Jayanta Jenkins Joins HP as Global Executive Creative Director
Former Twitter marketing lead will work across all business units
By Doug Zanger
Long-tenured agency and brand creative leader Jayanta Jenkins has joined HP as its global executive creative director. The role will see him work across all of HP’s business units to develop continued continuity in the brand’s communications. Jenkins will report to Karen Kahn, HP’s chief communications officer.
Jenkins, who started his career on the agency side with The Martin Agency, Wieden+Kennedy and TBWA\Chiat\Day, most recently served as global group creative director at Twitter for just over two years and spent a year in a similar role at Beats by Dre. Additionally, Jenkins is a co-founder of the Saturday Morning collective that includes 72andSunny ecd Keith Cartwright, former R/GA Los Angeles ecd Geoff Edwards and Amusement Park founder Jimmy Smith.
According to Jenkins, the opportunity to join the brand came about organically and made sense as he “has been a big fan of HP for quite some time.” He noted some standout work including past campaigns featuring Jay-Z and more recent work such as “The Wolf” with Christian Slater, as well as the tech giant’s consistently impactful “Reinvent Mindsets” diversity and inclusion marketing.
“I love the emotional storytelling [HP] does, and it’s exactly where my heart is,” he said.
On the latter, Jenkins feels that inclusion is “built into the culture [at HP], and … there’s no box-checking. It’s an approach and behavior” as opposed to some other companies that are “saying the right things, or putting the right things on the walls as a veneer.”
“I think organizationally [in Silicon Valley], there are still a lot of challenges that are very well alive when it comes to embracing inclusion and diversity,” he noted. “But the good news is that it comes down to the output of the work and then being able to show up and demonstrate. I’ve been able to see some things, informed some discussion, raise bars and open doors in a wonderful way.”
Much like his time at Twitter—where he moved from sports and product marketing to technology—Jenkins says that this latest role is filled with the unknown, yet he believes it to be more of a strength and an enhancement to his long creative career.
“I think that’s where the spark of growth happens,” he said. “And my biggest asset in this experience in looking forward is, ultimately, being willing to embrace an uncomfortable feeling while being curious. I’ve found a really comfortable place for myself in tech by being uncomfortable. That’s what I’m thriving on, and I love these types of challenges.”
Jenkins will continue to work on Saturday Morning projects with Cartwright, Edwards, Smith and recent addition, Deja Cox, a brand agent at Observatory (formerly CAA Marketing). The group is planning to release a new campaign for P&G that has been in the works and continues to seek other partnerships to add to the roster that includes Twitter and Spotify.
1 comment:
Does anyone else appreciate what a big deal this is? It feels so rare to see an African-American creative leader, because agencies have been feeding us this line of international diversity BS for so long its easy to start thinking that the only way to find talent is to go overseas and bring in white foreigners with exotic names.
I see news like Jayanta, and that's diversity.
That's different from the diversity the agencies are selling, where they are quick to hire and provide visas to white Brazilians and South Americans or creatives from overseas like below, call it "diverse" and ignore POC in their own backyards unless showing up to mentor them in middle schools.
https://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/joan-adds-4-members-to-creative-team/152875
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