The Barbarian Group Homepage

2011 Timeline of Social Media Milestones

Noah King — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:51:05 -0500

In an effort to make sense of the rapid changes in social media, we took an entire year’s worth of links and announcements from some of the key players and wove them into a simple linear narrative.

What began as hundreds of blog posts and stories has been distilled down to 65 of the most memorable milestones. Our intent was to provide a glimpse of the progress and innovation that took place in the past year across six social media platforms. If you care to go a bit deeper, click any individual story to link to its source article.

We’ve had a lot of fun putting this timeline together and hope you enjoy it as you relive the key highlights of 2011.

Great Moments in Barbarian History

Nick Bonadies — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:29:58 -0500

December 9th marked 10 whole years of existence for The Barbarian Group, and we had this big ol’ party to celebrate.

For this auspicious occasion, we built an iPad gallery displaying great moments in Barbarian history, chronicling everything from our pneumatic beer cannon to that one time a few of us got arrested.

If you couldn’t make the party in NYC (or if you partied a little too hard and missed the gallery the first time), you can still revel in that great historical volume. Ladies and Gentlemen, Great Moments in Barbarian History.

Down and Dirty with Barbarian Chet Gulland

Lexi Peters — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:47:47 -0500

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

TBG: X Tenth Anniversary. Party.

Lexi Peters — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:52:58 -0500

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.