social-creature

Jenka approaches all marketing and brand strategy through the lens of culture. Since 1998 she has produced art and music-driven lifestyle events in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. By 2005 she was working on Red Bull’s culture marketing events, and conducting culture and consumer insight research at ADD Marketing in Los Angeles, and for U.K.-based athletic brand, Umbro. From 2006 – 2007, she was the Southern California Online Marketing Coordinator for House of Blues, and later went on to direct the social media and web strategy for Live Nation, the largest live events company in the world, on the Street Scene Music Festival campaign. In 2007 she became the Marketing Director for the award-winning event creations company, The Do Lab, and in the course of 3 years helped double their online community, and quadruple their festival attendance — all without buying any advertising. Before joining the team at Espresso, she was pushing the integration of experiential, social, and digital strategies for clients like VW and Kia as the Director of Social Media Strategy at EWI Worldwide. These days she is a Strategist in Espresso’s new Boston office (just opened in March 2010), helping grow the US operations of this progressive integrated agency. Jenka writes about marketing, culture, and identity at socialcreature.com, but as the first-generation product of a culturally-mixed upbringing she’s been analyzing this stuff pretty much her whole life.

The preceding paragraph was written in the third person primarily for the benefit of Google. For the human beings reading this, here’s some other stuff I’ve worked on and sundry other details you might find interesting:

• The Glitch Mob – The New Yorker dubbed these laptop rockers the harbingers of the “Lazer-Bass” apocalypse. I worked with them to create their online presence at theglitchmob.com
• Lucent Dossier – When I was little, if I complained to my mother that I was bored, she’d say sardonically (in Russian),”You want me to hire you a circus?” 20 years later, I became the manager for this vaudeville circus troupe. Careful what you tell your children.
  
• The Dresden Dolls – My part time college job was assisting Amanda Palmer, the front-woman for this genre-bending punk rock cabaret outfit.
  
• Lunatarium – In the summer of 2002, I helped promote the parties at this notorious, 20,000 sq. ft. New York warehouse space (now sadly defunct). One of the most incredible venues I have ever had the pleasure of being associated with in the course of my nightlife and concert career.
  
• Artists For Humanity – In high school I worked as a photographer for this amazing design company, which employs Boston public school kids on projects for major brands and local clients.
• Art imitating life imitating art… – Before I myself became a film student at Boston University, I starred in a BU student film called Finale. In the course of my extremely brief acting stint, I played a girl who runs away from the circus…. seriously. BE CAREFUL what you tell your children.
  
• The Floor Lords – Once upon a time, Boston’s oldest and best b-boy crew (they even had their own Saucony shoe) taught me how to breakdance. Here is what I looked like toprocking in my old shell-toes back in the day when I was hardcore.

>> What I do: Consulting Services
>> Whom I’ve done it for: Clients & Campaigns
>> Holla: jenka@social-creature.com