Sony Marketing Vet Christine Birch Launches The ROYGBIV Collective

Anthony D'Alessandro

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EXCLUSIVE: Former Columbia Pictures marketing chief and industry vet Christine Birch is opening the doors to The ROYGBIV Collective, a new consulting firm which will provide media, tech, and lifestyle companies with powerful strategic narratives across their positioning, creative branding, messaging and overall vision.

As the former marketing boss not only at Sony, but DreamWorks Studios and FilmDistrict, Birch has been behind several blockbuster film campaigns that have yielded billions of dollars at the global box office working on such titles as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Rabbit, Transformers to name a few as well as Oscar-winning pics like The Help, The Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl. With the ROYGBIV Collective, Birch is bringing her entertainment marketing skills to a new generation of entrepreneurs, starting with the booming cryptocurrency firm Pi Network which since its March 14 launch, now counts over 2 million engaged users, all of whom are members by invitation.

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“With all the emphasis on analytics and micro-targeting, it’s tempting to forget that it’s the ‘mythic narrative’ that connects all the dots, and creates emotional resonance. Since the beginning of man, such narratives have helped establish a sense of common purpose, which is how successful movements are built,” says Birch.

“While most movie marketing campaigns are data driven, I feel there’s a greater need to access more of the emotional underpinnings in these campaigns. When I decided to embrace the Pi Network, I saw an opportunity to demonstrate the validity of my approach and provide a storytelling narrative to a project that was outside the entertainment industry. Storytelling does not have to be specific to any platform,” Birch tells Deadline.

With Pi Network, Birch partnered with Silicon Valley startup Social Chain Inc., working alongside founders Dr. Nicolas Kokalis, Dr. Chengdiao Fan, and Vincent McPhillip to formulate the vision for a new social cryptocurrency. Birch was turned onto the idea of cryptocurrency after one of her guests, a Stanford graduate, began talking about the tech coin at a family barbecue.

“We started talking about what was wrong with the financial system the way it is, and the idea that money is in fact a created asset. As a society, we initially traded goods and services and ultimately decided that money was the standard. This became a very interesting conversation about what you can do when value is generated in a different way,” Birch says. Birch wrote the introduction to the Pi Network’s white paper with a group of Standford PhDs.

Separately, Birch has joined the board of directors of Stocks & Securities LTD (SSL), a premiere venture capital company which is teaming with local entrepreneurs on her native island of Jamaica. As part of these efforts, Birch is developing plans for a new luxury spa on the island, which will feature the rich history and therapeutic properties of Jamaica’s indigenous herbal healing, including a cannabis-focused regimen.

Birch immigrated to the US from Jamaica at the age of 3. A Dartmouth College alum, she cut her teeth in the New York publishing scene at Scholastic and Random House before embarking on a long career in motion picture theatrical marketing. The ROYGBIV Collective goes live today on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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