Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson
Born	(1992-10-01) October 1, 1992 Hudson, Québec
🏳️ Nationality	Canadian
🎓 Alma mater	Saint-Thomas Elementary School, Cité-des-Jeunes, Collège Bourget
💼 Occupation	Film producer, marketing expert, entrepreneur
🌐 Website	andrewamj.com

Andrew Johnson (born October 1, 1992) is a Canadian film producer, entrepreneur, digital marketer, branding specialist, artist agent, blogger, and the founder and president of AMJ Media and Independent Studios.

Early life and education

Born October 1, 1992, in Hudson, Québec to an anglophone father and francophone mother, Andrew went to Saint-Thomas Elementary School in Hudson. He pursued his highschool studies at Cité-des-Jeunes for three years, before continuing his education at Collège Bourget in Rigaud, where he graduated in 2010.

In 2007, Facebook was seeing instant success by attracting thousands of new users on a consistent basis. Andrew, like many kids his age, became a member in 2007, with the idea of securing an image as the cool kid in school by creating videos of “freestyle” skiing under the name NJWA, a group that included his best friends Nick Vincent, JP Castonguay, and William Touchie. Their videos inevitably gained thousands of views and numerous likes, leading them to create t-shirts and stickers to sell at school and even online through a small ecommerce website they created, but Andrew’s experimentation with the Internet and the earliest glimpse of what we now call social media did not end there.

During his time at Collège Bourget, Andrew had his first, true taste of entrepreneurial experience as part of an inter-student competition in grade 11, when he organized a ski trip in the Laurentians for his classmates, transport and ski-lift access included. He was able to convince the school’s administration to authorize the outing during the week, on a school day. An unusual feat. His ambitious project took home second prize among all other student projects. The unrivalled success of his project, for which he received a grade of 98%, earned him the Eugène Charlebois prize for his excellent performance in economics and business. This project is what instilled in Andrew the entrepreneurial mindset he thrives on today.

Career

At the age of 18, he founded his marketing agency, which brought together creators, artists and influencers to help brands build their online presence. Over the years, he has completed mandates for companies such as Labatt Brewing Company, Unilever, Maille Mustards, Copper Branch, Cidrerie Lacroix, Millstreet Brewery, Brickworks Ciderhouse, Hoegaarden, ID Food Corporation among others.

In March 2020, Andrew was nominated by Infopresse on their list of 30 people under 30 inspiring the future of the media and marketing industry in Quebec, Canada.

In 2013, he collaborated with a friend from Hudson, Brett Goldenberg, a specialist in website development, to create Canadanightlife.ca. Andrew used his numerous network of contacts to promote events, restaurants, music festivals and much more, not only in Montréal, but in Ottawa and Toronto. He wrote editorial articles that were shared on Facebook to generate traffic to the website. It was this experience that showed him the true power of social media when it came to diffusing a message to the general public.

In 2013, there were very few social media agencies in Montréal, being a relatively new and innovative concept at the time. Andrew, at the tender age of 21 years old, decided to open AMJ Media inc, a digital marketing agency. The agency offered consulting services in marketing and social media. Becoming more and more preoccupied with planning and organizing his numerous new projects, Andrew slowly became disinterested and detached from his studies. Expelled from the daytime program at John Abbott College and demoted to night classes, Andrew put an end to his studies three quarters of the way through his college education.

After reading about Beachclub’s acquisition by the Primeau family, Andrew conducted an interview with Olivier Primeau, in Pointe-Calumet in May 2015, for his website Canadanightlife.ca. Once the interview was over, Andrew took the opportunity to discuss his vision of marketing with specific strategies he thought could be applied to Beachclub.

Impressed by his complex understanding of Facebook and Instagram, Olivier hired Andrew as his director of marketing after 30 minutes of conversation. In the months following his hire, Andrew would help Olivier Primeau become the prominent personality he is known as today, the face of the new and improved Beachclub, by using the power of social media.

2015 was the year that led to Olivier Primeau and Beachclub’s notoriety, when they invited one of the most followed celebrities among 16-25 year olds on Instagram, Kylie Jenner, to come celebrate her 18th birthday at Beachclub, on August 16, 2015. Andrew’s public relation strategy based on Ryan Holiday’s book “Trust Me, I'm Lying” aimed to give exclusive rights of the story to the American tabloid TMZ. Following the announcement on the notorious celebrity gossip website, the Beachclub and Olivier Primeau brand saw worldwide recognition overnight.

This unique event which attracted significant attention from news websites from around the world placed Andrew at the forefront of the digital marketing scene in Canada, for which he was given the nickname Marketing Genius. Andrew participated in the documentary “Audacieux” produced by Illico regarding Olivier Primeau’s success using social media as a businessman in Quebec, Canada.

The extraordinary publicity stunt generated by Andrew for Kylie Jenner’s birthday celebrations skyrocketed Olivier Primeau’s popularity on social media. His growing fanbase reached exponential numbers: 175,000 fans on Facebook and 150,000 on Instagram, which captured the attention of huge brands who quickly demonstrated their interest in working with him. Naturally, Andrew became Primeau’s agent, negotiating his social media partnerships with Loto-Québec, the Montréal Casino and Bud Light, among others.

In 2018, with Olivier Primeau’s business and image well-established, Andrew moved on to something else and explored new horizons. He left his position as director of marketing, but continued to work as an advisor and agent.

In November 2018, the documentary Audacieux produced by Illico Videotron, which documents Olivier Primeau’s life story and success on social media, was released on Club Illico. Andrew’s interventions throughout the documentary occupied an important place in the story after those of Olivier’s family members.

At the beginning of 2018, Andrew purchased video camera equipment, rented a Studio in Montreal, Quebec, and founded Independant Studios inc. This new company, a film production studio, would work in parallel to AMJ Media inc, to produce commercials, mini-documentaries and web-series for brands.

External links

• Official website

This article "Andrew Johnson (film producer)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Andrew Johnson (film producer). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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