Marketing Hipster

Ummm, let’s see what happens if I do this… Note to self, when playing with code you do not understand, back up your database first. Well as they say, you learn from your mistakes and I sure did today. I was trying to do some tweaking to the blog when I took down the whole site and had to build it back from scratch again. I think everything is back, but I did lose all comments that people placed. My apologies folks.. Please feel free to repost them if you would like.

Thank you for stopping by, let me introduce myself, my name is Cord Silverstein. I don’t want to take too much of your time, but I thought I would just give you a little background on myself. I have been working in the marketing industry for over 15 years. I have worked on both the agency side as well as client side. I have been very lucky to work with some incredibly talented people as well as with some great brands. Here is a quick rundown on my professional career:
Agencies:

• Marketsmart Interactive – VP of Client Services
• Emerald Solutions – Director
• Grey Interactive – Senior Producer

Client Side:

• Metlife – Vice President of E-Commerce
• Dell Computer Corporation – Senior Online Program Manager
• IBM – Business Analyst

I am presently the Executive Vice President of Interactive Communications for an amazing marketing and communications firm in Raleigh, NC called Capstrat.

Why?

I believe that we are at a crossroads when it comes to marketing and advertising today. Technology has given the consumer today unprecedented power to control what and who are marketed to them everyday. It is no longer the push mentality that if I do this type of marketing plan, I am guaranteed these many eyes and these many ears. The consumer is now putting the burden back onto the marketers to grab their attention and to give them something worth looking at, listening to and talking about. I believe that we as marketers have failed the consumer for quite a long time now and it is time that we begin rebuilding that relationship between the marketer and the market.

All articles and information written on Marketing Hipster is the sole opinion of Cord Silverstein and Cord only. If at anytime, I write an article that deals with a campaign or client that I am personally working with, I will disclose that information in each article.

cord AT marketinghipster.com

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Technorati Tags: Cord Silverstein

Yes, I know I should of gotten my predictions in before the end of 2006, but unfortunately I did not. I then read this morning Wired’s list of predictions for 2007 so I thought I would add my own.
So without any further adeui, here are Cord Silverstein’s Top 10 Predictions for 2007.

10. We are going to be warm. No matter where you are, 2007 will continue the 2006 trend of having incredibly high temperatures in the winters and very dangerous and unpredictable weather during the rest of the seasons. I also predict that I will personally punch in the mouth the next person I meet who says global warming is a myth.

9. The hottest applications and websites for 2007 will solve one huge problem we have – Convenience. People are going to do more in 2007 online than they ever have before, but they still have a finite amount of time to do it. What applications and what web sites will allow us to do more, faster and easier will be the big “Can’t Live Without” winners of 2007.

8. MySpace crashes in on itself. People start to realize that they can go elsewhere and not have their web pages crash every two seconds and still get what they are looking for. MySpace you had two years and a half of a billion dollars to get your house in order, you did not get it done. Now go in the corner with your buddy Friendster.

7. Sony has a very, very, very bad 2007. After suffering through some major PR nightmares in 2006, customers lose trust in Sony and Playstation 3 is a bust, Blu-ray tanks and Sony still does not learn from it’s past colossal mistakes.

6. Social search reaches for the next level. It is time for people’s recommendations to matter more than what Mr. Google’s algorithm says. Real people with real opinions and thoughts will start to have a much larger impact in the world of search.

5. No Philadelphia sports franchise will even go to a championship, let alone win one. Sorry, as a Philly boy born and raised, I am beginning to believe there is something in the water or cheese steaks, not sure which one.

4. For the first time in a long time, the moderates from both political parties will come out in force to hold each candidate and political group accountable for what they say, what they do and how they do it heading up to the 2008 election. The time has come and gone for the far right and far left.

3. Michael Dell will either come back to Dell Computer Corporation and take back the day to day running of the company or he will retire from the company all together.

2. The Net Neutrality Act gets more complicated and less people understand what it means to them.

1. 2007 will be the year that anyone who wants a voice is given the opportunity to let their voices be heard.

Technorati Tags: predictions, 2007, Cord Silverstein, Predictions for 2007

It has been going through the blogosphere recently where a blogger posts 5 things about him or her that people might not of known off and then sends an email to 5 other people asking them to do the same. I think it is a great representation of how the web and technology in general has the great ability to bring people from all across the globe together. Anyhow, I was tagged today by Ben Wills so below are the 5 things you may not know about Cord Silverstein.

1. In my younger days, I use to travel around the country following the Grateful Dead. Yes, I was a DeadHead and will be on till I die, so back off.
2. My first job at 13 or 14 was cold calling through the phone book asking people to donate money to the local police athletic league so they can sponsor a carnival for kids with serious medical problems. What I did not know was the place was a total scam until the police busted into the place one day and took the owner away in handcuffs.

3. My first two years in school I majored in Philosophy, I loved it, but grew concerned that I would not be qualified to do anything once I got out of school. So I switched to English, lol, another really marketable skill.

4. I have lived in something like 8 states over the last 15 years. At the present time, I am a yankee living down here in North Carolina and loving it!

5. One of my most embarrassing moments happened when I was on vacation with my folks in Florida when I was like 8. We were on this tour bus with a driver who was half tour guide / half comedian. I happen to of gotten off the bus when I shouldn’t have and was stuck on the side of the road by myself for like a half an hour until my parents realized I was gone and had to get the bus to go back and get me. After the bus picked me back up, the entire ride back, the bus driver was making fun of me non-stop. Damn that bus driver.

I am going to try a little different tact and send the blog tag to people I really do not know other than from reading their blogs or haven’t spoken with in a long time. They are as follows: Jonathan Trenn, Ron McDaniel, Charlie Nichols, Jeremiah Owyang, Jeremy Pepper.

Technorati Tags: 5 things about, Cord Silverstein, DeadHead