Omar Johnson has had many rolls each more daunting then the last. The office of student activities brought in the media mogul for their latest speaker series.

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On Thursday night students gathered in the Mcgarvey Commons to listen to former CMO of Beats by Dr. Dre. Chancellor ford introduced Johnson with a brief insight on his past work with fortune 500 companies.

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Johnson started his visit to Behrend by dining at the Logan house with students and select staff. There Johnson enjoyed light hearted conversation with students in which he discussed his past and how he grew up with aspirations to become a doctor, only to discover after years of studying pre-med that his talents lie elsewhere. Johnson came to the realization after a mentor faced him with the question, “Are you doing this because you want to help people, or you want to make a lot of money?” Johnson then went on to acquire his MBA from Emory University.  Johnson also discussed how he believes any talent can be turned into a career with enough opened doors, encouraging the students to find what passion can evolve to make them an asset saying, “When you love it, passion is very easy, you don’t have to turn passion on. Whenever I speak marketing wise, it's just there because I believe it is. It's not a job, it's not a hat I wear, it's not a thing I transform into, its my life.”

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The big name marketer also praised the power of diversity in the workplace not only among race and gender but also expertise. He explained how much of his success was due to his close work with not only original marketers but company lawyers and accountants. The guru commented, “A great idea never dies with marketers” explaining that if you involve legal and accounting they understand the goals and can work with marketers to create a strong campaign. He also said in those meetings there must be rules forbidding the words, “can’t and don’t.” One thing he credited his success to was his out of the box personality commenting, “People always say, ‘oh you think outside the box’ I don’t see the fucking box.” He also said when creating work he finds unique connections, saying, “Plays on gender race or sex are cheap tricks and will pass quickly,” and then over simplifies everything. Other tips from Johnson included continuing learning, experimenting, and becoming an expert at taking in information. After dinner Johnson along with his dinner guests made their way to the McGarvey Commons for the evenings presentation.

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The brand genius opened up the evening by sharing his various experiences. He paid his dues at Kraft and Campbell's, gaining experience in the field which eventually led him to Nike. Working at Nike allowed Johnson to realize his full potential, and reach audiences he connected with. After seeing his work with Nike, Dr. Dre & Jimmy Lovine, founders of Beats by Dre, moved Johnson into the office of his dreams in downtown L.A. From there Johnson and Dre worked closely together to craft a marketing strategy for Beats that would elevate the companies street cred. Omar's first major campaign debut for Beats occured at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The campaign featured athletes from all over the world sporting beats headphones with their countries colors on them.

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After his large success in London, Johnson took on the American front with a campaign scaffolded around blocking out the haters. The campaign focused on athletes who require the noise canceling technology of Beats to put themselves into the right mindset before a big game. With Beats breakout reputation for marketing, Johnson began to take on new projects with Dre, including promoting Dre’s movie “Straight outta Compton.” Dre’s inspiration for “Straight Outta Compton” was to embrace people's hometowns. Johnson’s need for innovate creativity did not falter as he and a team created a campaign which featured photo filters of “Straight outta somewhere,” the Rep Your City Campaign. The filter quickly became the number one filter used on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, a feature never before accomplished. As Johnson closed his presentation he reviewed key points he wanted students to take away from his presentation. The first point was not to get caught up in the data when creating a campaign saying, “data is a starting point not an ending.”

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“Remember the most important parts of the campaign are the product, the people, and telling a story. Weaponize your basics, use psychology along with other tricks to put yourself above the competition. Get over yourself and out of your way, don’t let fear run your life and your decisions,” Johnson concluded.

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Johnson then opened the floor up to Q&A telling students, “I’m here as long as you want me to be,” which resulted in students hanging onto Johnsons every word until 9:30 p.m., an hour longer than arranged by student activities. The event wrapped up with a giveaway of Beats Headphones for two lucky students. Nate Steis, a marketing major and Spencer Randall Jr. a MIS major, were the lucky winners of the evening.

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For those interested in what Johnsons work will look like next should look to Amazon for a company called True Women. Unannounced in the media Johnson has left Apple within the last year in order to create a new company. The small accelerator is working with a company called True Women which has recently been released on Amazon. The company features vegan protein bars on amazon and is focused around empowering women, putting away typical shrinking and pinking, while also involving women in over 70 percent of the companies’ decisions. Johnson's new endeavors have pulled him away from marketing known brand names, and should keep consumers on their toes as he promises only great things to come from his new company.