“If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

–Motto of Chicago’s City News Bureau

Ben Rothfeld picked up that expression in some journalism class and ran with it.

In a career spanning branding agencies such as Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners and DiMassimo Goldstein, digital agencies such as answerthink and Euro RSCG 4D and data-driven agencies such as Acxiom Digital and Strongmail, Ben learned both market research and data analysis.  To ensure that both sources “checked out,” he started weaving the two threads together.  This approach resulted in a better handle on consumers, marketplaces and the media environment.

As a consultant, Ben now works with both agencies and directly with marketers to develop new and relevant insights based on primary and secondary research combined with analysis of first-and-third party data.  He’s still using research + data to “check it out” and to deliver superior insights.

He wrote a chapter in “Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing,” edited by the direct response legend Stan Rapp.

Ben lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his wife and two mildly destructive children.  For fun, he referees youth soccer,  rides his bike (aka “playing in traffic”) and takes pictures with both digital and 35mm film cameras.

He has a bachelor’s degree in ancient history from Swarthmore College and a master’s degree in a related field, advertising, from the Newhouse School of Syracuse University.