News
Patriotic Project – Post Falls company wins contract for USS Missouri
A small Idaho marketing company has been selected to handle the advertising for the USS Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
By RICK THOMAS
Staff writer
Thomas Latham of Signal Point Marketing & Design http://www.signalpointgraphics.com/ was chosen when the memorial association saw work he’d done on an Oahu consumer guide.
"I got a call saying they’d fired their agency," said Latham. "We were it."
Latham will be in charge of newsletters, brochures and other marketing activities for the battleship on which Gen. Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender of Japan, ending World War II.
The Missouri was decommissioned more than a decade ago in Seattle and moved to Pearl Harbor, where it sits near the memorial above the battleship Arizona, sunk when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
"They’re the bookends of the war," said Latham.
The contract with Signal Point also brought work to North Idaho for other businesses.
Unique Printing is printing the material designed by Latham, and Database Marketing is doing the mailing.
"Most of it is going to the mainland, so it makes sense to ship it from here," said Latham.
The work also allowed Latham, 30, to hire a full-time production artist, Mike Culton. Latham also works with a part-time intern from a small office at 601 E. Seltice Way.
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208/777-8942
13886 West Riverview Drive
Post Falls, ID 83854
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601 E. Seltice
in the Post Falls Professional Center
Post Falls, Idaho
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Latham has seven years experience in advertising and marketing and has operated as Signal Point for three years.
Raised near Kansas City by a father in the printing business, he began doing work for his dad.
"I put myself through college doing design work," he said.
He majored in natural resource management at Kansas State University.
Eight years ago his future wife, Anne Marie Gardner, visited her brother, who Latham was going to school with.
"It started with two visits," he said. "She visited me once, I visited her once. It went from there."
The couple are now raising four children.
Latham and his bride moved to Idaho, where he hoped to find work in resource management.
"It’s a cutthroat field," he said.
Unsuccessful, he’s combined his two interests and is doing marketing work for Stimson Lumber. He’s also worked with auto dealers, banks and health and cosmetic product manufacturers.
His work comes mostly from word of mouth, he said, including projects in Texas and Wisconsin, where he’s won contracts through family contacts.
He wouldn’t put a dollar amount on the Missouri contract, saying only that’s not the most important aspect of it.
"It’s fun to do," he said. "It’s patriotic and it’s a great resume builder."
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