and digital experience (supporting segmentation frameworks as needed)
• Partner with analytics and martech teams to leverage first-party data, targeting, and activation capabilities
• Ensure consistent and strategic use of audience insights across campaigns
• Performance, Measurement & Optimization
• Define KPIs, measurement frameworks, and success criteria for media initiatives
• Ensure alignment between media KPIs and broader business objectives, clearly articulating how performance metrics ladder up to business impact
• Lead a structured test-and-learn agenda (A/B testing, incrementality, geo-testing, etc.)
• Partner with analytics teams on attribution, modeling, and performance insights
• Translate data into clear recommendations and next steps
• Media Operations & Execution Oversight
• Establish clarity around media operations, trafficking, asset management, and tagging
• Partner with internal teams to ensure seamless execution across media, creative, and project management
• Support development of media documentation, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes
• Strategic Leadership & Role Scope
• Serve as a key strategic partner to the Head of Brand Strategy & Activation, helping shape direction across media, channels, and broader activation efforts
• Act as a connector across the marketing ecosystem, bringing together brand, content, channels, data, and experience into a cohesive approach
• Bring a strong point of view on how the marketing ecosystem operates as a whole, not just media in isolation

Qualifications

• 8–12+ years of experience in media strategy, connections planning, or integrated marketing
• Experience working in or closely with agency partners (agency or hybrid background preferred
• Strong understanding of the broader marketing ecosystem, including how media, content, creative, digital experience, CRM, and data work together
• Strong understanding of full-funnel media strategy, including both brand and performance marketing
• Proven ability to think strategically across channels, audiences, and customer journeys
• Experience partnering with analytics, data, and martech teams
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to operate in a cross-functional, matrixed environment
• Familiarity with the evolving media landscape, including AI, search (SEO/GEO), and data/privacy changes

What Success Looks Like

• Clear connection between media performance and business outcomes
• Strong internal POV and leadership presence that reduces reliance on external partners for direction
• Media transitions from a reactive, executional function to a proactive, strategic capability
• Clear and consistent media strategy and direction across campaigns and initiatives
• Strong, effective partnership with agencies
• Improved alignment across media, content, social, and digital experience
• A defined and repeatable test-and-learn culture
• More effective use of audience data and targeting
• Greater clarity in measurement, performance, and optimization

Benefit Highlights

• Medical with wellness incentives, dental, and vision
• HSA with company match
• Maternity and parental leave
• Tuition reimbursement
• Mentor program
• 401(k) with 6% match

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

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