Who we are

Innovation Protocol is a Brand Strategy consulting firm that exclusively serves organizations that are somehow changing the nature of the market they target. Contrary to traditional approaches to Brand Strategy, where emotions and personalities reign, Innovation Protocol has constructed proprietary methodologies that are clear, efficient and deeply rooted in business strategy. These exclusive processes are optimized for the rigor and timeliness of innovative ideas. It's why we have become the protocol for brands that innovate™. The result: rational, effective solutions to the most sophisticated brand challenges.

The Innovation Protocol team is constructed of brand strategists who also see the world of strategic brand development through business glasses. Together, we build relevant and timely brand strategies that not only appeal to the most savvy marketers, but empower partners, rally leadership and invigorate stakeholders.

How we work

Innovation Protocol’s infrastructure is built to support the innovators we serve: a single toll free phone number for immediate access to all staff on or off-site, digitally-emailed fax systems for timely international response, globally accessible email, mobile phone numbers of staff available to every client, remote-hosted company-wide file sharing and a secured client extranet for seamless client/agency file transfer worldwide.

Our offices
Where we've worked

International business is our business. Our client Brand Strategy work has taken us throughout Europe, North America and East Asia.

Where we've worked

Sasha Strauss

Managing Director

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Profile: Brand Strategist by passion and by trade. Fueled by new ideas, old hats and differentiated dogmas - he enjoys the rigorous, analytical digestion of the ways that others think. At IP, Sasha assimilates his 15 years of agency practice with firms like Siegel + Gale and TBWAChiatDay to constantly stir the pot of Brand Strategy. Careful though... he believes brand can be a dirty word when oversold... and the most beautiful concept ever told, when handled with love and care.

Interests:

  • Spiritual Machines / Singularity
  • Teaching Brand Strategy
  • Nordic Death Metal
  • Swedish Fish
  • Industrial Strength Travel Gear
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Ben Bidlack

Engagement Director

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Profile: For 10 years post his Stanford MBA, Benjamin swam with the sharks of international strategy consulting, including stints with Booz Allen and Accenture. In the last 8 years, he has concentrated on Brand Strategy, with firms like Prophet (working with branding guru David Aaker), Siegel & Gale, and most recently, as Executive Director of Brand Strategy at Interbrand. What fuels Ben is assimilating business strategy, branding principles, and collective senior leadership viewpoints into amazing and long-lasting answers. A modern Renaissance Man wanna-be, Ben started life after college as a tennis pro, and continues secret professional lives in music production, fitness and acting.

Interests:

  • Mythology and Storytelling
  • Vehicles: Retromods, Exotics, Motorcycles, Mountain Bikes
  • Art: Soul Music, Drums, and Dance
  • Options Trading
  • Fitness and yoga
  • 592 perfect Ebay transactions and counting
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Matthew Cox

Manager, Brand Programs

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Profile: Keeps the ship in shape, afloat and headed for the new world of Brand Strategy. Matthew manages client relations and oversees our diverse brand programs. Somehow he finds time to focus our brand research, devise brilliant architecture strategies and figure out just what prospective clients need.

Interests:

  • Matthew always makes sure there's time for fun and occupies himself with the latest in video games, tech, food, fashion and musical theatre. When Matthew's not jet setting to Vegas for the weekend, he's hiding away in his downtown refuge spending quality time with his dog, Kouji.
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Alex Glassman

Associate Brand Strategist

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Profile: A notorious over-analyzer, the world of Brand Strategy couldn't come more naturally to Alex. With nearly eight years of higher education dedicated to communications under her belt, Alex is a seasoned critical thinker whose ability to conceptualize, rationalize and organize complex problems into strategic solution makes her an important fuel that drives the IP Brand Strategy engine.

Interests:

  • When Alex isn't branding you can probably find her reading the history of human civilization by Will Durant or dreaming about the chateau in Paris she'll one day occupy with her husband and two kitties: Panda and Squirrel.
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Bryan Neff

Associate Creative Strategist

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Profile: The glue between Brand Strategy and creative execution. Bryan takes the most complex business concepts and builds intricate, accessible and compelling visual stories. Whether its through Photoshop or PowerPoint, ideas are never more clear than when told through the mind and magic of Bryan. Both an accomplished swimmer and talented musician, we keep him focused at his desk with a large cup of chlorinated water and a really cool Nerf guitar.

Interests:

  • Music encompassing jazz standards to mathematically driven electronic sounds
  • Analog synthesizes, fuzz pedals, vintage tube amps and digital sequencers
  • Belgium "Trappist" Ales
  • Running to work to offset Luc's bicycle tire carbon foot print
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Luc Doucedame

Designer, Visual Expression

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Profile: Responsible for "making the magic happen" ™. Luc inhales Brand Strategy and exhales effective, inspiring visual communication, and rock solid concepts. A literal giant (at 6'6) among giants, he channels his gift by producing creative strategy executions powerful enough to drive entire visual systems.

Interests:

  • Being a design junky (in every way imaginable)
  • Typography
  • Color Theory
  • Drawing
  • Illustration
  • Art & all things creative
  • Dissecting the world of visual communication on every level
  • Cats
  • Travelling anywhere and/or everywhere in search of great food and culture
  • Biking to work to save the world from Bryan's truck
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Me|tal

Project Manager

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Profile: Project Manager. Hmmm. We'll call just about anything a "project" if we can get Meital to manage it. There's nothing she hasn't touched in this office, and it's probably because she's got the most diverse background in town: real estate, interior design, book-keeping, psychology... the perfect combo for Brand Strategy! All you need to know is that we've run out of gold stars to put next to her name.

Interests:

  • Echo Park, CA
  • Mopeds
  • MS Advocacy
  • LA Indie Music Scene
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Sarah Black

Analyst, Brand Strategy

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Profile: A communications master (with a masters in communication), Sarah digs deeper, faster and with more analytical prowess than anyone we've ever known - and she actually likes it!? It's like she's not only a shark but she's got laser beams on her head too. As if her Brand Strategy mastery weren't enough, she's also an accomplished musician, well weathered in the trot-amidst-chaos of marching band. Maybe it's why she excels amidst the cacophony of verbally-expressed-ideas in our open offices?

Interests:

  • Sailing, bike riding, visiting family, traveling, cooking, taking the train to work, musical instruments of all shapes and sizes, languages, non-fiction books, beer/food/sports with the boys, getting hurt while doing all of the above.
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Hamesh Shahani

Imaging Strategist

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Profile: He's the only photographer we've ever met who truly speaks brand. H (as he's affectionately known) has snapped Richard Branson to Kanye West, and channels his creative eye through the lens of Brand Strategy for our innovative clientele. As such, he's made the most technological biomedical device look like a piece of art, and turned a serene cityscape into a capture of chaos.

Interests:

  • images, moving and still
  • anything my DJ of a sister mixes together
  • radio
  • light
  • funny things
  • friends and family
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Patrick Dinkfeld

Multimedia Art Director

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Profile: Patrick has been putting art into motion his entire life. Humans, music, film, type, and animation, all coming together to form exactly the kinds of beautiful communication that serves Brand Strategy (and conveniently, his soul) so well. His desire to tell a story, and his natural tendency to perform, drive his artwork through time, and across mediums, captivating viewers and connecting thoughts, ideas, and art with people and their lives.

Interests:

  • While Patrick has played drums for 20 years, and guitar for 7... he currently prefers to trace his feet in the Pacific coast's sand with his face in the bright sun. A fan of traditional ballet as well as modern roller derby, Patrick enjoys the art and motion of his fellow human, in all its forms. Time-travel, fighting crime, UFO conspiracies, and movies whose writers don't "chicken out", are all things Patrick can be heard rambling on about, on any given day.
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Curtis Kaiser

Manager, Legal Affairs

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Profile: Uses trilingual status (English, Spanish and Legalese) to help Innovation Protocol create concise and clear contracts with its employees, vendors and partners. Curtis also finds time to be a regular contributor to the local paper and teaches law to eager Anteaters at UC Irvine.

Interests:

  • Enjoys racquetball (without the 70's shorts and headbands), snowboarding and reading the Economist and Sports Illustrated.
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Omid Yasharel

Manager, Client Technologies

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Profile: Skilled in the Jedi art of Information Technology, Omid lathers up our overworked machines with start-of-the-art gadgets and gizmos - keeping us in touch and our clients on target. If you can't find a file, don't blame him - he's built a file sharing system for our clients that's worthy of a Microsoft patent infringement.

Interests:

  • International travel
  • Burnt Persian rice
  • Schooling 14 year-olds at Halo
  • Summer BBQs
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Andrew Janzen

Development Specialist

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Profile: 0110010101101010, but not without 100101111

Interests:

  • Ones and zeros
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Evangeline Reed

Analyst, Brand Strategy

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Profile: While Brand Strategy focuses on the big picture, it can never get there without the details. Where Innovation Protocol is a big picture business, Evan is the detail that makes it all possible. With a meticulous mind capable of capturing an infinite amount of information, only she can meld the bits together into manageable pieces that the rest of the team can work with. With an educational background merging the worlds of art and communication, it’s no wonder that Evan’s ability to turn the elemental into the fundamental makes every strategy she touches not only beautiful, but a work of art.

Interests:

  • Finding time to laugh with her family and friends
  • Yoga
  • Museums
  • Cooking
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Alvaro Pires

Designer, Visual Expression

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Profile: As a former air pilot student turned graphic designer, Alvaro’s eyes have always been wide open. His unique approach to design is no different. While consistently producing work from an imaginative, intuitive, and creative perspective, his priority always remains focused on ensuring his client is completely satisfied with the end result. In true Brazilian style, Alvaro’s vision, passion and dedication is always embedded throughout his work leaving a lasting impression on all those exposed to it.

Interests:

  • Friends and Family, Music, Film, All things design, Yoga, Architecture, Art History, Photography, Stage Theater and Traveling
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