What’s your role at TBG?
I lead the Strategy team, which includes strategic planning and analytics.

Uh, cool, what does that mean?
To say it simply, we bring together an understanding of people, culture, media, brands and business into a smart, core idea and framework that will get our clients from point A to point B. So when a brand says to us “people don’t know what we stand for”, or “we want to grow our share of the market from #3 to #1”, or “we need help bringing our brand to life on the Internet”…It’s our job to try to see the whole picture around the situation and focus everybody in the best possible direction.

So we lead the early stage of most projects and try to create and moderate a super collaborative approach by sitting down with everyone on the team that first time and saying, “ok, so what should we do and how should we do it?”. We do a ton of research. Throughout the process we are part of the core team that works through creative ideas, builds them out and puts together a program. It’s also our job to hold our work accountable and make it smarter. So we spend a lot of time looking at data, helping refine ideas, monitoring our work out on the Internet, and making sure it’s accomplishing what we set out to do.

We have an awesome and growing strat team. My role in general is to lead the group and help us be as good as we can be. I’d say our style combines the best of the traditional Account Planning you’d find at general creative agency, digital strategy, and comms planning. We are definitely not just digital strategists – we aspire to bring the same level of rigor around consumer and brand thinking in the traditional world, but coming at it from a digital-centric point of view, and hopefully a fresh and forward thinking approach to strategy in general.

How’d you end up as the Executive Director of Strategy?
I basically grew up in a family sports apparel business, and have been in love with business and brands since I was a wee little tween. The Internet came along at a perfect time for me – I was about 13, and was living in a pretty remote area of Ontario Canada, so the Web became my window into a bigger world, and an obsession. I’ve been lucky to be able to put those interests to use at some great agencies – the last two being Anomaly and Droga5 – working on clients like Puma, Activision, Converse, Jawbone, Virgin America and such. I loved all those experiences but always craved being with a creative group obsessed with the Internet, and there’s no better place than The Barbarian Group for that.

How’d you arrive at TBG? (and no, we’re not talking transport)
I’d known Ben and Rick for years just through the ad and tech worlds, so we started talking when the opportunity came up, and then I met everybody and we all liked each other.

Who’s your main sidekick when it comes to getting the job done?
I’m lucky in that I get to literally work with everyone here in some capacity. We have a killer strat team that’s pretty amazing to work with everyday.

Most exciting project you’ve worked on here?
Everything we’re doing on GE and where that is headed is very exciting. And I’m excited about a lot of the stuff in the pipeline that is top secret.

Best thing about your job?
I mean it’s a pretty awesome job – I spend a lot of time trying to understand what is happening in the world and think about ideas that will do something new to it – that’s fun.

Not-so-best thing about your job?
We’re surrounded by amazing opportunities left and right and generate a lot of ideas that we all really want to make happen. They don’t always get to become a reality and you have to stay strong and keep moving.

First blog you check every morning:
Twitter. When was this question written, 2006?

Favorite apps?
I liked Instagram, then got tired of artful shots of breakfasts, then have recently totally fallen in love with it again. Instapaper of course. Pretty much anything Insta seems to appeal to me.

All time fave thing you’ve ever found on the Internet?
I remember really clearly the very first time I used the Internet. A family friend took me to a wacky Metallica fan site, and the page took about 10 minutes to load. But we sat there watching, totally transfixed, and I’m not sure I’ve yet been able to match that level of pure excitement about this awesome new thing.

Which decade produced the best music?
I’m not very nostalgic, and tend to listen only to music of the now, which some people think is weird. So I think this decade is already the best and will prove to be the best (if the world doesn’t end next year).

What’s the last furry thing you touched?
Ben found this weird furry faux rock that we brought to meetings for a few days as a good luck rock. It seemed to work pretty well.

Bowie or Blondie?
Robyn

Hi everyone,

On Friday, December 9th, The Barbarian Group officially turned ten years old. And in true Barbarian style, we threw a Big Bash. But this was no ordinary Barbarian bash (not that they ever are…) This was fancy. Bowery Hotel fancy. So we flew all the teams in to New York, put on our black-tie-best and partied the night away to celebrate ten glorious years. We even had an iPad wall to chronicle the most notorious (and…unbelievable) moments in TBG history.

After partying to our favorite tunes from DJ Eleven + DJ Japanster, endless drinks, signing the world’s largest birthday card + eating the most obnoxious birthday cake we’ve ever seen, we kicked off our heels.

At midnight, we hosted a very official unofficial after-party at an unused theater space. Where we got super unfancy. Because no Barbarian party would be complete without a little bit of down and dirty…

Check below to see the insanity first-hand.

Happy Anniversary Ben, Keith + everyone at TBG, here’s to ten more xo

Guest of a Guest: “The Barbarian Group Tenth Anniversary Party at The Bowery Hotel“

Paper Mag: “2011’s Best Memes“

And best of all, The TBG:X Photo Booth Pics. You’re missing out if you don’t click through, basically.

*And we commissioned the very talented Alan Forbes to create this thing of beauty, also known as the TBG:X invitation.

NB: Jonathan Toubin was originally scheduled to play the first set of the evening, but was tragically involved in an accident last Thursday. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with his family at such an unfortunate time. Jonathan is still in critical condition, please ‘Like’ and keep updated at the IheartJT Facebook Page.

What’s your role at TBG?
My official title is Senior Interactive Technologist.

Uh, cool, what does that mean?
I write code! Client side code, the kind you interact with. I take all the amazing designs that come from our creative department and turn them into useable interfaces.

How’d you end up as a Senior Interactive Technologist?
When I moved to New York in ’99 Bubble 1.0 was in full effect and the Internet was where the work was. I learned how to write HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Actionscript to get a job. But in the course of that I found out I really love it. There is something very magical about being able to share your work with the wired world just by pushing a button.

How’d you arrive at TBG? (and no, we’re not talking transport)
I was one of the first couple hires in the New York office, originally brought on to help with the redesign of VW.com at the end of 2004. It was so early on that Keith and Rick interviewed me in a hotel room while they were looking for office space.

Who’s your main sidekick when it comes to getting the job done?
Doug Pfeffer keeps things copacetic for me on the server side, as well as being a good sounding board for programming.

Most exciting project you’ve worked on here?
HBO Imagine was pretty huge, both as a technical accomplishment and for all the recognition.

Best thing about your job?
I’m perpetually leaning new things and being challenged.

Not-so-best thing about your job?
The iceberg nature of coding. 90% of my work no one ever sees since it takes place below the surface.

First blog you check every morning:
nytimes.com and then quickly on to my tumblr dashboard. I’m an image blog addict.

Favorite apps?
WebKit the engine that drives Chrome and Safari, it’s killer. I have a love/hate thing with my dev tools, but Xcode and Flash Builder have to be on the list.

All time fave thing you’ve ever found on the internet?
dreamless.org a discussion board that Joshua Davis ran from ‘99 – ‘01. Beautiful and terrible all at once. It really showed me that the internet was a place to create community.

Which decade produced the best music?
Empirically, you just can’t mess with the 60’s. The depth and breadth of sounds that were created in that decade is astounding. But for me personally the 80’s. Hip-Hop, Techno, and House all came of age. Bass, samples, and drum machines have my heart.

What’s the last furry thing you touched?
My cat Henry.

Bowie or Blondie?
Bowie.

What’s your role at TBG?
Seems to be a delightful balance of evaluating new technologies, actual development, providing high level technical coverage for various ideas, and generally getting goodness out the door.

Uh, cool, what does that mean?
Your eyes will just glaze over if I go into detail..

How’d you end up as a Senior Developer?
I blame the Internet for dashing my hopes of being an Intergalactic Conquistador, but mostly I just needed work after an undergrad in Linguistics meant that I was about as employable as underweight Santa Claus in June. Fortunately I’ve really dug it over the years. Getting bored with things quickly, the Internet technologies provide a constant source of change.

How’d you arrive at TBG? (and no, we’re not talking transport)
I had been contracting at various gigs for years and as one gig was nearing its natural end, I applied to TBG having been blown away by their work on the Esquire augmented reality magazine. Much to my surprise, they hired me after a 20 minute phone interview that consisted mostly of specifics regarding the records I had published as the puppet leader of SRM Recordings and my part time prowess as an underground electronic music promoter.

Who’s your main sidekick when it comes to getting the job done?
Depends largely on the project but currently it’s the Asian Girl Massive, Ying Cen and Amy Cheng.

Most exciting project you’ve worked on here?
The NYC Dept of Transportation skeleton speed board campaign capturing the phenomenal degree of Barbarian Excellence in a severely restricted environment – we literally had 2k of memory (about a 1/10 of the size of a small image) to work with on the sign’s hardware.

Best thing about your job?
Definitely the Barbarians themselves, their sincere concern for excellence, the general transparency of our leadership and the joys of working in a legitimate Meritocracy. A wise man once said, It’s not what you’re doing, its who you do it with..

Not-so-best thing about your job?
Menial, repetitive tasks, though ideally these silly computers are trained to bear the worst of it.

First blog you check every morning:
None. All my information comes from various subscription mailing lists throughout the day, though I generally spend a few minutes in the morning looking at the Google news aggregator, Al Jazeera and/or Democracy Now, i.e. doing my part to the sidestep the Big 6 Propaganda System while remaining informed.

Favorite apps?
Vim, baby. What else is there?

All time fave thing you’ve ever found on the Internet?
The first time I ever saw a shockwave movie. It was 1998 and I was working on an ISP help desk in Dublin, Ireland when someone amid the rank and file punched in eye4u.com and it lit up the dungeon of call center cubicles with the transcendent glory of sound, animation, and color.

Which decade produced the best music?
Late 90s, early 2000s, specially Tech Step which is the heavy, techy genre of Drum and Bass music characterized by big clinical, distorted sythns and highly syncopated kits meant to be driven into your soul by a minimum of 6 full stack speaker cabinets and a fistful of subwoofers.

What’s the last furry thing you touched?
I kicked a rat off the Canal St platform for the Brooklyn bound A train about a week ago.

Bowie or Blondie?
That’s easy, Bassnectar.

What’s your role at TBG?
Group Director of Earned Media

Uh, cool, what does that mean?
With the help of Sergeant Nagy, I oversee a team of wizards as they work to build social and paid media solutions for our clients.
Our group works hand-in-hand with strategy, UX, creative and development to come up with ideas that the Internet will love and we ensure that those ideas will spread using a combination of social, owned and earned media.

How’d you end up as the Group Director of Earned Media?
Throughout my entire career I have always enjoyed figuring out how shit works.
At my first job, on the client side, I launched the brand’s first website and dabbled in enough HTML to learn how to send their monthly eNewsletters.

When I joined Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, “Interactive” was a new department and only about 4 people deep so I ended up being responsible for all sorts of “new media” stuff. I’m still emotionally scarred by the time I had to figure out how to traffic Rich Media banners through Starcom’s system. This was before you could email over a zip file and be done with it. I actually had to load SWF files to an online system and link them together so that the banner functioned as designed. Ugh.

When I arrived at TBG I was tasked with helping the company figure out what role account management should play in the company. I did that for a few months but then we won Kashi and I became dedicated to 7 Whole Grains. 2 redesigns and 3 years later I decided it was time for something meatier (haha, get it?) and joined Colin to help set up the Earned Media department. I’ve had a blast in the last year growing this department and figuring out how social media shit works.

How’d you arrive at TBG? (and no, we’re not talking transport)
I became a fangirl in 2004 after working with TBG on banners for Saturn. They were fun to work with but at the same time drove me nuts because they kept talking about how they were going to hide easter eggs, like cans of beers, in the banners.

I worked with them on 5 more projects after that, including the redesign of Saturn.com. In 2006 I decided it was time to turn this crush into a romance and moved to Boston to become a full-fledged Barbarian.

Who’s your main sidekick when it comes to getting the job done?
There are so many it pains me to have to single out just a few.
If I am developing a social strategy for a brand, then I couldn’t live without Sadia Latifi. Content is extremely critical to a successful social media presence and Sadia always nails the perfect content strategy.

The social channels for searsStyle wouldn’t be as amazing as they are without help from J Chan. No man can write about the benefits of a good fitting bra like he can.

Then there is the honorable Kim Miller. I know if she is on a project with me then it truly is gonna be awesome.

And finally, when I don’t want to get my job done, I turn to Pfeffer. He is my partner in crime.

Most exciting project you’ve worked on here?
@terriblepfeffer – I have to give credit to Erin Snyder for creating that one but I have been maintaining it for the past 3 years and will continue to as long as the content keeps coming.

Best thing about your job?
Barbarians

Not-so-best thing about your job?
Chasing Likes

First blog you check every morning:
My email

Favorite apps?
If you believed iTunes Genius then it would be the PBSKids or Disney app.
When I am able to wrangle my phone or iPad away from my daughter I am usually reading a book or browsing Zite.

All time fave thing you’ve ever found on the internet?
My favorite thing on the Internet changes frequently. Right now I am obsessed with and spending way too much money on Fab.com.

Which decade produced the best music?
I will always be nostalgic for the music of my childhood – 1980s

What’s the last furry thing you touched?
This question scares me more than clicking on a link from Pfeffer.

Bowie or Blondie?
I am one of the rare Barbarians who couldn’t name a song by either one. OK that’s a lie, I know White Wedding. Oh wait, just Googled it and that’s by Billy Idol. See I am not as much of a hipster as the rest of them but I do have a secret club kid past life.

What’s your role at TBG?
I am a Strategist, which is just a euro way of saying Planner—which is just the evolved version of the Account Planner (and they were boring nerds, who have recently evolved into funny nerds).

Uh, cool, what does that mean?
I analyze business objectives, define the problem and opportunities, research consumers and identify challenges; all taking into account a business and media landscape. Or, I write briefs to get creative juices flowing (living the dream) and give our teams a good starting point for our projects. Basically I’m a nerd who can express himself.

How’d you end up as a Strategic Planner?
Well I used be part of a few design departments out of college and it always occurred to me that there may be a better way to solve the client’s problem, or at least, there were better questions that could be asked at the start of a project. The old “measure twice, cut once” methodology. So I decided to leave work, go to school for a year to get some time to think, learn and explore. When it was all said and done, I ended up a Planner. Been doing it ever since (read in Randy Quaid ID4 voice).

How’d you arrive at TBG? (and no, we’re not talking transport)
The short version is I was working in Amsterdam for a company called Naked Communications and began looking for new jobs with some very specific criteria. Firstly, I needed to get back to working closely with creatives and not just a room full of planners. Secondly, I would only leave Amsterdam if I was going to an equally cool city. Lastly, I got accustomed to the Euro-style of benefits packages. You know what? TBG fit the bill perfectly. Oh and I guess it was also good to be able to work with people who are really, really “of the Internet,” but I think of that as the cherry on top.

Who’s your main sidekick when it comes to getting the job done?
Wow, I think I’ve got a bunch of different sidekicks. It depends on the context. For anything client-facing, there is pop rocket Claude Allwood. We tag team keynote decks like manic WWE fighters. For the times when I can’t find the words I need to express my thinking succinctly, I turn to editor-in-chief, Frank Marquardt. Other than that my remote sidekicks are Rye Clifton, for some idea tennis and Chet Gulland, for some good old what-am-I-missing & how-can-I-elevate thinking.

Most exciting project you’ve worked on here?
A PITCH! I really really enjoyed this one pitch over the summer for a global brand trying to do good things for the world. I loved it because we had a great team and nice big challenge to bite into and I think what we did for it was amazing. It was honest, we shot for the moon and the presentation deck was beautiful. It’s all about that putting your best foot forward, you know?

Other than that, I’m really proud of our iAd for Sears x UK Style by French Connection. Its beautiful and immersive without the gimmickry. Plus it sounds like its garnering a bunch of click-thrus.

Best thing about your job?
Doing work I’m proud of and believe in, then occasionally being told by Creatives that they appreciated my efforts afterwards.

Not-so-best thing about your job?
The way the word “strategy” is bandied about when what the people mean to say is “tactic” or “process” or “direction.” Sometimes I’m not the best resource to get to a solution the quickest. Semantics, but it’s important to get right.

First blog you check every morning:
IGN! But I mean, my twitter feed IS my information and links source for a couple years now, changing the way I use the Internet. But IGN is one of the few sites out there that I go to and actually browse around to get informed.

Favorite apps?
Instapaper at #1, #2 and #3. Behind that is Kindle on my iPhone (haven’t read a paper book since 2008), Echofon and Foursquare. Plus I use the Daytum app almost daily for that whole quantified self tracking phenomenon.

All time fave thing you’ve ever found on the internet?
My all time fave #yourthemannowdog is here: http://wheredagold.ytmnd.com, because you get everything with it: real news story + obscure location + totally ridiculous + playing it straight + iconic phrases + iconic smiley face guy + remix + the tune knocks + South Park re-up it + annual relevance at St Patricks Day. Its got the meta power of a super combined episode of Community x South Park. And it all started with “The Sketch”. It’s pure joy.

Not much else comes to mind, but a video that has created an in-joke I share with my sister even today, nearly a decade after the first time I first saw it

Which decade produced the best music?
Easy, the 60’s. REAL music which we can only imitate these days. And this comes from someone who blasts French and Dutch house daily throughout the office.

What’s the last furry thing you touched?
A fat cat. Purr for me.

Bowie or Blondie?
I plead the fiiiiif

Hi All,

Some news from PR:

Off the back of his popular blog post earlier this summer, TBG’s Interaction Design Director Chad Vavra contributed his second feature piece to .Net Magazine: The Ten Principles of Interaction Design. (Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already, the piece has had a ton of Twitter traction and great feedback, most definitely worth a read.)

Ryan McManus was also included in Swedish design website Dudeye.com’s piece on the art of design. Check here to read Ryan’s perspective on what constitutes “Good Design”.

Additionally, Ad Age recently featured The GE Show in their Top Ten Viral Video chart, congrats team!

Update:

Keith’s latest contribution to .Net Magazine is now live, check out The Five Web Design Principles to Never Use Again. It’s one of our favorites so far.

Also, we’re super proud to announce Interaction Designer John Finley will be speaking at the Interaction 12 Conference in Dublin. And he’s in great company, check out the presenters line-up here.

Lastly, Benjamin judged global design tournament Cut&Paste on Friday night, the evening showcased some fantastic talent, as well as some impressive live art battle work. Check out the reel here see what it’s all about.

Hi Everyone,

Exciting news: good friend of TBG and artist Rafael Rozendaal is collaborating with W/- Project Space (With Project Space) on his new show, In Motion.

The show will be hosted each evening this week from 5pm-9pm through Sunday 10/30. Each night, Rafael will be creating a new installation using a combination of his websites and mirrors.

We love Rafael’s work so much we’re sponsoring the excellent project, so go check it out at the W/- Project Space, 141 Division Street, New York.