From The Beginning..
In 1967, G. Edward Beckett founded an advertising and design company in Huntington, West Virginia, serving local banking and B2B customers.
The company won its first national design award for the 1969 annual report of The First Huntington National Bank.
During the 1970s, Beckett’s firm expanded and provided marketing communications for manufacturing, the recording industry and non-profit arts institutions in two primary regions: New York and California. Of note, record album covers were created by Beckett for disco stars Donna Summer and for The Village People.
In 1984, public relations and market research were added to the firm’s professional offerings.
In 1987, the firm was invited to begin working with B.I.G. Enterprises, the premier manufacturer of guard booths in the United States, as B.I.G.’s ad agency (www.bigbooth.com). Brand Orbit has had the privilege to invent ads for this company for now over 30 years, winning a prestigious Platinum Award in advertising in the nationally known MarCom Awards competition in 2011.
In 1989, the firm was invited to begin working with Caco Pacific, one of the leading mold manufacturers in the plastics industry as Caco’s ad agency, In 1997, Caco Pacific celebrated its 50th anniversary and commissioned Brand Orbit to create a 48-page brochure, translated into 6 languages and featuring art direction and photography that brilliantly showcased the spectacular manufacturing operations of this company that had pioneered Compact Disc technology. The impressive piece took the Crystal Award, first place for Corporate Collateral in the 1997 national Communicator competition.
In 1993, Brand Orbit began its work with an electronics’ contract manufacturing company known as Product Development Services that became well known for bar-code tracking each step of the manufacturing and assembly process. With this process seen as fairly cutting-edge in the early 1990’s, the Brand Orbit team was retained to tell the company’s story and provide sales support services. At the end of the first year, the CEO complimented the team, declaring that Brand Orbit’s work had filled his capacity for 18+ months into the future.
In 1996, the state of California encouraged all municipalities to address the alarming environmental issue of used motor oil being inappropriately dumped into city sewers and rain-water runoff. The City of Pasadena retained Brand Orbit to spearhead a three-year campaign to educate its residents about proper recycling of used motor oil. A city-wide multi-media campaign developed by Brand Orbit resulted in the State of California noting that Pasadena’s recycling campaign showed the greatest positive environmental impact of all cities in the State. Also, the firm received The Communicator: Award of Distinction for Public Service Television announcement.
With Beckett clients becoming increasingly global in their orientation in the early 1990s, strategic growth skillsets were added to the team as the company expanded into management consulting. During the same period, Website design became a new design offering and quickly moved into being a necessity for all Beckett clients as the Internet boomed.
In 1998, respected strategic performance expert and futurist Robert D. McGarvey opened Beckett’s first Canadian management consulting office in Edmonton, Alberta. The company expanded its management consulting into natural resources, environmental services, packaging and irrigation equipment manufacturing. The firm was commissioned to size of the irrigation equipment industry in North America and presented its final report in 1999 to the industry.
In 2001, noted brand authority, Gayle Turner opened Beckett East, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Turner enlarged the firm’s industry experience by leading the team into the professional malpractice insurance industry, helping to brand five regional insurance carriers from California to the mid-Atlantic region.
In 2005, our management consulting services were formally placed into a sister company and named Beckett Advisors.
In 2006, ABC’s television hit show, Extreme Makeover contacted Brand Orbit’s oldest client relationship, Cornerstone Construction Group. An LAPD officer was desperately in need of a home that would assist her with the injuries caused during the line of duty that had left her a quadriplegic. Brand Orbit mounted a publicity campaign to not only assist Cornerstone in leveraging the opportunity as the contractor on the Extreme Makeover home show, but also to recruit and manage over 3,000 professional volunteers who assisted Cornerstone Construction to build the house during the filming of the 7-day show. Over 120,000,000 impressions were tallied in that week and the week following outside of ABC’s coverage. Brand Orbit was awarded the second highest PR campaign award in the nation that year from Business Marketing Association ACE Awards.
In 2007, a new community bank was founded in Los Angeles, 1st Enterprise Bank. Brand Orbit was invited to become the agency of record and handle brand building and marketing communications for the Bank. During its multi-year relationship with the business bank, Brand Orbit was acclaimed the Platinum Winner in Video Production in the national MarCom Awards competition.
In 2009, Brand Orbit worked with The M&A Advisors, the nationally recognized deal-making awards and networking organization for private equity, turnaround and investment banking organizations, to design a new image for their annual awards show. Recalling the Hollywood glamour of the “Golden Era”, Brand Orbit’s image was rewarded with a Gold Winner award in the national MarCom Awards competition.
In 2011, the Beckett advertising agency formally adopted the name Brand Orbit.
In 2012, the nation’s leading manufacturer of industrial shelving and structural mezzanines, Western Pacific Storage Solutions, invited Brand Orbit and its sister company, Beckett Advisors to assist in marketing communications and sales support. The firm’s prior 12 years of experience in the material handling and warehousing industries have been leveraged to serve this industry leader.
In 2014, Swedish Match USA retained Brand Orbit in its earned media efforts to evangelize the message of Tobacco Harm Reduction, moving addicted American smokers from the cigarette to products that are less harmful. The 5+ year campaign has resulted in the Tobacco Harm Reduction message being placed in front of over 100,000,000 members of national and regional news outlet audiences—both in print, broadcast and online.