HAMILTON COUNTY OHIO - BUSINESS: History of Stockton, West, Burkhart, Inc. *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Mart43tctc@aol.com September 12, 1999 *********************************************************************** The History of Stockton West Burkhart, Inc. Advertising Agency - Cincinnati, Ohio written by C. Thomas Martin 1982 Martin, who had purchased stock earlier, now purchased additional shares from Stockton's holdings and so did West and Nelson. Jane Distler chose this time to retire and McDowell purchased her stock. Burkhart however, was a major stockholder. West and Martin each held the same amount of stock and Nelson and McDowell the least. With the Jergens business and for his aid in adding the Cincinnati Telephone Company account, plus the Gibson Greeting Card, Nelson was given more responsibility and some of Stockton's accounts. Nelson was made head of a second Contact Division and Burkhart relinquished all percentages on those accounts to Nelson. Burkhart, in addition to his Management and Treasurer duties, retained account supervision on three of the largest accounts - Marathon Oil, U.S. Shoe and Gruen Watch Company. The Gruen account was acquired largely through the recognition SWB received for advertising creativity for U.S. Shoe. Gruen, with national distribution was perfect for television. The impact of this new medium on their dealers plus the opportunity to glamorize the beauty of the watches to consumers, made SWB's recommendation for a network television show, immediately accepted. Gruen was launched on network television with the program, "Blind Date" starring Arlene Francis. Stockton, West, Burkhart now opened a New York office at 51st and Madison and employed a man with theatrical and programming experience. A television production man was added to give the needed expertise to produce commercials and a secretary to assist both men. The office space and secretary were part of general office overhead. The Program Director was budgeted to Media. The TV Production Director, to the Arts Division. Martin was given managerial responsibility for all to simplify control. SWB was now well established in television programming and commercial production. For U.S. Shoe we produced the first ever TV Network promotion. An hour long spectacular - a "Tribute to Richard Rodgers", starring Mary Martin and other stars from Rogers' musical hits on Broadway. Six months later, we produced another TV promotion for U.S. Shoe featuring Irving Berlin in person and with current Broadway stars singing and dancing to his music. For Gibson Greeting Card we telecast the opening of the original Disneyland in Anaheim with a special two hour program. The effects of these programs on the sales of both clients' products was also a spectacular. All creative work was done in Cincinnati and Television was now included in client marketing plans, when it was considered the appropriate medium. *************OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List*******************************