Adrienne Lofton joined Google on a mission to change the way an entire generation views cell phones. Now the Howard graduate and Google Global Vice President of Platforms and Ecosystems Marketing is bridging the tech divide and breaking through social conceptions on Android vs. iPhone .
Recently, Lofton spoke with rolling out about her career and her role at Google.
How difficult is to convert people from an iPhone mindest to becoming an Android user?
I’ll tell you, we talk about it quite constantly here at Google … if you have an iPhone, and you have a friend that’s an Android user and you’re in a group chat, and the group chat is broken or something goes wrong, or you can’t see your emojis or the video is grainy or the photo’s pixelated, what do you do?
Too often, people blame the Android user. “Android’s messing up the group chat” is a quote I have heard in my own personal life and in the world, over and over again. The reality is some people will not move to Android because they think it’s gonna mess up their messaging experience. … So we launched a campaign, one of many called “Get the Message” where we leaned into culture. We had different celebrities like Keke Palmer, Vanessa Hudgens folks talking about the reality of their experiences.
Are you addressing women’s attachment to iPhones, saying they wouldn’t date a man with an Android?
We have several dimensions to this conversation, including women. There have been a lot of spoofs we’ve seen of women breaking up with their boyfriends because they have an Android. If you really think about the core of the problem here, there’s bullying happening around the US because of the phone you’re carrying … it’s not Android’s fault, it’s Apple’s. So for us, we’ve used education, humor, real situation and folks like Keke Palmer who are so passionate about this conversation.
How did you get to Google?
Coming out of undergrad, I played volleyball, so I’ve always had an athlete’s mindset. I always knew I wanted to get into sports… I literally thought I was going to retire at Nike, keep moving up the ladder and finding success and then Google called … throughout my career I worked with all the big tech companies, but I didn’t think I’d work for Google because I thought it was “too late…”When I think of Black women in tech, there are so few of us. The ability to be here, and hopefully make a mark so many more can follow is the other reason I thought now is the right time.
