We help brands reach their potential.

We help them not only see their consumers more clearly, but understand them more deeply. The result is better strategies, and better business.

 
 

OUR VALUES

 

CONSTANT LEARNING

  • We are curious and open-minded.

  • We are passionate about understanding – in our work and in our lives.

  • We strive to be valued thought leaders for our industry, bringing expert perspective and innovative thinking to every engagement.

RESPECT FOR INDIVIDUALS

  • We see research respondents as unique human beings – not “pieces of sample.”

  • We help our clients not just to understand their audiences, but to empathize with them.

  • We respect each other and our clients as individuals – and believe the individuality of every team member makes for a stronger team.

HIGHER STANDARDS

  • We deliver every time – on time.

  • We specialize in proprietary innovative methodologies.

  • We tell the truth, do so with clarity, and deliver learning with impactful storytelling.

BUSINESS IMPACT

  • We are passionate about our client's business and see their goals as our own.

  • We go beyond information to provide our clients with deeper insights that drive smarter action.

  • We are committed to building products and methodologies that shape the future of our industry.

 

MEET THE TEAM

Robin Hafitz

FOUNDER/CHAIRWOMAN

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 York...to 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.

Andrew Hafitz

CO-OWNER/FILM EDITOR

Andrew Hafitz has been editing films and television since 1995. Along the way, he's worked with Mary Harron (Charlie Says, 2018), Brad Anderson (Beirut, 2018), Whit Stillman (Damsels in Distress, 2012; The Last Days of Disco, 1998), and Larry Clark (Ken Park, 2002; Bully, 2001).... Seven of his films have premiered at Sundance, including two in 2020: The Evening Hour, a feature directed by Braden King; and Three Deaths, a short directed by Jay Dockendorf. Hafitz had previously collaborated with both King and Dockendorf on their debut dramatic features. Here, King’s story of an American mapmaker working in Armenia, premiered in Dramatic Competition at Sundance in 2011; Naz & Maalik, Dockendorf’s Brooklyn-set day-in-the-life of gay African-American Muslim teenagers, opened at SXSW in 2015, and was nominated as Best Film (Limited Release) in the GLAAD Media Awards. Other features to premiere in competition at Sundance include Equity (Meera Menon, 2016) and Don't Let Me Drown (Cruz Angeles, 2009). In 1999 Hafitz edited The Lifestyle, a groundbreaking documentary about swinging in America, with Oscar winner Dan Cogan (Icarus) producing and David Schisgall directing. He later teamed with Schisgall on two episodes of MTV’s True Life, both filmed in the Middle East: “I Live in the Terror Zone,” about Palestinian and Israeli youth living in the West Bank; and “I'm in Iraq," shot during the first months of the Iraq war. The latter won the 2005 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Network News Documentary. He has mentored young filmmakers in affiliation with a variety of institutions, including NYU, SVA, the Independent Feature Project, and the Creative Coalition. In 2016 he served as Artist in Residence at the Manhattan Edit Workshop, and, in 2017, as Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts. A graduate of Yale University with a degree in comparative literature, Hafitz is passionate about telling stories in film language that is both articulate and emotional. He lives in Manhattan and Willow, NY, with his wife, Robin, and their two Chinooks, Munjebel and Eighmey.

Allison O'Keefe

PRESIDENT

Allison O’Keefe Wright is an expert in consumer culture and media. She has spent her career studying consumers and consulting major brands on strategy and positioning, product development, marketing and communication geared at various demographic groups ... and the illusive millennial target in particular. Allison has a unique ability to humanize data and insight and she has honed the skill of using her sense of humor to not only drawn truth from consumers, but to inspire her clients and partners…even the most skeptical “creative types”…to delight in new understanding. Allison has received global recognition for her youth expertise and her work has been highlighted by numerous newspapers and magazines including The Economist, Brand Republic and Women’s Wear Daily, to name a few. She has been featured on radio programs such as BBC World Service and has appeared in segments on CNN television programs Dolans Unscripted and The Biz. Allison is President at Open Mind Strategy. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to leverage her diverse experience from both agency and “client side” as an effective partner who can approach client business issues and goals with valuable perspective from both sides of the aisle. On the “client side”, Allison was most recently Vice President, Research and Strategic Planning for Capitol Music Group (formerly EMI Music North America) heading up both research and media services for the label. Building from a blank canvas, Allison put Consumer Insight at the heart of the company, establishing her division as a key function across all critical business units and informing the transformation and evolution of the company at large. In this role, she delivered strategic and tactical value for major artists such as Katy Perry, Coldplay, David Guetta, Jennifer Lopez, Norah Jones, and Rod Stewart among many others, as well as for catalog artists like The Beatles, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Frank Sinatra, to name only a few. Allison put fans at the center of CMG’s processes via consumer segmentation, online fan community exploration, brand/partnership analysis and creative and image testing. In addition to her work in North America, she worked in concert with global offices and with industry associations constructing major studies to analyze the music marketplace on a global scale. Prior to Capitol/EMI, Allison served as Vice President, Strategic Insight and Research at MTV, where she was responsible for consumer insights and strategy for MTV, MTV2, and mtvU, across all screens. Initiatives that Allison spearheaded for MTV included large-scale consumer lifestyle investigations, brand and buzz tracking, pilot testing, and website usability. Her landmark research study “Crossing the Line: Exposing Millennial Digital Abuse” was awarded the Grand Prize in the 2010 CTAM Case Study competition and informed the establishment of MTV’s Thin Line pro-social campaign. Among the MTV shows that Allison tested and helped usher into the channel was Jersey Shore, a pivotal turning point in the channels recent history with regard to viewership and cultural relevance. Allison co-wrote a section of the book “Beyond the Usability Lab: Conducting Large-Scale User Experience Studies”, distributed by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, which detailed the groundbreaking usability research she spearheaded to inform the re-launch and evolution of MTV.com. In her agency days, Allison was Director and Global Editor for strategic consultancy Henley Centre HeadlightVision. There she authored the book D_Code 5, an investigation of leading edge youth culture and marketing around the world and travelled the globe running innovation workshops for major companies including Coca-Cola and Unilever. Allison also worked as a strategic planner at Publicis, D’Arcy and Young and Rubicam where she contributed to the strategic growth of a diverse range of brands from Heineken/Amstel to Sony to Crest to Campbells, and many more. Allison is a regular speaker in the research conference circuit and has lectured on her insight work at Wharton School of Business. She lives in Ridgewood, NJ with her husband, Darren, and their daughter, Mary Ann, who is already a music and television fanatic.

 

Lianna (Lee)

Willoughby

SENIOR VP, MANAGING DIRECTOR

Lianna has a background in Film and Spanish Language & Culture. As Managing Director of Open Mind Strategy, Lianna oversees all qualitative and quantitative research endeavors, helping clients and internal teams to transform human... understanding into actionable strategic insight. While working on an independent documentary film in 2005, Lianna realized that her true passion was finding the unique stories of the people featured in the films. Curiosity and intuition lead her to the field of research and strategy, where she was able to deepen her understanding of people by seeking consumer truths and bringing audiences to life for her clients. Lianna’s role at Open Mind spans team management, project direction, cultivating company culture, building and maintaining partner relationships, as well as being a strategic thought partner. Some recent research and strategy projects include Facebook, iHeart Media, Amazon, Netflix, USA Today Network, Animal Planet and Food Network. Lianna is a key contributor to creating OMS’s first premium syndicated research product, Youth I.Q. Prior to joining OMS, Lianna developed her skill for management as a business coordinator for the planning lead at KB+P where she organized teams and steered jobs for clients, including the NBC Olympics, CMT and Comedy Central. Moving into a role as a planner at KB+P, Lianna looked for new consumer truths, sparking ideas for briefs and other strategic initiatives for clients including Wendy’s, Capital One and Starz. While Lianna’s current role focuses on operations and team management, her favorite part of the job is still that a-ha moment during the research when a consumer sparks a new insight and it changes the way she and her clients think.

Andrea Golstein

SENIOR DIR. OF RESEARCH AND INSIGHTS

Andrea Goldstein, Senior Director of Research and Insights, has been working in marketing research for nearly 15 years and really enjoys the work. She is a deeply curious, thoughtful and thorough researcher who understands the importance of uncovering the why behind consumer decisions.... With an academic background in both cognitive psychology and experimental design, she has a knack for designing research studies & questionnaires as well as analyzing the data form multiple angles and identifying, relevant but less obvious data patterns. While she has a strong quantitative background, she is very much an abstract thinker who is able take the data to a strategic level. Her favorite types of research studies tend to be the complex ones, particularly segmentations and consumer decision journeys. Prior to joining OMS, Andrea directed strategic studies with media and CPG brands at a couple of different research agencies, including Ipsos.

Leah Perlmutter

DIR. OF RESEARCH AND STRATEGY

Leah is the Director of Research and Strategy, and resident cultural anthropologist at Open Mind Strategy. As a “hybrid” qualitative and quantitative researcher, Leah’s analytical and humanistic approach to understanding consumers has helped uncover deep insights for clients across many categories.... She has cultivated a particular expertise in media and youth, digging into their beliefs and behaviors on projects for clients including Food Network, iHeartMedia and MTV. As a moderator, Leah excels at creating a comfortable and open space for uncovering respondent truths. She is thrilled to have found way to use her anthropological background on a daily basis to identify and truly understand the cultural trends of those around her.

 
 

Lauren Montague

ASSOCIATE RESEARCH ANALYST

Growing up in a family of psychologists, Lauren has always been interested in studying human behavior. She combined that lifelong natural inclination with her other academic interests at Tulane University, where she double majored in art history and communications, and minored in sociology.... Lauren's passion for market research stems from the desire to continue learning about the products that are made for, and by, humans and how their significance impacts the cultural landscape. Lauren is enthusiastic about studying youth trends and the current media climate. Lauren additionally handles all administrative duties at Open Mind. She brings her communication and organizational abilities to help the team be as successful as they can be.