SEATTLE: Former G4 brand director C. Riana Manuel-Peña has joined PR and marketing group Zebra Partners as director of brand and unified marketing.
Manuel-Peña is stepping into a newly created role, beefing up client relationships with social and influencer marketing. Zebra originally considered her for a consultant position but changed her role to incorporate her experience in the creator economy.
As the "campaign doctor," Manuel-Peña will perform "a little bit of surgery on existing client roles, and then, as new clients come in, bring that [social and influencer] marketing first into the conversation as we're discussing the overall media relations support pitches," she said.
She'll work with gaming and tech clients, both those interested in augmented and virtual reality and healthcare tech.
"One of the things that I'm excited to be immediately effective in is helping to build out influencer and creator outreach programming," Manuel-Peña said. "That could be anything from finding people who are the most effective to helping spread the message of our client marketing, all the way down to what pricing we pitch and what we put in the budget for engaging with creators."
Manuel-Peña added that she'll be responsible for ensuring that influencers are in lockstep with client messaging.
She previously served as brand director at G4, a videogame-focused network that played shows on TV, Twitch and YouTube, where she directed strategy, messaging and creative, until May. The network shut down for the second time in October after a year-long reboot. Prior to G4, Manuel-Peña worked as Xbox's product marketing manager, where she created market strategy and drove influencer engagement.
Zebra Partners has worked with clients including Tetris, GameStop, Microsoft and Sony. It was founded by three former Nintendo execs and focuses on curating programs for brands in emerging technology, video games and entertainment.