IMRA spotlights retail ad strategies - International Mass Retail Association honors Wes McDonough advertiser of the year at Advertising Conference

Discount Store News, April 11, 1988

IMRA Spotlights Retail Ad Strategies

Hills Exec Honored by Peers

DALLAS -- Wes McDonough, vice president, advertising and marketing for Hills Department Stores, Canton, Mass., was honored as Retailer Advertiser of the Year at the 16th Annual Advertising Conference, sponsored by the International Mass Retail Association here March 23 to 25.

McDonough, chairman of IMRA's advertising executives council steering committee, was recognized by a vote of more than 50 discounter ad execs in attendance. In his introductory remarks, McDonough observed "we in marketing have to be more informed, more sophisticated, more astute" than ever before.

Sessions included a presentation on newspapers' efforts to improve relations with retail advertisers; a description of new satellite technology that enables advertisers to deliver camera-ready ad copy instantly and simultaneously to 114 newspapers in 31 states; a talk by K mart-sponsored marketing professor J. Patrick Kelly of Wayne State University on how stores can be an ad medium, suggesting space on walls can be sold to deliver vendors' messages; and analyses of baby boomers.

Maxwell Communications, St. Paul, Minn., a large offset and gravure printer, was honored as ad vendor of the year.