Robbie Blinkoff

Robbie is an ethnographer and anthropologist and has overseen operations at Context since helping found the company in 1999. Robbie's project responsibilities focus on creating research designs that lead to breakthrough insights and solutions. He's also currently speaking on The I/WE: Doing Our Own Thing Together, a talk that tracks current cultural trends and models them for business.

Under Robbie's direction, Context has worked with clients such as: American Express, Adobe Systems Inc., Campbell's, Procter & Gamble, Kodak, General Motors, Kimberly-Clark, Fisher-Price, Sony, Microsoft, Kraft Foods, Oscar Mayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Herman Miller and Nike.

In addition to Context's extensive client work, Robbie has guided several proprietary studies that have helped define American and international culture including work on 9/11 and its impact on our culture, a study on wireless behavior entitled: "The Mobiles: Social Evolution in a Wireless Society," and Context is currently producing an ethnography entitled: "The China Middle: Coming of Age in Consumerism."

In 2003, Robbie was identified by Fast Company magazine as one of its prestigious "Fast 50" innovators, people who are changing the way business is done. His insights into consumer behavior have appeared on the CBS News and the CBS Early Show and in Inc., Wired, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Newsday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Philadelphia Enquirer, and many other publications.

An experienced speaker, Robbie recently presented at Sun Microsystems Brand Summit and gave the keynote address to Adobe Systems Global Marketing Conference in Napa Valley. He's also addressed Universal Pictures on the relationship between consumer trends and the entertainment industry; chaired and spoke at the International Institute for Research's symposium on New Ethnographic Methods; and was a key presenter at Yahoo!'s "Born to be Wired" Conference. He holds a doctorate in anthropology from Rutgers University, where his dissertation focused on ideas of ownership among hunter-gatherers in Papua New Guinea.