Karen Joh, YouTube: 40 Under 40 2024

At YouTube, Karen Joh has the unique distinction of having steered two separate marketing teams in its partnerships division in the same year. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here In the first half of the year, Joh, 37, was the global marketing lead for YouTube’s music and premium partnerships team. She continued to cultivate the platform’s biggest deals with partners from around the world, including Samsung, SoftBank and Verizon. These efforts primarily centered around crafting individualized marketing commitments and go-to-market plans, as well as spearheading YouTube’s member retention strategy. But for the last six months, Joh has led YouTube’s connected TV partner marketing team, where her main client has been the NFL with respect to YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket product. Joh summed up her focus with a question she frequently invokes: “How do we tap into audiences beyond those already on the platform?” This work includes executing campaigns for NFL Sunday Ticket with brands such as Bud Light and Verizon. Joh credited her love of sports for her transition to the CTV team, but her interest in collaborating with marquee partners has been strong for almost six years—since her first days in YouTube’s partner marketing division. If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? I would have dinner with my late maternal grandmother and take that time to get to know her and her story. As a child of immigrants, the only time I would see my grandmother was during summer trips to Korea in my younger years. In the years leading up to her passing, she was unable to speak, so my fondest memories are of her showing her love through small acts of kindness like giving me Korean yogurt drinks, which doesn’t seem like much, but left an imprint on me. She lived through some of Korea’s most transformative historical events, like Japan’s colonial rule and the Korean War, and I would want to hear how those shaped her life and understand how she found strength during challenging times. What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis? Instagram for all the millennial parent content and YouTube to keep up with my favorite creators: Korean Englishman, First We Feast (Hot Ones) and @tikitakabooboo. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? Currently, my reading time consists of storybooks for my two kids. The latest one we’ve been reading through is “Ramona the Pest” by Beverly Cleary. When I do get back to making time for reading for myself, I hope to finish “Crying in H-Mart” by Michelle Zauner, as I’m still just a few chapters in. What was the last show you binge-watched? “Jinny’s Kitchen” on Amazon Prime, which is a Korean reality show that follows five Korean celebrities (actors/artists) around as they travel to various countries and set up a pop-up Korean restaurant as a way to introduce Korean food to customers who may never have had a chance to try it before. It’s fun to see customers who have never tried Korean food discover a new love for it. At what age do you hope to retire? While I don’t have a number in mind, I hope it’s several good years before I start to lose my mental faculties so that I can thoroughly enjoy time doing things I love and spending it with the people I care about the most. ~ ~ ~CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Karen Joh’s title. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

How YouTube’s Karen Joh has cultivated partnerships with heavyweights such as Samsung and the NFL

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