ZixIt Entrusts Confidential ZixMail to Richards

Texans Begin Touting Secret E-Missives to Business Community
DALLAS–The Richards Group has won the $5-10 million advertising account of ZixIt Corp., a provider of Internet encryption technology.
The Dallas- based shop was selected following a review of an undisclosed number of national agencies, according to a company representative.
Richards has already implemented a print campaign for the launch of the client’s main product, ZixMail, a secure document delivery service.
The full-page ads appeared last month in The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily and other publications. Bold print stated: “ZixIt. Sounds strange. About as strange as ‘overnight it’ will sound in a year.”
Richards is currently working on a campaign to reach the broad business market, as well as vertical fields such as the medical and legal professions, which must routinely transmit secure documents.
Currently, said Richards principal Dale Hruby, “e-mail is nothing more than digital postcards that anyone along the way can click on and read.” The agency’s task will be to convince senders of sensitive documents that the Internet, via ZixMail, provides an alternative to the regular post.
Hruby noted that the agency will not only develop ZixIt’s advertising, but will use ZixMail to send confidential information to its clients. ZixMail software is free on the Internet, and the company charges $1 per month for hosting password keys on its server.
ZixIt of Dallas is headed by well-known private investor David Cook, the original founder of Blockbuster Entertainment. The publicly traded company recently added former Lotus chief executive officer Jeffrey Papows to its board of directors.
The acquisition of the ZixIt account continues a streak of new business wins in 2000 for Richards. The agency has also gained Guaranty Federal Bank, Texas Capital, Bennigan’s Irish American Grill & Tavern, Mshow.com and Legend Airlines. K