Cory O’Connor loved his nine years at The Disney Channel “promoting a brand I absolutely believed in” through a perfect marriage of marketing and creativity.  As Senior Vice President of Synergy, Programming and Communications, O’Connor managed public relations, corporate synergistic activities, and on-air marketing and branding.

A graduate of the Harvard Business School where he studied marketing, O’Connor believes, as his father, a direct marketing pioneer with Carter Hawley Hale’s Sunset House, used to tell him—the future is in marketing.  “The marketing plan drives a business,” he says, “but it’s creativity that animates the marketing plan.”

Bringing his creative marketing instincts to entertainment, O’Connor has also worked for HBO, several Internet start-ups and the American Film Institute.  Along the way, he launched Disney’s American Teacher Awards, set up a national literacy promotion for The Disney Channel’s 10^th anniversary, and much more.

With so many choices available in the marketplace today, reaching the consumer depends on breaking free of traditional marketing techniques.  “You have to be creative,” he says.  “You have to look at what’s been done, and, put your own twist on it—break the rules. And you should have fun. This is the entertainment business, after all.”