About us.
We go where the people are. Where decisions are made and culture is shaped. We embed and observe. We listen. We walk a mile in people’s shoes. We will have a drink with your customer and stay awhile.
Meg Kinney
I have built my reputation on delivering human insights that inspire new products, new markets, and new growth. After 20+ years in the advertising business, I have recognized a critical truth: despite the overwhelming surplus of data in business, there is a short supply of clarity and conviction about why people do the things they do. Quantitative data without the soul of understanding the human experience does not live up to its potential as a business tool.
Prior to Bad Babysitter, I was the Executive Vice President of Insight & Strategy for the TBWA\Integer network where I launched a first-of-its-kind strategy practice focused on understanding context and its influence on purchasing behavior for Fortune 500 clients and startups alike. I developed research methodologies that enrolled subjects as co-creators in the telling of their own story and used video as the language to translate the findings to clients. This led to the role of a “roaming expert” within the Omnicom global network of agencies, where I counseled strategists to take a more anthropological approach to building brands.
I have taken my business acumen, natural curiosity, and gift for listening and dedicated myself to the belief that caring about people (and planet) and driving revenue growth don't have to be mutually exclusive endeavors.
Hal Phillips
I am a storyteller at heart who passionately believes in multimedia as a means to foster human connection, reaction, and participation in the world around us. I studied Philosophy and started my career at CNN International putting together news packages for international audiences, before moving to China and embedding in a culture diametrically opposed to our own. I enjoy hanging out with people who are not like me.
During the first dotcom boom, I moved to San Francisco where I worked for CNX Media – a startup that provided news-style packages with robust, customized web components on the topics of health, travel, and consumer finance for local television affiliates. From there, I ran the public access TV studio in Berkeley, CA that facilitated the efforts of local citizens to create and broadcast stories, content, and programming that mattered to them, in their own voices. Here, I developed and ran workshops that educated the public on news-magazine style shooting and editing, as well as fostered a community for storytelling and activism.
Throughout, I’ve molded myself into an ethnographic filmmaker, editor, and digital storyteller using the mediums of video and photography.
Let’s work together.
Thank you for checking us out!
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a bit about us and what we do. If you have some questions or see what you like, feel free to drop us a line.