From building social-first strategies to leading cross-functional teams, Emily Horn brings a thoughtful, results-driven approach to modern marketing. We caught up with Emily to learn more about what fuels her work, the projects she's most proud of, and where she sees the industry heading

Tell us a bit about yourself, what do you do and where are you from?

I bring over 15 years of experience leading social, influencer, and talent strategies for entertainment and consumer brands, building the systems and partnerships that executive leadership trusts to drive high-impact growth. Working both on the brand side and as a white-label consultant, I have designed social-first strategies for companies like Hello Sunshine and TripAdvisor.

My career started at William Morris, where I developed the foundation for partnering, pitching, and negotiating for talent, and grew to encompass major brand marketing through my work with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, innovative beauty brand trèStiQue, and legacy fitness brand Beachbody. Originally from Michigan (Go Blue!), I fell in love with California during a college internship and have spent the last 15+ years split between LA and Brooklyn.

Recently, my husband, son, and I packed up our Williamsburg apartment and road-tripped across the country to settle into Studio City. When I’m not obsessing over social media and the latest marketing trend, you can usually find me assistant-coaching my kid’s baseball team, bingeing a new show or book, taste-testing candy to feed my massive sweet tooth, or hanging out with our newly adopted 6½-year-old Aussie-doodle (the best boy ever!)

What’s a recent project/client win that made you feel proud?

I’m incredibly proud of a recent chapter where I delivered a dual-impact win for a major fitness brand, proving that a sharp social strategy can drive both long-term business modernization and massive viral growth.

I was tasked with the opportunity to create a complete social transformation for the 20+-year-old legacy fitness brand, BODi (formerly Beachbody.) I designed an organic, social-first strategy rooted in data, industry trends and community storytelling that completely blew past our annual goals in just the first quarter. We hit unprecedented numbers, including a 450%+ increase in impressions and new accounts reached. We achieved this success with zero additional budget or overhead by leveraging and empowering our internal team and the in-house studio I built to concept, shoot, and edit everything.

Part of this strategy was to capture a new, younger audience without alienating our existing community through a social-first content series. Based on audience and market research, I identified a unique cultural crossover with our community’s interest in nostalgia and true-crime podcasts. By creating a humorous, trend-forward campaign, we cleared 1 million views in 24 hours on the debut video, and the series went on to cross 10 million views to become the highest-engaged content in company history. Additionally, it sparked an industry-wide trend that drove hundreds of millions of views overall.

This success completely shifted our internal workflow, leading the production and paid teams to actively seek us out to lead strategy and execution at scale. It proved that when you truly understand your audience, you don't need a massive agency budget to drive record-breaking corporate ROI and cultural relevance.

What’s a skill or strength you bring to the team that people might not know about?

A strength that people might not see on a resume is my ability to build high-performing, autonomous teams while acting as a strategic social translator.

I am comfortable managing teams of all sizes, overseeing everyone from designers and social managers to external agencies and tech partners. My philosophy is simple: give talented people the tools, trust, and autonomy they need to thrive, focusing on accountability rather than micromanagement. I encourage my team to take calculated creative risks, knowing I will give them honest feedback and jump into the weeds to support them whenever needed.

That leadership style ties directly into my superpower, which is serving as a translator between two very different worlds. I am just as comfortable presenting a data-backed business case to the C-suite as I am partnering with creatives to translate those high-level corporate objectives into impactful, social-first storytelling.

What types of projects energize you the most?

The projects that give me the most energy are the ones where I can dive into what is or isn't working for a company, contextualize it for the present moment, and build a new path forward that creates lasting change. I love the process of thinking incredibly big and then using data and resources to scale it back strategically.

The work that truly fulfills me breaks down corporate silos to align department communication and strategy. I find it incredibly rewarding to create sustainable workflows that turn a massive, daunting pivot into something that feels entirely attainable for the internal team. Ultimately, I live for the payoff of seeing a huge idea come to life and watching the community react to it in real time.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Because the social marketing industry is constantly changing, I have made it a personal goal to continually grow and learn right along with it. I am currently focused on researching Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and how LLMs are changing consumer behavior. I love figuring out the strategy behind how brands can optimize their digital footprint to ensure their products show up in AI search results in a meaningful way.

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