Quarterdeck

Quarterdeck selected us in the Fall of 1987. We were the fourth in a rapid succession of agencies to handle this account. the then-current ad agency was unable to grasp the concept of the products Quarterdeck was offering, and its ads reflected it. Gross annual sales were $1.7 million.

  Quarterdeck was publishing a memory manager, QEMM, and a multitasking environment, DESQview.

  We introduced the concept of benefit-driven copy to Quarterdeck, and also convinced them that advertising had to provoke a strong response in order to work--even at the risk of controversey. As the old saying goes,

"There's no such thing as good, safe advertising."

  Over seven and a half years, we produced many controversial ads for Quarterdeck. Most scored among the top five in the magazines in which they appeared.

  More important to us, since Quarterdeck products required very long copy, we found that a very high proportion of readers were getting the message. This showed up both in the research 'read most' scores and in the verbatim comments. Quarterdeck ads were often rated higher than the editorial for making memory understandable. And that, of course, positioned Quarterdeck as the 'memory experts'.

  Quarterdeck's greatest challenge came when Microsoft began including a memory manager for free with DOS 6. So on top of our list of difficult tasks for each ad, we also needed to tell people why Microsoft's MemMaker was inadequate. We came up with our (in)famous 'Gift Horse' ad, asking PC users to look Microsoft's gift horse in the mouth. (see this and other Quarterdeck ads in our gallery.

  The result of this campaign was that QEMM kept selling at a strong rate despite the free distribution of MemMaker.

  In Quarterdeck's last fiscal year with Kelley Advertising, revenues were $44 million.

Automotion

In 1977, we were selected to provide freelance help to Automotion, a very small retailer of parts and accessories for Porsches.

  Through 18 years, as freelance and as a full-service ad agency, we have handled advertising and collateral design and production for this company.

  We helped Automotion develop a catalog-based mail order operation by creating a catalog Car and Driver magazine called "the classiest" in the category. In its final edition, it was over 200 pages.

  In addition to catalog, image and ad development, we named a product division, 'Weltmeister', and were an integral part of strategic planning, consulting on all major communication activities.

  In 1996 we began developing ecommerce sites for Automotion, culminating in a comprehensive site featuring over 13,000 SKUs, and featuring referral and associated item selling mechanisms. This site paid for itself in under four months, and generated constantly-growing revenue from customers around the world, as well as being selected as a Microsoft commerce server case study and one of Amazin's initial Z-Shops.

  Automotion became the largest retailer of parts and accessories for Porsches in the United States. The company was sold in 2000.

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