About
Hello!
Barbie is founder of iDigress and a communications and marketing leader with over 20 years experience fostering brand growth. Her particular areas of expertise include ad tech, martech, insights, and gaming.
Currently, Barbie serves as the Global Head of App & Game Developer Marketing for InMobi, a leading ad tech platform. Previously, she served as the VP of Marketing for Spiketrap, an audience insights and contextual advertising platform, from its seed round through its acquisition by Reddit.
Prior to this, Barbie has led marketing efforts for a myriad of companies, from tech & entertainment startups to publicly traded enterprises. Notably, Barbie led B2B marketing at consumer insights platform DISQO, served as the head of marketing for advertising agency AUDIENCEX, and led developer marketing at mobile advertising platform AdColony.
Committed to meaningful audience engagement, Barbie holds a Master’s in Communications Management from the University of Southern California and was a President’s Scholar at Cal State Fullerton, where she attained her Bachelor’s in Communications.
Barbie is an active member of CHIEF, the private network for women in leadership, and is also a member of both The Women in Programmatic Network and the International Game Developers Association.
- Leadership Experience 15 years
- Brand Marketing 22 years
- Content Marketing 22 years
- Communications 22 years
- Engagement Marketing 20 years
- Product Marketing 16 years
- Public Relations 14 years
- Performance Marketing 12 years
- B2B Marketing 17 years
- Tech Marketing 12 years
Testimonials
“When I think of a marketing leader — one who is well-rounded, strategic, and insanely knowledgeable — Barbie comes to mind. I’ve had the pleasure of working directly with Barbie on multiple marketing projects, and I have come to depend on her expertise in many ways. Barbie is encouraging and supportive while allowing you to bring your own talents to the project.
Barbie is a master when it comes to creating high quality content and blogs. I am always amazed at how effortlessly she can translate complex information into easy-to-read and relatable content.”
“Barbie Koelker is a gem. She’s a marketing-minded machine who is kind, passionate about her work, and always delivers.”
“Barbie has the unique blend of intelligence and compassion rooted to a ‘grind it out’ work ethic, making her the ideal marketing and comms lead.
You can expect Barbie to excel in distilling complex concepts in the rapidly evolving intersection of Gaming, AdTech and Insights into concise, impactful stories. This is where her deep understanding of AdTech and passion for gaming really shine.
Working with Barbie has been one of the standout moments of my career. Our relationship quickly progressed from illustrating market positioning and storytelling to trusted resource for new product dev., GTM commercial strategies and insights. She truly is a Swiss Army knife and a joy to work with.”
“After working with Barbie for over 3 years, I am continuously impressed with how she is both a creative strategist and detail-obsessed executioner – such a unique combination. Her approach to every project always starts with, “What will attract and engage our potential clients? What are the burning questions we can answer for them?” and that forms the core of her content strategy – how can we add value?
Her data research is impeccable, covering topics of importance to both publishers and advertisers, and she presents it to a diverse group – internal stakeholders, sales teams, PR agencies – in a way that makes it easy for them to work with. She’s a skilled communicator, and she holds herself to a higher standard than anyone else – making her a valuable asset to any marketing team.”
“Barbie and I worked together at AudienceX, where we worked cross-functionally to market the company to potential advertiser clients. Because of her expertise and friendly nature, we truly hit the ground running when she joined.
From collaborating with her on a full-funnel strategy for our brand, implementing and training other employees on complex new CRM processes, optimizing and improving ROAS, and garnering buy-in from the co-founders, it was always a positive and productive experience working with her. We worked early and late, but we always worked well together, and the results showed.
Last but surely not least, I have to mention how personally fortunate I was to work with Barbie. She took an interest in my personal well being as an employee at our company, always checking in to see how I was doing, even though I was not her direct report. Though we no longer work together, that has continued. I learned a great deal about the finer points of marketing strategy by working with her and asking her questions. Her presence and mentorship has aided my professional career immensely. For that, I say thank you, Barbie!”
“Barbie brings extensive expertise crafting messages that are relevant and impactful for many different audiences.
Beyond delivering strong value on the the strategic marketing front though, I was always impressed by Barbie’s adaptability and how she worked as a true partner to her internal and external clients. Barbie seamlessly worked with Fortune 500 caliber brands and publishers as well as new, fast paced apps that hit the marketplace and always worked to hone messaging directly to them while capturing all the feedback of her internal teams.”
“If you need a rockstar to develop your content marketing strategy, create impactful case studies, blog about the latest mobile industry trends, or whip up a 20 page Keynote deck to be presented at a major gaming conference while trying to get sign off from multiple top level executives, all within a weeks notice – then make sure Barbie Koelker is on your team.
She will elevate your marketing game, score thirty points, and put you ahead of the competition all before the first half is over.”
“Of the dozens of media partners I worked together with promoting content on Twitch, Barbie is on a very short list of those who are unforgettable for all the right reasons.
She completely nails the basics; timely, well-organized, and future-looking promotion schedules that made my life infinitely easier when promoting her content.
Beyond that, her extremely positive, friendly, and humble personality makes communicating with her an absolute joy, whether via email, phone, or in person. I feel extremely lucky to have worked with Barbie and would happily do so in the future.”
“Proactive, hardworking, creative, kind and a ‘builder’. In the short time I have worked with Barbie I have been nothing less than impressed with not only her quality of work, creativity, extreme attention to detail and knowledge of the space, but her kindness and ability to build collaborative teams. Barbie is a big picture thinker, she understands how all digital marketing channels work together and what needs to be done in order to create a cohesive message to our target market.
Of all the wonderful things I could say about Barbie, one of my favorite things is how passionate she is about her work. She puts her heart, soul, time and research into anything she does and it shows. Anyone would be lucky to work with her, she is gem.”
“A highly motivated, savvy marketer, and sharp-witted wordsmith, her passion for her work is evident in everything she does.
Whether it’s crafting impactful presentations for the sales team, conducting research to drive meaningful thought leadership, or developing & executing on GTM plans for a new products, her work ethic is solid, as is her word.”
“Working with Barbie is, well, it’s simply exceptional. Not only is she one of the smartest people I’ve worked with – the loyalty she has for her colleagues, her brand and her leadership team is second to none.
Her commitment to any task is always 110% and the level of detail she incorporates in her work is incredible. Whether it be a research piece, strategic development, digital content generation or technically focused, Barbie is consistent and measured with every project at hand. She will always dig deep to find all levels of insight and really make the data work for her. Her analytical approach makes ROI fundamental to every task at hand.”
“Barbie’s communication skills, analytical thinking, and keen attention to detail allow her to constantly deliver high-quality content. She possesses an exceptional ability to write informative articles and reports that are professional yet entertaining to her audiences. She has a creative and captivating writing style that draws on her wit and personality. I have never come across a writer as talented as Barbie.
Barbie is truly one-of-a-kind. Her humorous and lively personality paired with her genuine dedication in what she does, inspires me and those around her every day.”
“Barbie is a content marketing mastermind. The way she is able to balance content marketing strategy and execution alongside multiple research projects is admirable.
Barbie is such a joy to work with. Though she didn’t directly manage me, she continuously inspired me to go above and beyond my scope of work and most importantly, to be confident in my abilities to deliver outstandingly on projects. Her support, leadership, and intelligence is inspiring and I am truly grateful to have worked alongside her for nearly 2 years.”
“Barbie is the consummate professional and a pleasure to work with. Her knowledge and expertise of PR, Marketing and Branding, especially with regards to the gaming audience and B2B communications is second to none.
Able to work at 30,000 ft strategic level as well as drill down into the details and is a great executor, taking an idea from conception through to successful completion
Barbie is a great communicator and very persuasive; she generated significant revenue for the company via high quality pitch deck and proposals production and presentations.”
“Whether in the form of white papers or stackable blog posts, Barbie turned what can be dry, inaccessible data and information into interesting and exciting content. Once implemented, Barbie’s overall content strategy not only increased the size of our audience, but invited more meaningful engagement.
Working on Barbie’s team, I benefitted greatly from her clear direction, unrivaled organization, and patient visual design coaching. Altogether, Barbie is a multi-hat sporting marketer, with an unrelenting positive energy and rigorous work ethic and I couldn’t be more grateful to have gotten a behind-the-scenes look at her tour-de-force transformation of AdColony.”
“Barbie is amazing. A stellar communicator, researcher and designer, the materials she put together and edited for our team have proven invaluable in our sales efforts.
-Her intangibles however are what truly distinguish Barbie; dedicated to her work, attention to detail but also her innate ability to think 3-dimensionally. The ability to answer questions and track scenarios.
This combined with a great personality and a great sense of humor makes Barbie an absolute delight to work with and an indispensable asset.”