Dissolving Differences and Evolving Hustle Culture with Rena Jett Kayrala

Rena Jett Kayrala is a 15-year business development specialist. After collating a toolkit of skills spanning experiential, XR, AI, web3, gaming, content and event production and more, she is now VP, global growth and strategy at LA-based creative production company, HELO. 

A decade-long friend of founder Justin Moore-Lewy, HELO hired Rena seven months ago at “a pivotal point of growth” for the company. The roster was evolving from a more traditional film-led offering to include a diverse range of artists working with new technologies such as drones and AI - a perfect fit for the incoming Rena. “My main goal is to support sustainable growth at HELO, working on supporting our talent and growing the profile of the brand across digital platforms,” she says, speaking to LBB’s Ben Conway.

“There is a lot of great multi-award-winning work to shout about, and I’m focused on making sure we’re able to strategically tell those stories to the right audiences. It takes time to achieve change, but we are definitely seeing a positive increase in our workload and clients.”

A recent project that’s seen awards success is HELO’s ‘Dreamcaster’ project for Michelob Ultra. The campaign has won seven Cannes Lions and 18 LIA Awards, and utilised a combination of AI, data and wearable haptic technology to help a blind man commentate an NBA game. While the film and subsequent documentary has been seen by millions already, Rena says that the innovation and its future applications for helping visually impaired people is just the beginning of something much bigger.

“We are actively working towards partnering with larger cultural organisations and enterprises who are interested in furthering their DE&I objectives,” she says, “and seeing how we can build on this technology to offer heightened entertainment experiences. Watch this space!”

Above: Michelob Ultra - 'Dreamcaster' 

Rena has always had this innate entrepreneurial spirit - whether it was running a radio station, writing fanzines or organising local skateboarding events. By 22, she had completed a film production course and worked as a researcher with the BBC, and moved to Barcelona to do a Masters in digital media and communications. But that’s not all. In her early 20s, she set up her own PR agency on the side and was even part of an all-female DJ collective called Bikini Girls With Machine Guns, which had residencies in Madrid and Barcelona playing with the likes of Steve Aoki and Crystal Fighters.

After a brief stint as a producer with VICE Media Spain, she returned to London as a marketing manager for the APA and started building her network of London’s top creatives and production talent. Missing being part of the creativity herself, however, she then jumped to the production world and worked in new business roles, before moving to the US and joining UNIT9. For five years she played a pivotal role in building the production company’s reputation in this new territory.

During this hustle-centric period of her burgeoning career, she shares that a senior woman in the industry pulled her aside to warn her about a work-life imbalance. “She said, ‘If you continue this way, you will end up like many of us women in the industry - unmarried’,” she recounts. “Whilst I absolutely don’t attribute life success to marriage, I did have desires to build a family myself and realised that I needed to learn how to balance priorities and make space for doing things just for myself if that was going to happen.”

She adds, “It’s a hard line to draw when you love your work and it’s a huge part of your identity.”

Acknowledging the importance of both aspects of her life, she is now a mother of two, while still holding a leadership role at HELO - balancing her professional demands with a new set of non-work responsibilities. “Chores, home management and extra curricular activities aside, you have to take time to be present with your children and loved ones,” she says. “No email, notification, or event should take precedence over those precious fleeting moments.”

Now experiencing the business as both a mother and a member of the industry, her perspective has shifted, too. Dove’s ‘The Cost of Beauty’ from Ogilvy is a campaign that particularly struck a note with her earlier this year. A tale of how social media can impact children’s mental health, she praises the campaign for speaking to, and offering hope around, a larger societal issue. “I think we need to see more brands using their platform to heighten awareness and offer resources around social issues like these."

Above: Dove - 'The Cost of Beauty' (Ogilvy Toronto & UK)

She continues, “What frustrates me is the constant glorification of work that adds to a problem instead of solving it. As an industry, we are responsible for influencing systemic norms, and as a result we need to take this responsibility very seriously. The kind of campaigns that really excite me are the ones that effectively touch upon our emotions and speak to a broader audience, dissolving differences.”

Social impact, like in Dove’s work,  is one of Rena's key focuses when creating immersive experiences at HELO. And to make a true impact, she believes you have to think beyond just the brand activation or film, and develop something that can be active in a community long-term. “Campaigns that raise awareness for social issues are fantastic, but campaigns that actively target social issues are better,” she explains.

One of her favourite examples from HELO is Coors Light’s ‘Chillboards’ project. This campaign used reflective white paint billboards on black rooftops in Florida to reduce internal home temperatures, and help lower income families save on air conditioning bills. “It reduced the inside temperature by 50ºF (28ºC),” she says. “... an innovative product that they could scale up and use to extend brand messaging beyond the campaign itself, helping communities across the country.”

Above: Coors Light - 'Chillboards'

To cool down her own creative mind, Rena loves to go climbing and decompress with a run or yoga in the mornings. “Yoga is everything, everyone should read philosophy and practice yoga,” she insists. “In fact, both of these things need to be in educational curriculums.” During the warmer months, she even sets the tone for the day with a quick ride of the ramps at a local concrete skatepark. 

But where she truly refuels her professional outlook and ambitions is among the creatives she has surrounded herself with. Whether they be passionate filmmakers, architects or technical directors, the broad scope of talent she’s encountered throughout her career remain both lifelong friends and inspirations.

“I am driven by being around creative thinkers,” she says, “[those] who haven’t lost their sense of curiosity and who are visionaries. Bringing these magical humans together and being part of the creative discourse motivates me daily.”