Mason Kicks Off Spot

Baldwin & Stone Work Again on Super Bowl BOSTON--Baldwin & Stone will be on Super Bowl XXXVI. The Cambridge, Mass., agency will launch a new TV ad to promote W.B. Mason's same-day office supply delivery service. It will be the fourth time the shop has promoted the client in a regional Super Bowl commercial. Creative director Paul Stone said W.B. Mason's first Super Bowl spot gave the company so much exposure that they had to make the game an annual tradition. "Even though it's so expensive, it's probably the best bang for your buck," he said. "I have not experienced anything that compares to it." Casey Media of Braintree, Mass., handles broadcast media planning and buying for W.B. Mason. The shop would not comment on the cost of the Super Bowl buy. The Brockton, Mass., company spent $3-5 million on advertising last year, Stone said. There will be at least 10 local ad slots available during this year's game, which will be broadcast Jan. 30 on ABC affiliate WCVB-TV. W.B. Mason, New England Ford and Honda dealers are the only regional clients to purchase time within the game. Other slots were purchased by national companies, including Charles Schwab and Cisco Systems. The W.B. Mason ad will air in the Boston market and support radio and outdoors ads that also sport the catchy tagline, "Gotta. Hafta. Geddit today." W.B. Mason has four furniture showrooms and sells office supplies by catalogue and online in New England and New Jersey. The same-day service rolled out in the Boston area about nine months ago; this is the first campaign to promote it. The TV spot is scheduled to run for a five-week flight after the Super Bowl. Radio ads begin running today, while billboards and bus wraps touting the service also are visible in the metro Boston area. The TV ad continues in the same vein as past spots with a retro look, a delivery man who saves the day and the 102-year-old company's longtime logo and tagline, "Who but W.B. Mason." The black-and-white spot stars a new character, Herb Blewitt, who panics when he runs out of the copy paper he needs for an important business report. "He's a very Dilbert-looking character," Stone said. Stone has worked with the client for 14 years. Stone developed the logo and tagline with art director Bill Dahlgren when the pair worked at the former T.J. Clark in Hingham, Mass. When Stone left that agency 12 years ago to join Baldwin & Stone, the client followed a year later. It took Dahlgren more than a decade to rejoin Stone. After his position as co-creative director at Groppi Advertising & Design in Braintree, Mass., was eliminated recently, Dahlgren called Stone to ask him to be a personal reference. Instead, Stone hired him, and he's back working on the W.B. Mason account. "It's nice to see that the campaign is still alive and flourishing," Dahlgren said. W.B. Mason president Leo Meehan credits Baldwin & Stone's work with helping the company grow. When Stone began working on the account, annual sales were about $12 million. They are expected to top $200 million this year, despite the dominance of superstores such as Staples and Office Depot. "We've been really consistent and have a lot of name-brand recognition," Meehan added. K

Brand Marketing

Mason Kicks Off Spot

Lauren Wiley

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Lauren Wiley