News
Billings ad agency, H2O and Great Falls firm, Wendt Kochman Advertising merge
Two Montana advertising agencies are merging.
H2O Advertising http://www.go2h2o.com and Wendt Kochman Advertising http://wendtkochman.com of Great Falls have decided to join forces in a deal that will be formalized April 2.
Jan Falstad Billings Gazette
Tony Hines, creative director of H2O, said the merged company would have three offices in Montana: Billings, Great Falls and Helena.
"We’ve been talking just a couple of months now. We all felt it would be a good match, so we’ve moved forward rapidly," Hines said.
H2O is located in downtown Billings in the former Montana Power Building at 115 N. Broadway. Nancy Hines of H2O will become vice president in Billings.
Carl Kochman will remain as chief executive officer and president of the merged company.
"This is an excellent opportunity for us to continue our growth," Kochman said.
The combined businesses will have 35 employees and $18 million, as measured by annual capitalized billings. Capitalized billing is gross income multiplied by 6.67.
This multiplier is used to more fairly compare ad agencies around the country. It allows financial comparisons among agencies that receive a large portion of their fees from hourly charges and those who rely on ad placements.
The merged company will be called Wendt Kochman, but H2O Advertising will continue to use its name for awhile.
H2O started in Billings in 1995.
Wendt Kochman, founded in Great Falls in 1929, is Montana’s largest and oldest advertising and public relations agency.
Alert lady catches fraud
The Nigerians need to take a back seat to one American-bred fraud.
An alert woman on Billings’ West End used her intuition and investigative skills to track down some of the truth about an Orange, Calif., company called Signature Credit Corp.
She received a letter from Signature saying she and her husband had been pre-approved for a zero-percent interest card with a credit line of $10,000. After one year of zero interest, the rate would be 5.9 percent.
However, the letter listed no company telephone number, and it has asked this Billings woman to send $37 by first-class mail to get the card.
She became suspicious and called directory assistance to look up a number for Signature.
She called, became ensnared in voice mail and never talked to a real person. The message told her to leave her name and number, and Signature would call back.
Finally, she called Orange’s Better Business Bureau which said the company had three formal complaints logged against it dating back to 2001.
Signature responded to the first two complaints, the bureau said, but not to the latest where someone complained that he or she never received a credit card.
Under California law, a company offering credit cards must register with the attorney general’s office and post a $100,000 bond.
Even if a company does both things, under California law it cannot solicit money before services are performed.
The Billings "detective" called The Gazette to warn others about the fraud.
"I think there’s too many of us old people out there who they’re just trying to get," she said.
Jan Falstad can be contacted at (406) 657-1306 or at jfalstad@@billingsgazette.com.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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