• by Lukas Harnisch , January 8, 2023

It's rare to be able to boast that you have been a part of the digital marketing field from its very founding, but Kinney Edwards is one of the few who can honestly say they have been there very close to its beginning. As senior art director at Zentropy Partners, Edwards quickly established himself as a leader. 

“It was an interesting period,” Edwards says of the early 2000s. “People were still carving out what digital marketing meant, and the terms were not even really quite there yet. We were calling it 'interactive media' and 'non-traditional'."

But Edwards recognized the promise of the medium right away. “There was so much potential in that one-to-one communication with audiences that it offered.”

From there he moved quickly to other creative heavyweights like Ogilvy and Tribal Worldwide. He has led creative teams on high-profile brands including Adidas, AT&T, Mars Wrigley Confectionery, Mars Petcare, Cadillac, the National Football League, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, Wounded Warrior Project, Nickelodeon, Intel, Pepsi, Diageo, Philips, UNICEF, and Neutrogena.

“My niche became working between the traditional, those big campaigns focused on mass awareness, and turning it into a more personalized and engaging message,” Edwards says. 

Now, he is global head of the creative lab at TikTok. There, he connects brands with the greater culture through the ironclad hold that the app has on the zeitgeist. “It’s a lot of serendipity,” he says about his entry into the role.

He sees himself as helping brands to best understand how to connect with their audiences.

Edwards understands that there is a fundamental difference when advertising a product that relies on engagement with content. For him, the substance of campaigns is key and relies on authentic storytelling, and much of that comes from brands co-creating with established personalities.

“One of the biggest achievements for me and my team recently has been helping brands to see the power of that co-creation,” Edwards says. “We're moving away from the attitude of just showing up on a platform and selling stuff. It has become about making something interesting and collaborative.”

He points to the success of Taco Bell on TikTok and the brand's community that came to life around Doja Cat's investment in the restaurant's Mexican pizza. The brand gave the artist almost absolute creative freedom on her popular TikTok page. It was a huge success.

Two weeks after its release, Taco Bell had to announce that it was running out of ingredients for the menu item.

Creators like Doja Cat are the lifeblood of the platform, and Edwards wants to ensure that brands looking to market can understand their power. “They can make their efforts much more relevant,” he says.

“Creativity is the answer,” he says. “I know that this still feels relatively new, but we’re seeing a lot of momentum, and that's energizing for me. My teams across the world are pushing this sort of relevancy and connection for brands in such creative and inspiring ways. That has been amazing to watch.”