RUBY PSEUDO CONSULTING!A little document that explains stuff!

Ruby Pseudo has only been going since March 2008, but that was because Jenny

– who’s been writing under the name Ruby Pseudo for a few years now – was

terribly busy doing lots of other things instead. To begin with, in 2000, she was a

producer of music videos and commercials, a job she didn’t entirely mean to go in

to, but one that got her a platinum disc from EMI when she was 21. From there,

she worked as a researcher for a guerilla marketing company before deciding that

actually, she’d like to write a book please. She didn’t – she taught graphic design

and new media alongside a fashion promotion course instead, and invited Nike in

to give a lecture once. Nike – in return – asked her to be their Consumer Insight

and Ideation Manager for the UK, a job they’d been trying to fill for 18 months

and one that meant she worked across the brand globally helping on new product,

marketing direction and immersion initiatives for two years. She sat in an office

with clever old Russell Davies, but didn’t know exactly who he was at the point,

just that he always worked with his feet on the table. After two years at Nike, she

went to Jackie Cooper PR/Edelman (the second biggest PR agency in the world)

to be their Head of Brand Culture and Insight, working with clients like Microsoft

and Unilever. Thing is, Nike also retained her as their consultant – so she was

working for them four days a month (with JCPR’s permission) too. She knew quite

a lot of kids at the point you see, and anyway – there was a new head of

marketing that was brilliant, and she worked directly with him. In March 2008,

Jenny left Edelman and joined advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy as their

Youth Planning Consultant, something she does a couple of days a week working

on brands like Nokia and – of course – Nike (she’s the first person to work for

Nike in this way too oddly). For the rest of the time, whilst also retaining work for

Microsoft and Unilever through Edelman, she runs Ruby Pseudo Consulting, a

thing that makes her happy and crave coffee. We’ll tell you more about that in a

minute, but it was Russell that encouraged her saying ‘I’m bored of people asking

me if I know who this Ruby Pseudo is – do something with it’. Whilst she still

hasn’t got round to writing that darn book (she’s writing a new one actually, called

The Teen Commandments with the nice head of marketing at Nike) she does write

for MTV’s global magazine and Clash music magazine about kids, culture and

anything else besides. !

“So there’s ‘Ruby’ (Jenny) – and then there’s the kids. They’re the people that

make Ruby, well, Ruby and we call them ‘kids’ because young adults sounds

patronizing, and ‘the youth’ tends to be turned in to ‘the yoof ’ in email titles by

other people… All in all, there’s around 450 kids in our global network… yea, we

know it’s not 1000, or 2000, or hell – 3 billion… But we know their names,

we’re friends with them and we write letters to their parents to introduce ourselves

and help them out whenever we can. We remember their birthdays, pick them up at

3am (although that’s slightly difficult if it’s Alina calling from Romania for

example) when they’re ‘being harassed by roods’ and value their opinions. We ask

them what they think before we make up our own minds ‘cos well, we’re not in to

hypothesizing. And we’re honest – if we don’t know, we ask the kids. The youngest

‘kid’ is 7 – the oldest is 25 and the network is growing organically all the time…

You meet one great kid, and they introduce the next – it works well like that…

Also, since most kids have a highly extended social group of friends, it means

there’s fluidity to our network at all times – it can be as big or as small as

necessary for the question at hand… It also means that at any one time, there’s far

more than just 350 kids really, especially since we also work with universities and

just, well, ‘collect characters’ for our living. !

At the heart of Ruby Pseudo, there’s Rosie (Roxy Hartless, 22 years old), Tarik

(Whathehelle Fontenelle, 18 years old), Oliver (The O.C, 18 years old) Miss

Libby (16 years old), Naomi the New (15 years old – pictured here) and the wild

and wonderful Olivier and Elliott (we call him Ols so we don’t get mixed up, who

are 13 and 14). This lot are so good, it gives me goose-bumps. Without them,

we’d be lost. Also – we never ask kids to do anything for free; they will always be

paid. So whether it’s a £5 voucher for five minutes of their time, or £250 for 20

hours spent blogging with us – they’re always looked after. And we help them over

and over again, whether that’s securing work placements with them, working on

their CVs, homework or dissertations, anything we can do to show we care and

that they count… !

All of us at the heart of Ruby Pseudo blog for ‘Ruby Wants a Word’ and the

extended global network do too… This is where we try and pop things up people

might find interesting, and talk about the stuff that we found anything but that we

believe other brands can learn from. If you haven’t read it, it might be a nice place

to look? www.rubypseudochatchat.blogspot.com !

From left to right, Tarik, Oliver, Libby, ‘Ruby Jen’, Elliot, Naomi (on

the swing) Olivier and Rosie... !

!"#"$%%&#'()#*+,-.#/,-.0#

1&.,#&2#3",#4%&55,+6#From left to right, Matthew (18) in NYC, Miss Woody (22) in LA,

Pieter (14) in Belgium, Sophie (15) in NYC, Jonathan (20) in NYC,

Alina (15) in Romania and Alex – also 20 in New York… !

RUBY PSEUDO STUFF!What we can help you with…!

There are myriad matters we may be able to help you with… from conducting

bespoke research according to your criteria, to helping recruit focus groups, filming,

or even weekend-long immersion trips of places and people you may never have

guessed you could see. We can set up blogs for you and your team’s eyes only. We

can create artifacts that may help your creative processes, films that sum up your

consumer for well crafted conversations, images for your adverts. We can find the

crux of the problem, the strategic solutions, the best answer you’ll need. We can

build maverick launch plans or seeding lists for show. We can fill a room with kids

in no time at all, we can create special events whereby both parties (you and the

consumer) feel part of a conversation and where insights are gathered in new, and

interesting ways. We can help tell you where your media spend should indeed be

spent, we can tell what journalists might best be interested in your story. We can do

the desk research other people don’t have time to, the finding of the place to hold the

darn focus group in the first place (we’re pretty good at getting in to people’s homes)

… We can write essays and papers, or tell you all you need to know with images

we take with the kids. We can interview 100 kids in 24 hours (we promise) and

we can write trend dossiers or beautiful books. There’s possibly one

bad thing about RPC (us)… We don’t how to fail; it drives our mothers mad. !

RUBY RECENT WORK!Some bits we’ve been working on… !

!"#$$

Recent work examples: !

UK: !

Anti-binge drinking recommendations and research –The Home Office!

B-Boy championship event audit – IRIS !

Nike woman’s wear retail research and strategic recommendations for the new Womenswear floor at Nike Town London, opening 2009 – Nike UK!

NSW prelaunch research and strategic recommendations – Nike UK!

GLOBAL: !

International youth research on hyper connected, creative kids, blog + book – IRIS INTERNATIONAL !

Global youth strategy – Nokia!

EUROPE:!

Monthly insight reports - Telefonica (Europe) !

WHO RATES RUBY?!Nice things people have said…!

The awesome Ruby Pseudo has been interrogating the truth out

of trendy tots for a while now, on her excellent blog. Having

given it away for free, she has set up Ruby Pseudo Consulting for those clients that want more in depth neoteric anthropology

[although the blog will stay free, she informs me]. Ruby shares

some thoughts with PSFK here. All of which I mention a]

because Ruby is a legend and b] because I wrote this biog of her

for the piece that they didn't use -" I didn't want it to go to waste so I'm putting it here: Ruby Pseudo is a fearless

investigator, bravely venturing into the dark heart of youth

culture and returning [relatively] unscathed with nuggets of

purest insight. With a fearsome intellect and a laser-like wit, she

goes boldly where the rest of us fear to tread, but she ain't no fool. Sharper than a card sharp, braver than an Indian brave, a

dangerous drinking partner and haunting Audrey Hepburn

impersonator, Ruby Pseudo is the real deal.!

FARIS YAKOB, Talent Imitates, Genius Steals |

Naked !

MARK IDDON, BBC – found on Twitter!

'It has always been important to put the consumer at

the forefront of your thinking. In today's ever changing

world, it is more important than ever. What Ruby and her Network offer is an unfiltered, honest and real view

of how kids are interacting with your brand - real

time. If you are of a weak

disposition, don't like the truth

or can't cope without one way mirror focus groups then stay

away from Ruby. If you want it told like

it is, with some very real and useable strategy

recommendations, then you have found the right

person...’!SIMON PESTRIDGE, Head of Marketing,!

Nike UK!

Google: Ruby Wants a Word |Email: Ruby@Rubypseudo.com | Call: +44(0)7947648401 !

HOW TO CONTACT!And thank you for reading!