Seton Hall's Joseph A. Unanue Latino Institute and the Stillman School of Business presented "A Converstion with Javier Farf??n" on Wednesday, April 17.
Students and faculty gathered in the Jubilee Hall Auditorium to hear about a more nuanced approach to marketing. As Senior Director of Cultural Branding at PepsiCo Inc., Farf??n creates strategies that build brands and drive volume with key cultural groups.
As part of an Integrity and Professionalism Convocation, participants were able to listen to a40 minute presentation on some of the notable works that Farf??n has been and is currently working on. He was the man behind the iconic Diet Pepsi commercial that brought together Sof?aVergara and David Beckham.
Before joining PepsiCo, Farf??nserved as product marketing group manager at Microsoft Corp. and was responsible for marketing and communications efforts specifically within the U.S. Hispanic market. He also served as the Director of Marketing for MTV Networks where he helped launch a Hispanic cable network "MTV Tr3s."
Farf??n said he credits his work with Spike TV and later launching MTV Tr3s as the basis for his success.
"So actually launching a Hispanic channel for MTV called MTV Tr3s and that was again the idea of advancement," Farf??n said. "Elevating myself, connecting with the right people, and the opportunity came and they saw the work that I had done"
Throughout the PowerPoint presentation the audience was able to get a sense of the many projects Farf??nhad undertaken. Some of the featured projects were Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter," Xbox's Zune service, PepsiCo's Beyonc?©, Lil Wayne "This Is How We DEW," Kickstart campaign.
Farf??n is noted in the PepsiCo industry for launching what he calls a "Culture and Music Team."
"A lot of my work is around cultural insights, how do we really think about going after the ethnic consumer the right way and using those insights to create marketing programs," Farf??n said.
He said he deals specifically with Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American consumers and influencers. After the presentation and clips of different advertisements, Farf??n opened up the conversation to questions and comments from students and faculty.
Farf??n's marketing work is extensive but he made it clear that it all starts with an idea and how you go about vocalizing that. He left the audience with the three key principles to his success: "Elevate, Connect and Provoke."
Christopher Adams can be reached at christopher.adams@student.shu.edu.
