Robin Hafitz

Robin grew up in an eclectic combination of locations - Nigeria, Washington, DC, and Martha's Vineyard, but mostly Montana. She went east on a scholarship, and after graduating Magna cum Laude from Yale, headed to New Yorkto try her hand as an artist. There, she found her way into advertising. Soon, a new discipline, Account Planning, captured her imagination and gave her the opportunity to apply her combination of creative and intellectual talents. As an early American in this British-dominated discipline, Robin had the opportunity to work with some of the best talent in the advertising industry. After a stint at Chiat/Day, Robin joined Creative star Nick Cohen as Co-Chair of start-up Mad Dogs & Englishmen in 1992. Under their leadership, this strategically-driven creative boutique won awards for both creativity and strategic excellence for clients such as AOL MovieFone, YooHoo Chocolate Drink, Blue Moon Beer, The Village Voice, and The Economist. As a “media neutral” agency before it was fashionable, Mad Dogs was a dot-com darling, and grew to over 70 people. After the dot-com meltdown, Robin diversified Mad Dogs' offering by opening Mad Logic, a Planning consultancy, which came to specialize in insights for media companies. Using innovative high-tech and high-touch research techniques, Mad Logic solved challenges for companies like the LATimes.com, Newsweek, Univision, Sirius Satellite Radio, USA Network, SyFy, and Viacom. At Mad Dogs Enterprises, Robin was proud to be able to train many talented planners who still today work in some of the best agencies in the world. Robin and Nick closed down Mad Dogs Enterprises in 2005. “Thirteen years is about as long as you can expect a good-sized dog to live,” Nick said at the time. Robin next started Open Mind Strategy, building on the expertise of Mad Logic in the media arena. Open Mind retained clients like USA, SyFy, and MTV Networks, and helped a host of television channels, print companies, and web-based businesses to do more successful business by better connecting with their audiences. Among other achievements, Robin’s team developed the still successful “Characters” positioning that helped USA capture the lead in cable. One of the first research companies to consider consumers as co-creators, Open Mind did over $2 million in sales in its first year, and soon expanded beyond media to experience brands, such as travel destinations and retail brands. During this period, OMS also had the opportunity to team with eatbigfish, helping companies like Cole Haan, eBay, Kodak, and Unilever successfully apply “challenger brand” principles to innovating their businesses. In 2007, Robin joined kb+p as Managing Partner and Chief Strategic Officer, and OMS became one of kb+p’s specialist divisions. Working across all of kb’s disciplines, Robin was instrumental in winning business from clients such as Wendy’s International, Avon Fragrances, Starz, and Bloomberg, and in developing successful insight-driven strategies for clients such as Panasonic, Kao, Diageo, and Mohegan Sun. Meanwhile, Open Mind helped solve problems for Comedy Central, TVLand, Yahoo!, NBC, and others. Robin left what is now kbs+p at the end of 2009, and in Fall of 2010 set up Open Mind Strategy as an independent LLC. Recent assignments have included work for Yahoo!, The Food Network, Travel Channel, VNSNY, PBM, USA, several non-profits and a number of advertising agencies. Robin is a member of the New York Entrepreneurs Organization. She sits on the National Advertising Review Board. She served for over five years on the board of the AAAA’s Account Planning Committee, including two years as Co-Chair. She has been a regular teacher of the 4A’s “Quantitative Literacy for Planners” course, was an Executive in Residence at the University of Oregon’s Advertising Program, and has taught at VCU and the Miami Ad School. She has spoken frequently at research and marketing conferences on strategic development, new media, and teens, has judged numerous award shows, and was named America’s “Iron Planner” by the US APG in 2004, a title so far unchallenged.