Prairie Portrait: Erica Cohen of OneLouder

Bio: Kansas City native, KU Jayhawks fan, wife of a golf fanatic, soon-to-be mother. World traveler, dog lover (Boxers especially!) and foodie at heart. Sarcastic humor and ice cream make me smile. Passionate employee of Handmark/OneLouder since 2006. | Title: Communications manager for OneLouder Apps | Age: 29 | Residence: Overland Park, Kan. | Website:…

Name: Erica Cohen

Bio: Kansas City native, KU Jayhawks fan, wife of a golf fanatic, soon-to-be mother. World traveler, dog lover (Boxers especially!) and foodie at heart. Sarcastic humor and ice cream make me smile. Passionate employee of Handmark/OneLouder since 2006.

Title: Communications manager for OneLouder Apps

Age: 29

Residence: Overland Park, Kan.

Website: onelouder.com

Twitter: @erica_cohen

Intro music: “The Good Life” by Kanye West featuring T-Pain

Silicon Prairie News: In a space as crowded as social mobile apps, what’s the key from a marketing and communications standpoint to making your brand stand out?

Erica Cohen: First and foremost, quality is key. No amount of money or marketing can help make a crappy app successful especially in such a vocal social world. I am lucky to be part of an extremely talented team who builds great stuff people love and tell their friends about. Secondly, relationships are key. This is true for any company, but ESPECIALLY in the mobile apps space when it comes to PR, cross promotion and distribution. Do fun things for your partners and customers regularly that keep your brand top of mind.

SPN: This may be like asking a parent to choose a favorite child, but what’s your Favorite OneLouder app, and why?

EC: Well I really need a big favor from the product manager for TweetCaster right now … so … uh … just kidding! I really can’t say I have a ‘favorite’ as I use all of our apps for different purposes, but there’s no doubt that I’ll have SportCaster fired up during the Super Bowl and KU basketball games coming up!

SPN: You recently traveled to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. What part of Google’s renowned campus and culture would you most like to see OneLouder institute?

EC: Definitely the unlimited free cafeteria! (Oh, and the community bikes to ride to and from lunch around Downtown KC too!)

SPN: At a company that has its share of fun — according to our records, OneLouder’s the only area startup that derives its name from “This Is Spinal Tap” — what’s the key to maintaining a good balance of fun and productivity?

EC: Balancing fun and productivity comes easy for us at OneLouder as I think everyone genuinely loves working here. The environment is like nothing I’ve worked in before. It is extremely fast-paced, and timing is everything so people are working around the clock 24/7, but it is balanced with time we take to celebrate significant milestones or achievements. I’ve realized that doing a variety of small things regularly like organizing a breakfast get-together, catering in lunch or an organized pool tournament is critical for team building and our sanity

SPN: I assume you spent some quality time in Allen Fieldhouse during your days as a Kansas undergrad. So tell me, what is it about The Phog that makes every Jayhawk fan swear it’s the best venue in college basketball?

EC: It is hard to explain in words, really. It is just a feeling you get being at a game there. Between the incredible intro video they play (that years later still gives me goosebumps every time I see it) and the passion that radiates off of each and every fan yelling at the top of their lungs, it is unbelievable. I have to think this isn’t something that just happened overnight, it is something that is deep rooted in the history of the HOME of basketball that fans, players and visitors respect. In Oprah’s words, anyone who watches a game for the first time in Allen Fieldhouse will have an “ah ha” moment and know what I mean.

 

Image credit: Photo courtesy of Erica Cohen.


Prairie Portraits: To learn more about this series, see our introduction post, or visit our archives for past Prairie Portraits. To suggest an individual for a future Prairie Portrait, contact editor@siliconprairienews.com.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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