Speaking On: Toys, Learning, & Play Summit on Feb. 17th
Brad Powers is an entrepreneur with a successful track record of founding, developing, and profitably growing and selling ventures, primarily focused on technology and digital marketing.
Brad is currently Chairman of Cupcake Digital Inc., a leading app development company that successfully transforms children’s television properties into enhanced story experiences and learn & play apps. The company has introduced over 30 top-ranked apps for children on the Apple App Store, Amazon Appstore for Android, Google Play and Barnes & Noble for NOOK App Store. The company has received five Parents’ Choice Awards, Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice, and two Cynopsis Kids !magination Awards.
Cupcake Digital came about when Powers looked at the marketplace and saw a need for high-quality children’s applications based on the popular characters seen on television and film. Brad says, “As a parent of a 6-year-old, I wanted to produce stuff that my kid would like and would make my kid smile and that would be scalable enough that we could achieve deep market penetration and critical mass in a manner that was replicable.”
Prior to Cupcake Digital, Brad was CMO and co-investor in Aspen University, a nationally accredited, distance learning University, leading decision making through numerous changes in online presence, adapting and innovating leading strategy amid expanding era of social media and online engagement with content. Mr. Powers was previously CMO of Altrinsic, Inc., and grew the customer base from 20,000 consumers to over 100,000 while driving down customer acquisition costs, decreasing customer churn and increasing lifetime value. Brad implemented customer service and sales call center operations, re-organized both the media and creative team, while leading over 120 people across 3 offices and time zones (New York, Canada and Australia). Brad also formed and managed partnerships with all the major music labels, created contests and promotions with each label, while forming distribution and product enhancement offering partnerships with AMC, Lowes, Simplexity and Affinion.
As Chairman & CEO and Founder of Active Response Group, a leader in online generation. Mr. Powers grew Active Response Group and established it as a top three player in the online lead generation space. Brad grew Active Response group from 4 employees and under 1 million dollars in sales to over 50 employees and 35 million in sales with a 20% EBIDTA margin. Brad was directly responsible for forming the strategic relationships with such firms and brands as AOL, Adversiting.com, Value Click, Prospectiv Direct, T-Mobile, Columbia House, Philip Morris, Moen, Glaxo Smith Kline, Gerber, The Heatford, Grey and UM. Brad successfully negotiated Active Response Group’s sale to CAVIS Acquisition Corporation in 2009.
Mr. Powers is a graduate of Clark University and resides with his wife and son in New York City.