Derek E. Baird

Derek E. Baird is a leading youth marketing and media expert who helps brands connect to kids and teens through culture, social content & community.

Derek E.Baird > About > Publications > Portfolio > Recommendations > The Gen Z Frequency

Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn’t know the first thing about either.” —Marshall McLuhan

Author and youth cultural marketing strategist Derek E. Baird’s professional expertise centers around the intersection of kids & teen media, youth marketing & communications, educational technology, and helping brands understand how to connect with teens, kids, and their parents and provide insights into how they use technology, consume content & use media now and in the future.

Derek’s collaborative approach and leadership capabilities have led to working on youth-focused projects in brand marketing, strategic communications, program development, kids privacy (public policy), digital and social interaction, creative development, cultural insights, social impact, and kidtech product development.

He's worked with leading brands including The Walt Disney Company, Facebook, Kia Motors, Simon Wiesenthal Center, National Geographic, The Library of Congress, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor, Yahoo! Southeast Asia, and leading TV networks + SVOD platforms. Derek has worked as an adjunct professor at the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education & Psychology (GSEP), advises early-stage education technology start-ups, holds patents focused on child trust, safety, and privacy (COPPA) recipient of the Disney Inventor Award.

Derek's research, articles, and academic work can be found in leading the USA and international peer-reviewed journals and magazines. His new book, 'The Gen Z Frequency,' was published by Kogan Page Publishing.

Writing + Publications

Derek has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on new media, digital strategy, social media, cultural strategy & insights, educational technology, edutainment, and online communities.

• He's authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and white papers. He is the co-author of "The Gen Z Frequency," published in 2018 by Kogan-Page Publishing and translated into German, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Ukrainian editions.
  
  
• Derek’s blog, Barking Robot, was named by Youth Research Partners, a leading international consultancy focused on media culture & trends, as one of the Top 20 Youth Marketing Bloggers.
  
  
• View a list of my publications and portfolio.

What Derek Has Done. (So Far.)

• Manages social media and content strategy, production, and development for several YouTube Channels with a combined total of 47+ million views and Facebook and Twitter channels with a combined 200k+ followers.
  
  
• Developed a Gen Z tween content and social media strategy for Walt Disney World that grew a tween-focused Instagram from zero to 238k followers in 18 months. The strategy included a youth influencer-driven marketing program and an Instagram contest to engage tweens in relevant WDW social content.
  
  
• Developed a creative strategy to grow a Gen Z tween-focused YouTube channel for The Walt Disney Company from zero to over 80k subscribers and 33,751,089 views.

• Works with celebrity, talent agents, and agency clients to help them leverage social media, marketing, engage with fandoms, create social content and help them build online communities and creator networks and influencers to build, grow and engage their fan base.

• A contributing author to several peer-reviewed book chapters, journal articles, and conferences.

• Worked as an adjunct instructor at Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

• His blog posts have been re-published in several leading publications, including Business Week, Ypulse.com, and Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  
• Top contributing author to Virtual Reality Pop on Medium.

• Educational Media Advisory Board for the Digital Alliance, Togetherville (acquired by The Walt Disney Company), Yackpack.com, and the National Advisory Board for the Ypulse Youth Marketing Conference.

• As a consultant, collaborated with the Library of Congress, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor, Facebook, The National College of Ireland, The Simon Weisenthal Center, United Nations/UN-GAID to develop social media policy on kids use of social media, privacy, digital and media literacy, online communities, social impact & educational programs.

• At Yahoo!, Derek was part of a small internal start-up team that designed and launched an educational, social networking community and creators network for teachers, parents, and kids. He also managed the Yahoo! for Teachers Advisory Board.

• Derek led social media workshops for Yahoo! at the University of Chicago, the University of San Diego, and the University of Texas, Austin, and Yahoo! HQ’s in both NYC and Silicon Valley.

• As part of the TechStars program, worked with singer-songwriter Samantha Murphy on The Highway Girl web series and creator networks. The show is available on the web, airs on Australian TV, SVOD through Comcast, and Roku.
  

• Worked with Knowledge Essentials author Amy James to produce video segments and curriculum resources on social media, educational, early childhood development, and parenting issues for CBS News 9.

• M.A. in Education Technology from the Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) at Pepperdine University. Holds Masters Certificates in both Project Management (University of Utah) & Online Digital Strategies (University of San Francisco) and Gamification (UDEMY).

• As Director of Consumer Product Development at The Walt Disney Company, Derek worked on family digital media, entertainment, second screen, and social web experiences at Disney. He also holds a Disney Inventor Award for patents related to social media, entertainment technology, kids privacy (COPPA), and mobile technologies.
  
  

Speaking & Presentations

• Derek has presented at several national educational media & technology events, including the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Conference, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Conference on Cyberbullying, and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Technology Conference.
  
  
• He is also a frequent guest speaker at colleges, talk radio shows and quoted in numerous print and digital publications.
   

Indie Documentary Films I've Funded

• Being Ginger
• Be Here Now-The Andy Whitfield Story
• Daddy Don’t Leave
• Wish I Was Here
• The Wireless Generation
• Punk the Capital, Straight from Washington D.C.
• Discovery of America: 30 in 30

Charities I Support

• Charity Water
• Save The Tiger Fund
• Donors Choose
• St. Jude Children’s Hospital
• Encircle

Recommendations

•  See what clients have to say about Derek.

Consulting

Derek Baird is the founder of Barking Robot Media, a full-service digital media, edutainment, technology, and culture consultancy. He consults with organizations to design and launch multi-platform media, kid tech product strategy and provide youth cultural marketing insights. He also advises on kids' privacy policy and COPPA compliance.

Contact

 Contact Derek via email or reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter

Legal Stuff

PLEASE NOTE: Everything written here is my personal opinion and not that of my employer(s) and/or clients.

PRIVACY POLICY & COPPA STATEMENT: To read the privacy policy and COPPA Statement for Barking Robot and Privacy Policy for Six Apart Advertising, click here