Vice President of DTC Media Strategy

A Brief Overview

The Vice President of Media Strategy will be responsible for driving insights and aiding overall media transformation for Gerber Life, the DTC marketing engine of Western & Southern Financial Group. The VP of Media Strategy is a key strategic leader within the Gerber Life marketing organization, responsible for shaping and operationalizing marketing messages through media excellence and execution. This role partners closely with the SVP of DTC Marketing, and cross-functional executive stakeholders such as Director Brand and Creative Strategy, and the VP Data & Analytics & MarTech to deliver high-impact strategic projects, brand-building programs, and performance-driven media investments to over-deliver on operating plans. This leader oversees Gerber Life's integrated campaign development, media strategy and planning, and is a key member of the Go-To-Market team who spearhead the execution of transformative special projects that drive growth and enhance brand value and support enterprise growth priorities. This role will oversee Pillars of Growth Marketing, Lifecycle and Brand activations to deliver on both brand and performance goals. This includes focus and management to profitability/VNB (Value of New Business) metrics at a product level and oversight of a multi-million dollar budget.

What you will do

• Oversee enterprise-wide DTC media strategy leading the Growth & Lifecycle Marketing teams, planning, and optimization across paper/direct mail, digital video/TV, social, search, programmatic, and emerging channels.
• Program and Initiative based media frameworks that drive efficient full-funnel acquisition, brand visibility, and customer engagement, including measurement and accountability.
• Partner with analytics and agency teams to evaluate audience/journey-bases, as well as channel performance, attribution, mix modeling, and ROI insights that guide investment decisions.
• Ensure that media investments align with brand strategy, business goals, and enterprise customer growth priorities.
• Ability to manage both performance based accountable media measured at an audience level, as well as strategic brand investments.
• Monitor ongoing spending, track expenses, and project future budget requirements to ensure efficient use of resources and alignment with overall business goals.
• Partner with business and technology leaders to drive innovation in digital marketing solutions, enabling seamless omnichannel capabilities and ensuring the adoption of best-in-class tools and platforms.
• Collaborate with the MarTech team to architect and integrate a comprehensive digital marketing ecosystem, leveraging platforms (e.g., Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Google Analytics, etc) to enable data-driven decision-making and campaign execution.
• Work with Marketing Operations Director to help establish and enforce governance standards for marketing operations, ensuring compliance, data integrity, and best practices across all channels.
• Manage relationships with external agency partners, conducting regular agency reviews to ensure high performance and alignment with brand standards and KPIs.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a diverse, high-performing team of digital marketing professionals, providing training, resources, and ongoing support to foster growth and excellence within the team.
• Leverage advanced analytics, AI-powered insights, and performance metrics to continuously monitor, evaluate, and optimize digital marketing campaigns across channels.
• Establish clear, measurable objectives for digital performance and brand health, defining KPIs and multitouch attribution methodologies.
• Leverage integrated data from across the MarTech stack, including CRM, CDP, automation platforms, and web analytics, to create a unified view of customer behavior and campaign impact.
• Partner with analytics team to understand and take action on clear insights from digital and traditional marketing performance, contextualizing findings within the broader business environment to enable senior stakeholders to make informed strategic decisions.
• Serve as part of the Marketing Go-To-Market team (Media + Brand + Analytics) to help lead cross-functional special projects that directly support enterprise growth, brand value creation, and modernization efforts—as assigned by the SVP of DTC Marketing.
• Drive strategic initiatives such as integrating new brand platforms into media campaigns, introducing new product go-to-market strategy, agency model evolution, major media partnerships, and strategic sponsorships.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to the SVP, helping frame enterprise priorities, assess market opportunities, and advance the long-term vision for the Gerber Life brand.
• Collaborate with Product, Media, Analytics, CRM, Agency, and Customer Experience teams to align brand and media strategy with in-market execution.
• Build strong relationships with internal leaders and external agency partners to deliver integrated strategies and cohesive execution across channels.
• Help steward a customer-centric culture rooted in insights, creative excellence, and brand consistency.
• Deliver brand experience both internally and externally through partnership with HR and Cross-functional leadership teams.
• Lead and develop a team of Media Directors (Growth & Lifecycle) and their respective teams of media planners, leaders (approximately 2 direct reports, and a team of 6 total internally, yet dozens with oversight of agencies and contractors).
• Foster an environment of innovation, accountability, and high performance.
• Strengthen organizational brand and media capabilities through talent development, process improvement, and strategic investment in partners and tools.
• Provides direction to and development of associates through daily coaching, the administration of the Performance Management Model, and the creation and implementation of development plans. Recruits, hires, trains and develops staff.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Complies with all policies and standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree - Required
• Master's Degree MBA - Preferred
• 10 to 15+ years of progressive leadership experience leading a team of 5-10 in DTC media strategy, integrated marketing, financial services and insurance or related fields. - Required
• 15+ years direct to consumer marketing experience; Significant experience managing product marketing across channels (online and offline) with a record of driving results with marketing innovation/growth - Required
• P&L Management experience - Required

Travel Requirements:

• Some (5-10%) for visits to operations and contact center teams, periodic conferences, etc.