Coworking with Jess Santini

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Jess Santini is vice president of global marketing at the agency Assembly. Prior to that, she served as marketing director at Codeword, and previously, she worked in marketing and communications roles at Havas.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Years ago, I was pitching my first panel for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. I had this idea for our chief strategy officer to take the stage with one of our clients and a celebrity that the brand had worked with. At first, our CSO sort of laughed it off. He said he didn’t think the client would go for it. Fast-forward, and we were able to secure recording artist Big Sean to join them on stage. That project taught me a huge lesson: that the sky is the limit. If you can visualize it and work hard, you can make it happen.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I’ve always loved the Frida Mom campaigns. I love a brand that pushes the envelope and takes risks. Frida shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of what it’s like postpartum. It’s not always pretty, which is exactly why their products exist. As a woman and as a mom, I appreciate their candor. They are serious when they need to be, but also have a playful tone where they can, especially on social media.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I’m a child of immigrants. Or rather, I am an immigrant myself. My family and I moved to America when I was about 3 years old from England. I’m completely Americanized now, but growing up, I definitely struggled with feeling different due to use of British jargon, the “unusual” cuisine in my school lunch boxes, and the bright red hair.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I love that creators are being more authentic nowadays, even going as far as to de-influence their audience. There were more than a few years where unattainable lifestyle envy was the status quo on social media. Every feed was meticulously curated, every photo tweaked and filtered to perfection. I’m seeing more and more creators forgo filters altogether, and I really hope this trend is here to stay. On the flip side, the rise of AI influencers really worries me. The effects on mental health—not just for younger generations but for all social media users—can be detrimental when you can’t decipher real from fake. And to take it a step further, it’s unethical to replace real-life creators with computer-generated ones. You’re taking away their careers and their livelihoods.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I really enjoy following The Female Quotient on LinkedIn and Instagram. They are an organization that seeks to achieve gender equality in the workplace through thought leadership and events. The work they do is so important, and their Equality Lounge, which pops up at tentpole industry events, always draws an incredible community of entrepreneurs, marketers, and the like.