Ask Jason Alan Snyder to define innovation, and he’ll offer up a quote from the poet René Char: “That which comes into the world and disturbs nothing deserves neither patience nor respect.”
An inventor, before and since joining Momentum, he holds numerous patents and his most recent product, Luci, a solar powered lantern, was widely hailed at the Consumer Electronics Show where it earned the rare distinction of winning the coveted Innovation Award in both 2014 and 2015 from the Consumer Electronics Association winning for outstanding design and engineering of cutting edge consumer electronics products. The lantern is also nominated at the upcoming Danish Index Awards which celebrate design and products that improve the lives of people around the world.
He admits to internalizing poet René Char’s words as his personal credo. “Many of the inventions I have made – from embedded software systems that power mobile advertising campaigns, to the solar lanterns that build capacity and provide safety for women and children around the world – were born of this ethic.”
Jason Alan Snyder was appointed earlier this year to the newly-created position of Chief Technology Officer, North America for brand experience agency Momentum Worldwide. Previously SVP, Group Director, Creative Technology and Integrated Production, the new position enables him to lead all technology products and services that the agency creates for a client roster including American Express, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, United Airlines, U.S. Army, Mondelēz International, and more.
Upon joining the agency in March 2013, Snyder was instrumental in the creation of American Express' award-winning "Art and Sound of Tennis" experience at the 2013 U.S. Open and the Bentley Studio Experience, along with numerous other client intitiatives. In April 2014 Digiday profiled Snyder calling him "the embodiment of the new agency creative."
He says, “Innovation is how I monetize marketing ideas. I consider ‘invention’ to be pure science and ‘innovation’ as applied science. In marketing however, innovation is easily distinguished from invention by following the money. Invention is seen as the conversion of money into ideas. Innovation on the other hand is viewed as the conversion of ideas into money. This difference is popularly illustrated by comparing Thomas Edison with Nikola Tesla. Edison was an innovator because he made money from his ideas. Tesla was an inventor who spent money to develop his inventions, but was unable to monetize them.”
He has spent nearly a decade with various Interpublic Group agencies, including serving as a founding member of Deutsch's interactive group, iDeutsch and as SVP, Innovation at MRM/McCann. Over his career he has worked with brands such as Google, Facebook, HBO, IKEA, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble and Nike. He has also previously held positions as head of product design at AOL and at Yahoo! Music.