John Solomon has been in consumer tech for most of his career and loves building brands that have an impact in culture.
Whether at Beats by Dre, Apple or Therabody, Soloman thrives at brands that show up, which is one of the reasons he recently joined Mozilla as new chief marketing officer. Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox browser, is on a mission to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. And Solomon is tasked with building a culture-forward brand for this 26 year-old company that wants to ensure the Internet remains a resource that enriches people’s lives.
“Being a product of the Bay Area growing up as a kid in the early internet era, I can vividly remember the first time I learned about a browser and was such a huge fan of Firefox,” says Solomon. “What got me really excited about this role is that we are at this moment now where we’re seeing huge changes in how people access information and the internet with the influence of AI.”
Solomon sees the importance of maintaining the Internet as a public resource more than ever in the era of AI, and plans to build a brand around this mission.
“As AI is becoming increasingly part of the internet and the browsing experience, there is a huge opportunity for there to be an independent trustworthy voice,” says Solomon. “The opportunity to take this strong brand with a strong existing user base globally and really help consumers understand how it can be relevant in their lives.”
Brand Innovators caught up with Solomon from his office in Montana to discuss his new role, how he is positioning Mozilla in the marketplace and the importance of real world connections in the era of AI slop. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you talk about the brand mission?
The mission of the brand is to keep the internet open. What we’ve done with the internet originally to keep it open, now is what we’re wanting to do within the AI space. We believe that having an open, free, competitive internet and now increasingly AI space allows for healthy competition. It benefits the consumer. We really believe that it’s important for consumers to have choice, to not be locked in to ecosystems and a lot of dark patterns that keep them tied into big tech’s business model. We’re really all about that free, open internet, focusing on choice, very privacy forward and continuing to push that mission. Some parts of our organization are very much focused on the policy side, the education side, and venture investing, which is looking at supporting companies that align to our mission – creating more open AI tools.
Can you talk about how you are positioning the brand as the internet evolves and where you see Mozilla in the marketplace?
I always start with understanding consumers. We’ve seen that a lot of consumers are very skeptical of AI. They are very concerned about the level of data and information that has to be given out. There are also consumers that are very interested and excited about adopting some of the AI tools that will improve the way they work, experience the internet and plan trips. We’re really looking at how to be a safe and trusted place for when you want to use AI and also how to be a space that respects users that maybe don’t want to use AI and are very concerned about privacy. That’s something we’ve stood for from our very beginning. That’s a core value of ours.
We want to make sure that we can meet consumers where they are, depending on where they want to be. We’re doing a lot of listening, a lot of survey work and really understanding where the consumer is. We’ve even seen some stats that about half of people are wary of AI and about half of people right now are interested in embracing it. We are watching where that is going to lead. Where’s the consumer heading? I always believe that we have to start with that voice of the consumer and then we have to find that messaging that’s really going to resonate. Then we need to do some very innovative, creative work to really break through and be a true challenger brand in the space.
How do you imagine putting that message out into the world?
I always take a very full funnel approach to these things. I start with consumers and understand where they are and really tailor messaging and creative to them. If we look at our core consumer today, they’re in certain spaces where they’re having conversations like Reddit. It’s really important for us to show up in these spaces and be really transparent about what we’re doing and bringing them along. When we look at the next generation of consumers, when we’re looking at Gen Z and Gen Alpha, who don’t necessarily know us super well. It’s going to be really important to bring in authentic voices through creators that can really make it relatable to their lives.
When I’m thinking about the big opportunity we have in winning back consumers who have known us, it’s looking at the spaces they’re at from digital video to social. We’re also looking at things about experiential and how we show up in the real world to educate people. My approach is really to look at the audience and then figure out the tactics that are going to be most resonant with them.
You mentioned experiential. I know a lot of CMOs are showing up in cultural moments and tent poles. How will Mozilla be participating in culture?
It’s essential to be relevant in culture, especially in a world that is becoming less human and driven by AI slop. People are really looking for real authentic experiences and it is really important to have the brand show up in the real world, especially as a digital product.
The team has been showing up at some great spaces like TwitchCon and had a lot of success. Younger consumers are increasingly rejecting the pure digital approach to life. They’re looking at getting off their phones and meeting up in real life. People increasingly want a human connection that’s real and authentic. We want to encourage people to get out and experience the real world too. We are not benefiting from people that are just staying locked into their devices like other big tech companies are. I would love to say, go out and experience, enjoy the real world. And when you’re done with that use Firefox and we’ll be supporting you there.
I look to brands like Patagonia, who have said, don’t go shopping on Black Friday, get out there and experience nature. It’s similar for us, we want people to have that human connection and we think it’s really important for the future.
Can you talk about your approach to leadership?
There’s a fantastic team here that’s been doing a lot of great work and really leaning into marketing more so than the company has done in the past. A big hurdle previously was to make sure that as we start to do more marketing, we’re marketing in a way that aligns with our values. We’re working with certain partners that are privacy forward. We don’t collect the same level of user data and profiles as others do. There is a real way to think about how we market in a very safe way.
A lot of that foundation is built. It’s really working with the team on how we start unlocking some great work and ultimately tie it to some very exciting product roadmaps. I’m a big believer that everything needs to tie back to the product. Ultimately we are a product company. The marketing needs to tie back to the great work the product team is doing. A lot of it is listening. A lot of it is getting the right strategy in place, the right structure in place and then starting to develop some very exciting, disruptive work. My job is to get everyone aligned and rowing in the same direction with a clear strategy.
Are there any marketing challenges that are keeping you up at night?
With so many priorities, all marketing leaders these days are challenged with where you get the team to really focus and ensure that there’s executive alignment on that. Being new in this role, it’s important to have a great relationship with the CEO, the executive team and the board to make sure that everyone is really clear. My job is gaining alignment. That allows the marketing team to really have a lot of freedom to run.
The second thing is that the world is changing so quickly. The consumer is getting thrown a lot at them right now. We see that there’s more content and more questionable content and it is unclear what is real. Understanding how we break through and being a trusted resource is going to be key.
And then how do we adopt AI internally? There’s a lot of tools out there. There’s a lot being developed every day. In addition to having a day job, everyone now has the added challenge of, how do we adopt some of these tools and gain some efficiencies to do better work, but also there’s challenges with those tools as well. I was just at CES and talking to fellow CMOs and marketers and that rate of change just seems to be accelerating quicker and quicker.
