Frankie Santella
This is the world of Frankie Santella, where music, media, and culture collide with strategy, instinct, and vision. As a behind-the-scenes force in today’s entertainment ecosystem, Frank Santella is known for making big things happen: closing headline-making podcast deals, managing artist rollouts, producing culture-forward content, and helping brands tap into the heartbeat of what’s next. Through his agency, Zilla, he specializes in connecting talent with meaningful opportunities, from chart-topping musicians to iconic legacy acts, as well as from podcast empires to spirits brands. Frank Santella isn’t just navigating the entertainment industry; he’s shaping it, one game-changing partnership at a time.
About Frankie Santella
Frank Santella isn’t just in the music business; he’s in the relationship business. With a career built on instinct, hustle, and cultural fluency, Frank has become the behind-the-scenes force powering some of entertainment’s most talked-about deals, artist campaigns, and creative partnerships. Whether he’s locking in a multi-million-dollar podcast deal, managing Grammy-nominated talent, or booking the right face for a brand launch, Frank moves with a rare mix of strategy, heart, and vision.
As the founder of Zilla, a boutique agency specializing in artist and podcast management, brand partnerships, and talent booking, Frank has carved out a space where trust, authenticity, and long-term vision take precedence over trends. Zilla isn’t just a management company; it’s a connector of people, platforms, and purpose. Through Zilla, Frank helps build sustainable careers for creatives while guiding brands to engage talent in ways that feel organic and rooted in culture.
Under the Zilla umbrella, Frank also runs Good Groceries, a visual studio dedicated to high-impact storytelling through music videos, short films, commercial productions, and documentaries. Whether behind the scenes or behind the lens, Good Groceries reflects Frank’s dedication to craft, aesthetic, and narrative integrity, bringing bold, nuanced visuals to life across entertainment and advertising.
Frank’s background in artist management, particularly in hip-hop, laid the groundwork for his expansive network and deep industry insight. He’s worked closely with both legacy acts and emerging talent, fostering careers while navigating the ever-evolving cultural landscape. Along the way, he’s collaborated with major players like Brand Jordan, Revolt, and other influential media platforms, spearheading talent bookings for high-visibility campaigns and branded content that resonate at street level and beyond.
At the core of Frank’s work is an unparalleled ability to connect the dots between talent, media, and brands, especially in spaces where cultural authenticity is non-negotiable. His real, personal relationships with artists and their teams allow him to cut through industry red tape and build momentum early, often laying the groundwork before traditional agents or corporate reps are even in the room. It’s this ability to anticipate, activate, and align that has made him a trusted partner to both creatives and corporations alike.
From his early days touring with G-Eazy to producing campaigns for Rolling Loud and shaping branded initiatives across music, fashion, and media, Frank Santella’s name may not always be front and center, but his influence is unmistakable. He doesn’t just connect the dots; he sees the entire picture before anyone else does.
Frankie Santella on How to Build a Long-Term Career Strategy for Artists, Not Just a Viral Moment
In the hyper-digitalized music industry of today, virality has become both a coveted milestone and a misleading benchmark. One breakout TikTok trend or meme-worthy snippet can launch an unknown artist into the global spotlight overnight. Yet as quickly as fame arrives, it can evaporate, leaving many talented individuals struggling to translate a spike in visibility into sustainable careers. In this climate, strategic advisors who focus on long-term development rather than fleeting trends are more vital than ever.
Among the leading voices advocating for career infrastructure over short-lived hype is Frank Santella, a seasoned music industry executive and cultural strategist. With years of experience in artist management, media partnerships, content production, and brand alignment, Frank Santella has built a career around helping talent establish long-term, multi-dimensional success. His work through Good Groceries, a forward-looking agency that evolved from his original venture, Zilla Entertainment Consulting, exemplifies the blueprint for building sustainable careers in entertainment.
The Pitfalls of a Hype-Driven Culture
The current entertainment ecosystem rewards speed, shareability, and saturation. Artists are incentivized to chase trending sounds, viral choreography, or snippets engineered for streaming algorithms. Frank Santella understands that while these tactics can generate attention and boost metrics in the short term, they rarely lead to enduring brand equity. Artists who rise too fast without infrastructure often lack the systems, personnel, or strategic clarity needed to sustain momentum.
Without foundational support, what begins as a moment of breakthrough can turn into a career bottleneck. Labels and platforms may be quick to embrace virality, but they are often just as quick to move on. For artists, the consequence can be artistic fatigue, brand dilution, and a disconnect between their public persona and long-term goals.
Building Infrastructure Before Momentum Hits
Frank Santella’s approach centers on establishing an ecosystem before a breakthrough moment occurs. Rather than waiting for virality to dictate next steps, his focus lies in preparing artists for a range of career possibilities. This includes building the right team, managers, legal advisors, creative directors, and marketing strategists, as well as identifying long-term positioning opportunities.
Through Good Groceries, Frankie Santella helps artists and creatives design integrated strategies that span beyond music into media, branding, podcasting, and content creation. This 360-degree model ensures that when the spotlight does hit, the artist is ready not just to receive it, but to capitalize on it meaningfully and sustainably.
His work on Grammy-nominated album projects involving globally recognized talent such as The Weeknd, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes, Ty Dolla $ign, and Summer Walker speaks to a deep understanding of how to guide artists through high-pressure moments of visibility with strategic precision. These projects go beyond music releases, they are orchestrated cultural moments supported by timing, partnerships, and media alignment.
Strategic Expansion Through Cross-Platform Identity
Long-term artist strategy is no longer confined to record sales or streaming numbers. In the modern landscape, artists must cultivate identities that are adaptable across platforms and industries. Television, podcasts, fashion, sports, spirits, and branded content have become essential extensions of an artist’s brand.
Frankie Santella has been instrumental in engineering such crossover success. His work in brokering major media deals, like the multi-million-dollar partnership between the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast and Barstool Sports, and the Caresha Please podcast deal with Revolt, demonstrates how artists and media personalities can reposition themselves as long-term voices in culture. These are not short-term sponsorships or publicity stunts, but calculated steps in building multifaceted public figures whose influence transcends a single platform.
This same cross-platform thinking is evident in Frank Santella’s involvement with projects like the Crew League basketball series, a creative collaboration with Rolling Loud that merged sports, music, and entertainment. By blending traditional live entertainment formats with digital-age media strategies, Santella creates pathways for artists to expand their reach in culturally relevant ways.
The Importance of Artist Brand Equity
Another critical aspect of long-term strategy is cultivating brand equity—the intangible value tied to an artist’s name, aesthetic, and perceived authenticity. Viral content may boost temporary engagement, but brand equity is what encourages fans, brands, and platforms to invest in the long run.
Frank Santella’s work extends into this space through brand development and partnership alignment, particularly in the spirits industry and with legacy fashion labels like Jordan Brand. By identifying authentic brand fits and structuring collaborations that serve both artist and partner, he ensures that these deals elevate, rather than dilute, the artist’s core identity.
Brand equity is further reinforced by strategic narrative development. Through integrated rollouts, consistent messaging, and holistic content strategies, Frankie Santella helps artists shape their public perception in a way that endures beyond a single release or campaign.
Legacy as the Endgame
The final measure of success for any long-term strategy is legacy. Frank Santella’s belief in legacy-building is evident in his willingness to work with both emerging talent and legacy acts, guiding them with equal commitment. For rising artists, he provides a runway for sustainable growth rather than a race to virality. For seasoned professionals, he offers new avenues for relevance without sacrificing history or integrity.
His background in touring, beginning with early work on the road with G-Eazy, informs his hands-on, artist-first philosophy. Today, that same philosophy is applied across a range of media properties, label consulting roles (such as Vice President of Music Management and Strategic Partnerships at Love Records), and brand activations. This broad portfolio showcases a career built not on hype but on substance, results, and respect for the craft.
Redefining Success in the Modern Era
The entertainment industry is in constant flux, but the core principles of career development remain unchanged: clarity of purpose, infrastructure, and adaptability. Frank Santella stands as a leader in applying these principles to a new era, one where music is only one piece of the puzzle, and where strategic foresight is just as important as creative output.
As artists seek to define their path in a world dominated by noise, metrics, and momentary fame, the need for advisors who understand the full picture has never been greater. Frankie Santella’s work is a model for how to rise above the noise and build something lasting, not just a trend, but a legacy.