Important People in the World of Copy Writing

Robert Allen and I celebrating a little Christmas cheer at one of the seminars Joe and I did during my Piranha Marketing years.

Robert Allen colossal best-seller Nothing Down established Robert Allen as one of the most influential investment advisors of all time. Robert Allen has followed that success with three other best-selling books including Multiple Streams of Income, as well as the audiocassette programs "The Road to Wealth" and "Multiple Streams of Income" from Nightingale-Conant.

A popular talk-show guest, Robert Allen has appeared on hundreds of programs, including "Good Morning America" and "Larry King Live." Robert Allen has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Barron's, Money Magazine, and Reader's Digest.

Thousands of people have attended Robert Allen cutting edge investment seminars during the past 20 years!

Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today. He is a dynamic and entertaining speaker with a wonderful ability to inform and inspire audiences toward peak performance and high levels of achievement. Originally from Canada, Brian started on his own “road to success” in his twenties when he left Canada to travel across the world. His goal was to cross the Sahara Desert. He worked his way through Canada and throughout the United States before securing a “working” passage on a freighter to England.

While that sounds pretty exciting, I bet it wasn't nearly as thrilling as the "pedal to the metal" ride I gave him from our seminar to the airport. Brian had just finished speaking for Joe and I at one of our 1999 seminars. I saw him looking pretty concerned near the bell desk and asked him if everything was alright. He told me he was waiting for his limo ride to the airport and it was very late. I asked him what time his flight left and when he answered, I knew he HAD to leave immediately if he was to make it. So I ran to my car, pulled up to the front door and got him loaded up. I told him to buckle up and hold on. He did. (I think the only reason I got him to the airport without getting a speeding ticket was divine intervention).

Anyway, Brian is an awesome guy who has produced more than 300 different audio and video learning programs covering the entire spectrum of human and corporate performance. These programs, researched and developed for more than 25 years, are some of the most effective learning tools in the world. When last I checked, Brian was living in San Diego with his wife Barbara and their four children.

From left to right, this is a shot of me, Gary Halbert and my little bro, Joe Polish - taken on the Caribbean cruise and seminar at sea in 1998.

The Prince of Print, Gary, died in his sleep on Easter Sunday in 2007. That was the day the copywriting world has lost one of its biggest icons. There will NEVER be another Gary Halbert.

Ken was truly on of my best friends. We spent a great deal of time together whenever possible. He was another Christian brother and went home to be with the Lord in July of 2004. I could write pages about Ken, but the article written by Jack Williams of the San Diego tribune sums it up well. In loving memory of Ken, I've reprinted it below:

The first time Kenneth A. Kerr Jr. saw a Walt Disney character dart across a movie screen, animation captured his imagination.

All he could think about was some day, in some way, working for Disney.

So he wrote a letter to his childhood hero, hoping for some advice and encouragement. When he received a reply, signed by Disney himself, he was ecstatic.

"Ken was 5 or 6 at the time," said his sister, Joyce Kerr. "He never lost that boyhood enthusiasm, and it was one of his most endearing qualities."

In 1978, with a decade of experience in art and marketing, Mr. Kerr joined the executive ranks of Walt Disney Imagineering, a division of The Walt Disney Co. in Glendale.

During the next five years, he was in charge of graphics and signage development for Disney theme parks, including Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland and an updated Fantasyland.

Mr. Kerr, who operated AdMark Inc. in La Jolla in recent years, died July 24 at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. He was 61.

He had been ill since February and died of respiratory failure, his sister said.

During a 36-year career in various aspects of marketing, Mr. Kerr designed and developed the California Dancing Raisins, introduced in a 1986 promotional campaign by the California Raisin Board.

As director of research and development and marketing communications for Applause Inc. in Woodland Hills from 1983 to 1987, he also was involved in developing and licensing products depicting several characters popular with children. They included the Smurfs, Wuzzles, Gummi Bears, Sad Sam, Raggedy Ann and Andy, and the Muppets.

Mr. Kerr returned to his San Diego roots in 1987, joining SeaWorld as director of marketing communications. He helped produce the theme park's 25th anniversary celebration and organized and directed its first internal creative services department.

After forming his own company, Ken Kerr & Associates, in 1988, he took on such clients as Johnson & Johnson, author Ken Blanchard, Block Medical and Mail Boxes Etc.

With AdMark Inc., he created infomercial's for such clients as Victoria Principal and Dale Evans. He also lectured extensively and wrote two books, "Mouse Power: Marketing Secrets of the Magic Kingdom and Licensing," and "The Way Hollywood Makes Its Fortune & You Can Too!"

Throughout his career, Mr. Kerr painted in watercolors, concentrating on Americana-inspired scenes. His paintings have been exhibited by the National Watercolor Society, the San Diego Art Institute, the Los Angeles Art Association and the Smithsonian Institute.

Thirteen of his paintings, created over a 20-year period, have been displayed in Washington, D.C., by the Air Force Historical and Documentary Art Program.

"Ken began painting when he was about 2," his sister said.

He was listed in Who's Who in American Art and won more than 100 regional and national awards for his watercolors.

Mr. Kerr, a native of Pittsburgh, moved with his family as a child to La Mesa. He graduated from Grossmont High School and San Diego City College, then earned a bachelor's degree in advertising design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

He began his career in San Diego in 1968 as an art director and a copywriter at the Phillips Ramsey public relations agency. The following year, he joined Group West Inc. in Los Angeles, where he created Woodsy Owl and the advertising slogan, "Give A Hoot, Don't Pollute," for the National Park Service.

Here I am with Jay at Mark Joyner's Vegas seminar in 200?. I don't really remember the year, (or a lot of the seminar) I spent most of my time talking with my marketing buddies outside.

Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the best selling marketing series in history, Guerrilla Marketing, plus 24 other business books. His guerrilla concepts have influenced marketing so much that today his books appear in 37 languages and are required reading in many MBA programs worldwide.

Jay taught guerrilla marketing for 10 years at the extension division of the University of California in Berkeley. He was a practitioner of it in the United States as Senior Vice President at J. Walter Thompson, and in Europe as Creative Director at Leo Burnett Advertising. Cool enough eh?

I had the pleasure to speak at the 10th and final Neighborhood Marketing Institute War College in 2003. The War College was an enormous three day event put on by my client Tom Feltenstein (pictured below).

Over 1000 attendees from the food service and hospitality industries showed up to learn proven-tactics that build top line sales (for one or thousands of units). The War College was THE “cure” THE “better way” to win the marketing war in these attendees neighborhoods.

I enjoyed the chance to speak to these folks about copywriting and was AMAZED at how little some of the big wigs knew about direct response. It was however very interesting to network with the industries top executives.

Here I am pictured with my client Tom Feltenstein. When Tom first called me in 2002, the first words out of his mouth were "man, do I need you." He was in dire need of a direct response copywriter who also understood marketing strategy. A few weeks later I was in his Palm Beach office brainstorming with Tom and the president of a companies you would FLIP over if I told you the name.

But to give you an idea, Tom is a nationally renowned business and marketing expert. He has counseled many Fortune 500 companies and industry-leading organizations, including: Ben & Jerry's, Texaco, Hyatt Hotels, Brunswick Bowling Alleys, Federated Department Stores, The International Franchise Association, Express Personnel Services and Disney. His savvy, thoughtful leadership style earned him "The Visionary Award," a most prestigious honor presented by the Council of International Restaurant Brokers.

When it comes to lighting fires under key personnel, management and staff, no one else delivers like Tom Feltenstein. He has championed the revolutionary concept that the greatest sales and profits lie in strategic Neighborhood and Four Walls Marketing and that the best investment of time and money is in the people who work for you. He serves up straightforward answers, challenges conventional thinking and tackles your biggest business issues — giving you and your team the zeal to undertake jobs with renewed vigor.

I had a long term relationship with Tom as his marketing consultant. I produced millions of dollars in sales for him, created control pieces that he is still using and even wrote a chapter for his top selling book "The 10-Minute Marketer's Secret Formula" (Entrepreneur Press February, 2005).