It’s one thing to rise within a small Midwestern company to international recognition, it’s another to return to the Midwest and create a new dynamic environment for others to thrive. Mary Ann O’Brien’s midwest roots grew with the success of Gateway computers during her marketing career with the PC giant where she became Executive Vice President for Marketing. She left Gateway to grow as an entrepreneur as one of the individuals who started Hotpaper.com, a B2B Application Service Provider (ASP),that was innovative for its time at the turn of the century allowing for the instantaneous creation, delivery, archiving, and re-use of customized documents in a mobile environment. Hotpaper was purchased and O’Brien returned to the Midwest setting up OBI Creative in Omaha.

Mary Ann O’Brien A Social Media Innovator from the Midwest from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

O’Brien weaves a marketing and advertising background with social media and mobile marketing to lead this transformation of the communications profession. In this conversation we highlight the integration of platforms and message formats and the changes in how the audience is defined. It must also be noted that O’Brien gives of her time back to the community. It’s a reoccurring theme of the innovators in the Midwest we met along the way during our SxSw roadtrip. Whether it’s being Chair of the Small Business Council or contributing as a member of the Executive Council of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, or being a sought after community leader for a number of innovation projects, somehow there is enough O’Brien energy to go around.

In this interview I found O’Brien’s description of a campaign her agency created for Gateway to have the elements that successful integrated campaigns must have today. A connection between customer and company, online and offline touch points, and a means for customers to engage on a social platform. The lives of consumers are seamless and so too must be the way we approach them.

This series featuring social media innovators of the Midwest is brought to you by Verizon Wireless. In our next segment Danny Schreiber of Silicon Prairie News in Omaha.

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