Bozoma Saint John was born in the US but her family moved back to her father’s country of Ghana, Africa where she would be raised throughout her childhood. She says that those years in Ghana were like an adventure to her, but she moved back to the states when she was 12.
Growing up in Ghana and moving to Colorado Springs St. John was in a culture shock saying that when she went to school she couldn’t understand what her classmates were talking about. This lead to discovering her passion for pop culture, that she used as a tool to connect better with her fellow peers.
St. John says that connection through pop culture connects people in a way that they can understand and transcend cultural barriers. She was so in-tuned with pop culture that during her time at Wesleyan College, she convinced Jay-Z to perform for a concert on campus.
Her knowledge is pop culture paid off with her first job working for Pepsi and launching one of their most successful ad campaigns when Beyonce was debuting her solo career. After Pepsi she started working for the top music streaming company, Apple.
At the time Apple Music and iTunes were in their stages of infancy, needing a marketing strategy to take the platform to new heights. This piece of pop culture was yet to be popular so she need to tug on the heart strings of users by feeding them a little bit of (you guessed it) popular culture.
She created an ad campaign with three influential artists including Kerry Washington, Taraji Henson, and Mary J. Blige – just talking about music and playlists. This simple ad connected to users on a personal level and increasing the users of iTunes, the rest is history.
St. John’s love of pop culture lead her to her love for marketing, connecting people of all cultures with media.
