DAYTIME HUSTLE

Reonna Johnson is the SVP of Partnerships at Deutsch, a top marketing and advertising creative studio in Playa Vista, CA. Simply put, she works with the bigwigs to come up with smart strategies to bring in new clients.

Reonna has spent over 20 years in the world of corporate marketing, learning the ropes, sharpening her skills, and making a real impact. She’s been hustling behind the scenes, using her creativity and experience to help every agency she’s worked with build relationships that can open doors to new business opportunities.

SIDE HUSTLE

In addition to driving new business, Johnson strives to create inclusive cultures in the advertising industry for people of color. In 2018, Johnson co-founded Three’s a Crowd, a community of Los Angeles-based Black creative professionals to build space, influence, and tangible change within the creative industry. The organization developed In for 13, a pledge designed to stomp out systemic racism and create equity in the advertising industry by raising the percentage of Black representation in leadership positions to 13% by 2023, which increased from 3% to 6% in three years.

She is also the creator and host of Hex Code Black, a podcast featuring raw and honest conversations with Black professionals at the intersection of race, culture and creativity, that’s won advertising industry awards: 2024 Anthem Awards Silver Winner for best Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Podcast. AND 2023 Adweek Audio Awards for Best Agency-Hosted Podcast.

Grounded in culture, she thrives in spaces that builds community and champions those who have been historically marginalized. She flourishes when marrying her logical, analytical side with creativity. When she’s not brainstorming her next big idea, you can find Johnson gardening at her home, an activity that inspired her to start Better Hoods & Gardens, where her goal is to connect the soul to the soil for each of her neighbors.

She is also deeply invested in her community as a wellness and fitness enthusiast. She co-created Rooted, a brick-and-mortar fitness studio in Inglewood, CA, where she builds fitness communities and a rental space for local fitness and wellness professionals.

She has earned numerous accolades, including AdWeek’s Women Trailblazers, Campaign US Female Frontier honors and MediaPost Creative All Star Winner.

MORE ON RERE

Reonna has always been a lover of the arts, but she played it smart and got her undergraduate degree in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing—you know, to make sure the bills got paid. She kicked off her career as an Executive Assistant at Capitol Records and Fox Television. Yep, she started at the bottom, answering phones and sending faxes. (Yes, faxes were still a thing.) She was at Capitol Records when Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful” was blowing up, Coldplay was the “new band to watch,” and Norah Jones had just hit the scene.

After leaving the music and media world, she climbed the ranks at Korn Ferry, a global consulting firm, becoming a Marketing Manager and officially launching her marketing career.

Fun fact: Reonna is a born-and-raised Westside, Los Angeles, Cali kid and proud of it! She was the artsy kid who played the cello, smashed it as the fastest running back on an all-boys flag football team, entered science fairs, and obsessed over liner notes and art on album covers (because the art mattered). She had a thing for painting, plants, patterns, and also had a thing for hoarding school supplies, which she organized perfectly and “let” her classmates borrow.

So, blending business and creativity? That’s been second nature for Reonna from the start.