About Noah
Let me tell you a bit about myself.
If you're thinking about reaching out to me, please go ahead and do it. I really like receiving unsolicited email from folks and am usually up for a coffee or something if you're around NYC.
I am Noah Rubin Brier, but normally I just go by Noah.
My bio says something to this effect: "Noah loves the internet. But not so much for the fart-lighting videos as the metaphor it offers. He uses the web to understand the world. In his eyes, everything is linked, and Noah treats every encounter with information as a potential web waiting to be untangled."
I concur.
I am currently working on some super secret internet things.
I was last head of planning and strategy at The Barbarian Group, purveyors of awesome digital stuff. Prior to that I worked as a strategist at Naked Communications, a creative lead at Renegade Marketing and before that wrote about the impact of cultural, media and demographic trends on the marketing field at American Demographics Magazine. (Obviously, anything written on this site is my opinion and not necessarily that of The Barbarian Group.)
I also do a lot of stuff not at the office. I co-founded a now-global coffee morning called likemind, where people in 50+ cities around the world meet up and have coffee once a month. The New York Times called it, "a monthly kaffeeklatsch for creative professionals". I built a brand research tool called Brand Tags, that asks visitors to type in the first thing that pops into their head when they see a logo and then builds a tag cloud out of the responses, making those words that are mentioned more often, larger. NPR explains it better than me (at least they help me explain it better than I am right now). I've built a bunch of other small sites as well, including How Much Does it Buy? and Is the Internet Awesome?. In 2009 I was named one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company magazine and one of four social media innovators by BusinessWeek, to the iMedia 2010 list of 25 internet marketing leaders and innovators and one of Splash Life's 30 under 30: Social Media Titans in 2011.
Hrm, what else to tell you? I love Mexican food and hot sauce. I live in New York City. I like getting deals, a trait I inherited from my father along with a taste for pretzels. And I drink a lot of coffee.
I can be emailed at: nb [AT] noahbrier.com or you could just use the handy contact form.
"Print" Credits*
"Stalked? Not Really: Noah Brier Responds" Assembly Journal. July 30, 2010.
"How to make display ads suck less." Advertising Age. March 10, 2009.
"Listen and Learn... or learn to listen?." Boards Magazine. March 1, 2009.
"Brand Tags' Noah Brier: How My Website Took Off (PDF)." Advertising Age. September, 2008.
"Ways of Seeing (PDF)." Contagious Magazine. June, 2008.
"Power to (a Few) People." Media Magazine. August, 2007.
"What to Expect from CGC." iMedia Connection. May, 2006.
"Viral marketing: making the right connection (PDF)." Admap. October, 2005.
"Contagious Creations." adBUMB. August, 2005.
"Coming of Age." American Demographics. November, 2004.
"The Net Difference." American Demographics. October, 2004.
"This Way App." American Demographics. September, 2004.
"A $1 Million Difference." American Demographics. July/August, 2004.
"Move Over, Prime Time!" American Demographics. July/August, 2004.
"Buzz Giant Poster Boy." American Demographics. June, 2004.
* Many of these never actually appeared in print.
Speaking Engagements
Globes Israel: Marketing & Communications Conference (July, 2011)
Internet Week: The Art of the Side Project. This panel discussion, featuring an assortment of thinkers and makers, will explore how to balance your side project with work hours, continue momentum and overcome creative and technical hurdles to keep the process going. (June, 2011)
Institute of Communications Agencies Canada: Future Flash 2011: Marketing in Flow: How brands need to think about publishing on the web. (May, 2011)
University of Montana: Entertainment Management. (March, 2010). This marked my fourth year visiting Missoula to spend the weekend talking about media, technology, entertainment and the web.
Thoughts on Innovation. VCU BrandCenter (March, 2010).
Media Thinking Congress Asia. Singapore (December, 2009). "Noah Brier, head of strategic planning at Barbarian Group, was first up at the speaker sessions at today's inaugural 2009 Media Thinking Congress held at St Regis in Singapore. "
Taking Online Communities Offline
"Brand Exposure: Practical Strategies in Social Media". Internet Week (June 2, 2009). "On June 2nd, during Internet Week, Toby Daniels of Social Media Week and Celia Chen of Notes on a Party will launch the first in a series of events that are designed to provide senior brand marketers with practical strategies in social media."
Fast Company: 100 Most Creative People in Business (2009)
"Good Ideas in 2009 in Digital". "This morning's Good Ideas Salon focused on Digital, exploring new ways in which individuals and brands are storing, sharing, and archiving their online narratives. The panel, moderated by Piers Fawkes (PSFK), included Claire Hyland (Electric Artists), Johanna Beyenbach (Naked), Mike Arauz (Undercurrent), and Noah Brier (Barbarian Group) and touched upon a range of topics spanning from the evolution of virtual identities and collaboration to mobile technologies and the relivening of analog through digital."
"Spread The Good Word". Boards Summit New York (October 24, 2008). The Big Idea? All well and good, but unless you get it out it there to consumers, it's worthless. New media platforms, fragmented outlets and ADD consumers mean that digital strategy is taking an increasingly crucial place in agency thinking. Hear from some of the digital world's top strategists as they discuss how to get your creative to go global.
"Social Media: New Guns vs. Marketing Gurus". PSFK New York (March 27, 2008). "In a 'new guns' versus 'marketing gurus' debate, Josh Spear(Undercurrent) & Noah Brier (Likemind) join Marc Schiller (Electic artists) & Steve Rubel (Edelman) to
debate how social media will change in 2008 and how companies can
leverage this digital phenomenon in the most rewarding way. Moderated
by Noelle Weaver (SS+K)."
"The Great Re-bundling Debate: Should Media and Creative Come Back Together?" ad:tech Chicago (July 31, 2007). "Despite protests from a consistently familiar group of agency executives, the issue of re-bundling is back on the table. Interestingly enough, we rarely hear from clients that an "unbundled" world is a better world and a whole new class of new-breed agencies have risen up to offer clients a world of bundled services not out of convenience or differentiation but out of necessity and real-world market conditions. And although some agency executives may be in denial about what is happening across their own networks and agencies, the reality is that even in the world of unbundled agencies, re-bundling is occurring in plain sight. In this Exchange Series session, we want to hear from you on this subject and hear exactly why you think the world should remain unbundled or whether a re-bundled world is inevitable."
"Social Media: Evolution to Execution." Promo Live (September 19, 2007). "As consumers are increasingly taking control of their media consumption, smart marketers are evolving their contact strategies. With Social Media (aka Web 2.0) evolving from theoretical discussion to executable strategy, marketers are looking for ways to capitalize on the new consumer landscape. What do consumers respond to? What determines success? What can Social Media achieve for your brand?
Answering these questions and more, our diverse panel representing a wide spectrum of marketing experts will look beyond tactical examples and share insights into Social Media strategies that resonate with consumers. Our panel will discuss how to use Social Media strategies in meaningful and impactful ways that deliver results and support other marketing efforts."
"Are Brands Prepared for 2010?" Nielsen Buzzmetrics CGM Summit 2007 (October 25, 2007). "What are the leading brands doing to rewire their DNA for a world increasingly impacted by CGM? How are they changing the way their companies listen, the way they communicate, and the way they manage customer relationships? How have past CGM experiments and lessons informed marketing innovation and planning for the future? Where are we certain, where are our vulnerabilities?"
