A Short History of BKV

BKV was founded in 1981 by former McCann-Erickson executives. Our first two accounts — Christian Children's Fund and Six Flags — laid the foundation for the company that would, by 1985, be purely a Direct Response agency.

Since the beginning, we have been a bit of an unusual Direct Response agency as our roots are in DRTV. As such, we have had, and still do today, a much broader media perspective than most DR agencies who are generally direct mail pros but never truly develop an understanding of other media.

Our understanding of the full range of media...direct mail, print, DRTV and more...led us to the philosophy that we fully embrace today: "Clients really don't care what media are used, they care about success." This leads us to track all media results carefully and gravitate toward the best ROI-delivery medium for each client.

Also, our comfort in using all media has led us into the innovative use of media that BKV has become known for...

In the 1980s, we were one of the first agencies in the country to perfect the use of 30-minute infomercials to generate leads and sales. (Remember Sally Struthers for child sponsorship? Cher for Bally's?)

In the 1990s, we aggressively pushed into Interactive marketing as we quickly recognized the future of interactive marketing as the ultimate direct response medium. Within a few years we realized that interactive would be the core of all successful agencies in the future.

Today we have billings that reflect both our philosophy and the juggernaut that interactive has become:

A fundamental philosophy is that we are not in the business of making advertising but driving sales. To this end, we have become experts at facilitating the full sales process for our clients: acquiring leads, converting leads to sales, maximizing customer value and retaining customers.

Our approach to advertising has led to many major successes, from our landmark television campaigns featuring Sally Struthers for Christian Children's Fund and the Dirt Devil Golden Retriever puppies, to the huge internet marketing successes that we are currently running for Harrah's, Apartment Guide and Home Depot.

2007 was a pivotal year in the history of BKV as this was the year that we merged with Weyforth-Haas Marketing in Kansas City. This merger increased BKV's scope of offerings and the size of our company, both of which will help us attract the great quality clients that we need to grow.

From our beginnings in 1981 with five people and one account to today with 185+ people at BKV in Atlanta and Kansas City, Response Mine Interactive, and a long list of Blue Chip accounts, we have served our clients faithfully and have always kept expanding upon our knowledge. We expect that staying true to our core values will result in a continued working environment that leads to both the growth of the company and growth, job security, great remuneration and an enjoyable working environment for our staff.

One last word of thanks to our client Six Flags who has given us the opportunity to work with them since 1981 and helped set the direction the agency took in its early years.