Photograph by Greg Rannells
If you stand at the base of the steps, gazing up at the old redbrick Maplewood Baptist Church, each column bears a small, discreet brass plaque: “Republic of Moosylvania.” In 2003, Norty Cohen bought the church building and did a historic rehab, preserving the original floor, the stained-glass windows, and the choir-loft geometry. Now it’s sacred space for the marketplace: Moosylvania is the largest independent consumer marketing agency in St. Louis, with $13 million in billings, 75 employees, and, on this particular day, three dogs, two of which take turns chasing each other around the patio table outside. The church school is now a market-research headquarters, with focus-group rooms and observation areas. And just below the reception area’s cathedral ceiling, a stuffed moose head looks out over the open-office interior, its eyes bright.
You shoot the moose?
That guy? I got him on eBay.
I’ve grasped the theme—but why?
In 1962, Jay Ward, who created Rocky and Bullwinkle, got a character to wear a Bullwinkle outfit and solicit statehood for Moosylvania. It was a publicity gimmick, and it became the first mobile marketing program: He drove around the whole country soliciting signatures, and then he drove up on the White House lawn, jumped out, and yelled, “We demand statehood for Moosylvania!”
Mmm. And your own journey to Moosylvania?
I went to Mizzou to be a reporter, but the pay wasn’t great, so I started selling advertising. Then I got a job in St. Louis as a copywriter for Famous-Barr, then I went to an agency called Frank James, then to Zipatoni.
You’re now taking your new website, MealChime.com, on the road to test in seven other cities. it’s A searchable database of restaurants that offers people coupons for restaurants in their area?
Yeah. I was in a focus group in Chicago, and I realized there was no way for consumers to get mealtime deals from restaurants when they were hungry, for the kind of food they wanted, with efficient delivery.
I looked at the site—it’s a great concept. But by the time you get out to my ZIP code, all you’ve got is Domino’s!
Yeah, Domino’s can dominate, unfortunately. It takes us a week for someone to tell us what their offers are, and in that time, Domino’s will give us seven offers! They have figured out how to coupon. That’s what I’ve got to teach the others, when we move out of the test stage.
You left Zipatoni in 2003 and took 11 people with you. What do you do differently now that you have your own agency?
Zipatoni was a little bit more wacko, a little darker. We added more light, and there are literally no doors. People get paranoid if there are doors closed. A door closed to a creative person means “Oh my God, something’s wrong.”
Why don’t you tell people what time to show up for work?
Because if you’re stressed out, it’s hard to be creative. People get ideas in the shower or driving to work; you have to keep yourself in that open mental state. If you’re driving thinking, “Oh shit, I’m late,” it takes you an hour and a half to get creative once you get to work.
Does the lack of structure only work for creative types?
I don’t know. I just know that I hate offices in general. They create all kinds of hierarchy, and hierarchy doesn’t lend itself to great ideas.
Do you have any rules?
Oh yeah. I tried to have an almost completely utopian environment when we first started, and we had to rein it back in a little bit. People want to know that there is a method to the madness.
What’s changed since you left school?
I got out of J-school in ’78. Back then, when you typed, you had to grab your carbons, and the phones were big and clunky. Now everything is super-hyperspeed: We can think of an idea and execute it really, really quickly; we can make changes instantaneously. No more colored pencils.
Sometimes I miss those colored pencils—and the layouts done with waxed sheets from the typesetter…
Yeah, but if an art director got mad at you, an X-Acto blade was not a good thing to
have around.
What’s the technical challenge these days?
Monetizing the Internet. No one goes on the Internet to click on a banner ad; you have to find ways to make them do it. With Meal Chime, the advertiser doesn’t pay until someone actually prints the coupon. Right now we’re developing a mobile/smartphone app. We’re geotargeting.
Which means?
Before, you ran an ad in a Sunday newspaper, and 250,000 people saw it, and two of them might want to go. We’re only advertising to the exact people who are in your ZIP code when they’re hungry. They can choose what kind of food they want, what price, whether they want outside dining—it repopulates every time. This will settle all family fights.
And you thought of the coupon idea before we slid into a recession?
Yeah, it came out well. We saw the economy going down even as we were working on this.
Do you watch Mad Men?
Oh, I love it. When I broke into advertising, in the late ’70s, it wasn’t that different. What they said about D’Arcy was “What a nice place to work, if your parents could afford to send you.” The clubby nature, the exclusivity of it all, is captured extremely well on Mad Men. I get a kick out of watching that, ’cause I watched it fail.
Yeah—what happened? St. Louis was a big ad-agency town—we had national reach with D’Arcy and Gardner. Now we have marketing boutiques instead.
The ad agencies kind of went away, and this concept of sales promotion evolved. It grew up in two places: Westport, Conn., and St. Louis. And what grew out of that was Louis London, which became Momentum, and Zipatoni.
Why did the ad agencies go away?
They were big when the basic mediums of television, radio, and print were big. Now consumers self-select their mediums, and you just have to be prepared to give them content they want. In advertising, it was “The solution looks like a television commercial.” In marketing, we don’t know what the solution is; we are willing to find it. You might not need to run an ad; maybe you just call somebody and ask them for something.
Moosylvania’s worked to launch Grey Goose vodka’s brand, renew interest in stuffy old Drambuie liqueur, and rebrand Bissinger’s chocolates. Any other indulgences you like marketing?
Fast food, because it’s impulsive. It makes people do things at the moment, because they’re hungry.
What’s the secret to a good idea?
Surprise and delight. Most people are not that deliberate about their purchases, but if they are amused and feel good about the moment, they are going to buy it.
So immediacy’s important.
Spontaneity. Freshness. That’s what newspapers lost. We’ve already read most of the stories online.
Freshness is timing, but it’s also creativity.
Anybody can be creative. I’ve always thought ideas are like a water faucet. The first thing that comes out might be a little murky. When people start to solve a problem, unfortunately the last idea that they thought of is probably in their head. The faucet needs to run.
What drives good ideas?
After Joseph Zimmermann made a fortune inventing the answering machine, his next six businesses failed. A reporter asked him why, and he said, “Because my back wasn’t against the wall!”
What’s one of your favorite campaigns?
Years and years ago, a 7-Eleven did a campaign where you voted. You walked in and you either used a NO cup or a YES cup. It was simple, and it allowed the consumer to react, and it sold products. Maybe you didn’t even want coffee, but you wanted to vote.
What do you think about Facebook and all the other social networking sites?
I get it. I don’t like the intrusion of it, I don’t want to “friend” people I’ve never even met, but I think it’s incredible. You can go on Facebook and order a pizza while you’re there.
What do you think people will want 10 years from now?
Instant gratification.
Isn’t that ending, with all our financial woes at the moment?
No, I think it’s going to be even more true. Your phone will be your personal screen: anything you want to see, right there in your hand. I think we’ll see more and more of the digital medium—but digital that’s smart, that monetizes, that flips you right down to buy something immediately. Because technology has created so much more time, there’s a gap there you can fill with finding things to consume.
Are you sure people have more time? Everybody I see is crazed.
Part of that can be self-imposed. Just think about people who telecommute, all the time that saves. Think about how fast you can buy something. Maybe people aren’t buying now because there hasn’t been anything great to purchase. Everybody’s already got a flat-screen TV.
So when you find the fresh new thing for them to consume, does it satisfy them, or do they just want more?
They probably want more.
