Norty Cohen

Founder and CEO
Moosylvania

Location: Maplewood, MO
Founded: 2003
Industry: Marketing

Norty Cohen wants you to, “Join the Brand.”

Cohen, founder and CEO, Moosylvania, a global integrated marketing agency founded in 2003 dedicated to building brand communities, said he thrives on building a team, finding a common goal, making it fun and celebrating success.

Still, Cohen is the first to say that the greatest lessons happen in moments of crisis.

“The spirit of nearly every industry was crushed in January of 2009,” Cohen said. “The end of 2008 was already sliding and everyone hoped there would be a magical new year. But instead, business was frozen.”

Cohen admits he was panicked, but before throwing in the towel, he got some good advice: Try everything, because nothing works.

“I pushed the team to do just that, and we made it through by innovating and recreating our business model, which made us even stronger when the country recovered in 2010,” Cohen said.

Today, Cohen has a lot to to be proud of. He explained that the agency uses a two-way communication model to inspire lifelong super fans by creating and executing branding, social, media buying and planning, digital and experiential programs.

“As the marketing industry evolves, I am finding value in demonstrating the power of big hairy audacious goals, just going for a big idea and pulling in resources to make them happen.”

Cohen foresees that over the next five years, all messaging will evolve into shorter bursts of attention, forcing marketers to re-examine their position in the conversation in real time.

“Who is talking? What do they care about? Why should they care about our brand? We are marketers marketing to marketers,” Cohen said. “The playing field is leveled to the point that marketers can no longer focus on target markets. They will need to understand their ‘target’s market.’”

Always interested in applying creativity to social responsibility and charitable endeavors, Cohen said his passion began in his 20s when working with a group of young professionals, The Young Variety Club.

“I’ve been on the boards of the YMCA and Gateway to Hope which led to a special achievement that was executed during the pandemic,” Cohen said. “As the country was just downright depressed, I began wondering what we could do to make a difference or to at least make people smile.”

This is when two of his passions, playing music and walking his dog, came together with an idea that gained national prominence.

“By early 2020, it was clear we were all quarantined… we created a concept called Justfurrfun.com. The program received an Innovation in Philanthropy award by the Business Journal last year,” Cohen said. The program urged Nashville musicians to write music inspired by their dogs and raised money for animal shelters.

As a collaborator and motivator, this industry Titan plans to continue to challenge his team and himself.

“I intend to continue to take on challenging business ideas, creating, launching, and fundraising,” Cohen said. “This includes just having fun engineering new spins that match up to the latest consumer needs.” He added, “Originality only happens once.”