Saptosa Foster was nominated for Party Starter of the Year in 2010. She is the managing partner of the 135 Street Agency, a marketing agency that has specialized in entertainment marketing for the African American community.
Her agency comes up with various strategies to improve the success of the promotion of projects to the African American audience. Some of their work has included films like Tangled, Jumping the Broom and The Avengers.
“The thing with the Avengers was that it had a recipe to be a major success already. The Disney machine had these huge campaigns already and these huge strategies and we didn’t want our audience to get lost. We invited the media to press junkets and to screenings to make sure that our audience was engaged, that was our task.”
Saptosa started out as a freelance journalist and made a smooth transition into the Public Relations field.
“You really have to network and let people know that you exist [as a freelance writer]. I did a lot of that work for years and I gathered a lot of really great relationships with writers and publicists,” Foster said. “So the timing was great when Chante came to me in 2004 saying that she was starting 135th and wanted me to be the head of PR because I had already been toying with the idea anyway.”
As Saptosa advanced in her career, she looked to find something with more stability.
“Freelance is cool when you’re young, and when you’re older you want to be a little more settled and comfortable, and it was a natural progression with my skill set.”
Looking ahead, Foster is focused on continuing in the success of the 135th Agency, while also looking to branch out and see the agency grow.
“I really want to see 135th stabilized and evolved. January will be 8 years. I want to get more into providing services for major brands. Any type of industry, brands that America knows and loves I would love to be a part of those campaigns. I think entertainment is great and exciting but it’s not the end all be all for our company. The journey to get there has definitely been challenging but that’s really where we want to be as a company.”
You can find out more about Saptosa Foster and her marketing firm by visitng www.135thagency.com You can also follow Ms. Foster on Twitter @Saptosa135th
