Walt Kuenstler

Walter Kuenstler is a marketing and branding expert, author, and consultant based in Los Angeles, CA. Companies such as The New York Times, Playboy Magazine, Hearst Publications, Tang Media Partners, and US Interactive have employed his expertise. His work has encompassed advertising, sales, publishing, writing, and business consulting in the United States and China.
His marketing career began in 1967 when serving as a summer intern, after graduating from Francis W. Parker High School, at the Seiber & McIntyre advertising agency in Chicago, Illinois.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in History, his path led to the McCann Erickson advertising agency. Serving initially as media planner on the Tampax account, he was promoted to Account Executive to handle the New York Times account. He worked with Bill Backer who conceived the ‘I want to buy the world a Coke’ song, and Bob Lenz who was creative director on the Miller Light Beer ‘tastes great less filling' campaign.
He was then hired by the New York Times as part of a team responsible for selling advertising into those new Part II sections. His work on behalf of the NY Times Magazine won first place in the Multi-Media category at the New York Film And Television Festival in 1982.
Subsequently, he served as Marketing Director at Playboy Magazine under Christie Hefner. Much of his time was spent responding to attacks on the magazine from the Reverend Donald Wildmon, whose National Federation for Decency launched a series of highly publicized attacks against Playboy.
As the “internet era” began, working at Backe Interactive in Ardmore, PA, he provided digital marketing guidance to clients such as Comcast and GlaxoSmithKline. Moving to US Interactive, he helped Cendant Mortgage create the first online mortgage application system.
Mr. Kuenstler founded his own consulting company, Zolexa LTD, offering marketing guidance, business strategy, and creative services to a wide variety of enterprises including the Asia Society of Southern California (ASSC) from 2005 to 2010. Mr. Kuenstler, along with his business associate Mark Alexander, worked closely with the chairman of ASSC, Donald Tang.
Walt Kuenstler collaborated on many of Mr. Tang’s most important public appearances and provided personal branding services. Mr. Kuenstler facilitated Kobe Bryant's appearance at the 2009 Asia Society Southern California’s annual banquet where Mr. Bryant received its ‘Person of the Year’ award in conjunction with recognition from the Chinese government for his charitable work with children in that country.
In 2011, Mr. Kuenstler was instrumental in facilitating the initiative with the Kobe Bryant China Fund to build the “safe and sustainable” New Jindai Elementary School serving 540 children, replacing a school destroyed in the devastating May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Mr. Kuenstler joined the start-up team at Tang Media Partners , a new film studio and entertainment enterprise in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Kuenstler focused on marketing and investor relations. Investors in Tang Media Partners include Neil Shen’s Sequoia Capital China, Huayi Brothers, and China Media Capital.
In 2016 Walt Kuenstler founded BlackCat/WhiteCat communications consulting firm in Santa Monica, California.
He is author of "Myth, Magic and Marketing," a book exploring the archetypal origins of modern branding.

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