Jené Wheeless, Boston University alum and PR major, now serves as the Communications Manager for Red Bull Dance at its U.S. headquarters. Red Bull Dance is the dance sector of Red Bull’s athlete initiative, which partners with, supports, and sponsors different dancers in their career-specific endeavors.
She was an active member of the school dance team, foreshadowing her future role in the world of dance and communications.
“While at BU, I had an interesting academic trajectory — starting with a desire to be a forensic psychologist, then advertising, and finally public relations (after a strong encouragement from my mother) — and it worked out. I was also on the Boston University Dance Team, and those four years with those girls I am incredibly grateful for — at that time in my life, they were the kind of home away from home that I needed.”
After graduating in 2016, Wheeless began her journey as a PR practitioner at Weber Shandwick in Washington, D.C., as an account coordinator on their corporate social responsibility team. After a few years, she left Weber Shandwick to join a smaller marketing and PR focused agency called Street Sense.
Wheeless worked in the PR sector with clients like Logitech and Taylor Gourmet. Street Sense’s unusual position in the realm of retail, real estate and architecture allowed her to expand her horizons.
“From a COM standpoint, it’s not only the media relations side of it,” Wheeless said. “So whether that’s working with media strategy or working directly with reporters, it’s also making sure internal stakeholders are informed and building out earned business plans when it comes to looking at the communications aspect for events.”
Wheeless’ journey then took her from the East Coast to Los Angeles, where she began her work at Reddit on their consumer communications team in 2021.
In August of 2022, Wheeless took a break from traditional employment to do freelance work and focus on writing her manuscript.
By May of 2023, she joined her current team at Red Bull. She’s been there for roughly six months. Wheeless’ work involves various aspects, including media relations, project management, and serving as a global liaison with Red Bull’s team in Austria.
One of the notable shifts in Wheeless’ career is her transition from working at agencies to collaborating with them in-house.
“We may say to our agency, these are our goals for the year, and then they’ll pull together a strategy around those goals and then execute against that strategy,” said Wheeless. “A client and an agency should be a symbiotic relationship and really work together.”
This shift is representative of the strides she has made in her career and the ways in which she has been able to make seamless transitions. Social media plays a pivotal role in Red Bull’s mission to push the company towards its target audience.
Wheeless explained that she works with social media in collaboration with a dedicated team that creates and posts appropriate content. She also frequently collaborates with social media editors at news outlets to ensure that Red Bull’s events receive coverage on various platforms.
When it comes to working with influencers, whom Wheeless referred to as “content creators,” she stressed the importance of finding individuals who genuinely love the brand.
“Red Bull is never going to work with someone who doesn’t like Red Bull. That just wouldn’t make sense,” Wheeless said. “We don’t just work with people to work with people strictly because of their following… It’s not just transactional.”
She also explained that Red Bull prioritizes meaningful relationships to exemplify its commitment to authenticity.
From Weber Shandwick to Red Bull, Wheeless noted how much the media has changed between her time at both companies. She described the evolving landscape of communications, with social media playing a significant role. Additionally, she acknowledged the changes in media consumption habits and shifts in the media industry.
“People also are more visual these days,” Wheeless said. “They don’t necessarily want to sit down and read an entire article… I also think the media industry has changed a ton. Reporting is very different now. And on top of that, media newsrooms are very different. Media newsrooms are shuttering their doors to survive.”
She emphasized that this shift has made it all the more important to form real connections with the media.
For Wheeless, taking this human approach is essential. She strives to form genuine connections, continuously adapting to the ever-changing demands of the communications industry.
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