Noah Brier is an exciting, off-piste marketing strategist. His post the other day suggesting some businesses would do well to have born on dating is a case in point.
Head of planning and strategy at the Barbarian Group, Mr. Brier is unique because he likes to question rules, norms and the tried and true. He looks at the blacks, whites and grays. His mind mashes up things and, I suspect, he sometimes introduces a bit of randomness to his rigor – just for flavor. In the advertising or creative business some might call this approach disruptive. I think of it as natural. Seeds grow in the oddest places…not always where the farmer plants them. They blow around, are carried by birds, find unlikely hosts for germination. If Steve Jobs is embodied by the advertising tagline “think different” Mr. Brier of similar mind and value in a strategist’s body.
Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Brier can go head-to-head with traditionalists – he just doesn’t always chose to.
His monthly likemind — something he and Piers Fawkes came up with — is an audacious idea bringing people of similar views together in coffee shops around the world. I suspect it won’t be long before he and Mr. Fawkes invent UnlikeMind. Let’s start with one here in the states on the topic of healthcare. Might work. Peace!
