The Salt Lake company that brought the world the "Intel Inside" advertising campaign is apparently for sale.
Local and regional sources confirm a recently published report that Dahl-in Smith White Advertising is negotiating a merger or an affiliation with the seventh largest advertising conglomerate in the world, Euro RSCG.France-based Euro RSCG had 1994 worldwide gross income of $813 million on capitalized billings of more than $6.1 billion. (Capitalized billings include all expenditures, including "pass-through" expenses spent on purchasing such items as television commercial time or newspaper ad space.) DSW got its start in the mid-80s creating advertising programs for such high-tech clients as Novell, WordPerfect, Iomega and GTE.
By the time I left DSW in early 1990, after a 2 1/2-year stint as head of its public relations operations, DSW had grown to more than $20 million in annual capitalized billings.
Five years later, DSW is five times larger with billings last year of $111 million, primarily on the strength of its breakthrough advertising strategy and campaign to brand the Intel microprocessors with the "Intel Inside" logo.
In fact, many industry experts consider DSW to be one of the top, if not the top, high-tech ad agency in the country.
The merger would strengthen DSW's ties with Intel, a relationship one advertising industry editor calls "very strong."
For its part, Euro RSCG is one of three other major agencies that also work with Intel. The synergies of a DSW/Euro RSCG partnership on the Intel and other international high-tech ad accounts should prove very beneficial to all parties.
For John Dahlin, Darrell Smith and Jon White, the change would provide an easy method for cashing out of their 10-year-old venture, although the final selling price and monetary returns will most liekly be tied to performance over the coming three-to-five year period.
Additionally, the Euro RSCG partnership promises upward growth options for DSW personnel, including the DSW partners, should they be interested.
All in all, it seems like a good match and one that should be beneficial both to DSW and to the Utah high-tech community.
More pigskin on the Internet
In response to last week's column, I heard from Dave Kenison touting the "Cougar-Net."
Cougar-Net is an Internet Listserver, a file server that allows individuals to subscribe to a subject. It's programmed to capture and disseminate e-mail messages to all interested parties.
Kenison suggests that this concept is a great option for you readers who "don't have web browsers yet, or don't want to take the time to go hunting (the World Wide Web)."
Cougar-Net has been running for about 18 months and has more than 600 subscribers around the country.
I tried it for a week just prior to the start of college football season and found it great for capturing news about BYU from news reports published nationwide.
I also found it a bit overwhelming as throngs of information-hungry Cougar fans deluged Cougar-Net searching for any bit of information they could find about BYU.
Those so inclined with a web browser should point it to http:.www.zilker.net/ ender/c-net.html. Those with access to only e-mail can e-mail Kenison at dkenison@xmission.com.
Don't e-mail the governor
If you do, you'll get the following reply: "Thank you for writing to Governor Leavitt via electronic mail. The Governor is committed to integrating this dynamic medium into Utah state government.
"Although the volume of mail prevents the governor from personally reviewing every message, all mail is read by the Governor's Constituent Service staff."
Call me vain, but when I learned of the governor's e-mail address earlier in the year, I decided to add him to my personal e-mail list of several dozen people that receive an electronic version of this column each week.
And each week, for more than nine months, I have received the same reply.
A few times, I've forwarded a more personalized note. But each time the reply remains the same.
Kind of makes me wonder if someone really does read the e-mail.
For the record, Governor Leavitt's e-mail address is governor@email.state.ut.us.