The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-04-08
N. ". AVER & SONS
S5TH BIRTHDAY
GREAT ADVERTISING FIRM START.
ED IN ONE ROOM WITH $3.50 CAP
ITAL-HAs SINCE TRANSACTED
BUSINESS OF $s5,ooo,ooo.

The firm of n. w. Aver & Son of this
city, the largest advertising agency in
the United States, celebrated yesterday
the thirty-tifth anniversary OF a business
whose success and growth can be meas
ured only by the progress of advertising
itself in this country.
Starting at time when the immense
resource and power of modern adver-
Using We're unknown. y. w. Aver and
his son, f. W. Aver, entered the field
with the idea of making it a business
and conducting that business along Phil
adelphia methods
They started, father ana son, in
room only twenty feet square, on
SAMSON street, near Seventh, near the
present Press building, on April /,
1869 Their capital was $3.50, and as Mr.,
F. w. Aver, the present head of the firm,
laughingly said yesterday: Father was
the head, / was the office boy, and we
were equal partners"
With this capital the firm proceeded to
develop newspaper advertising and IN
the first year did a business of $4,000. In
the thrty-four years since they have
furnished to the newspapers of the Unit
ed States a total of more than $3o,0D,W1
of advertising. Today they are dealing
with 1900 publications and their pay
ments to these average $4,000 a day, or,
roughly speaking. $S,6O0000 ayyear.
This enormous business enterprise was
started with the settled conviction that
Philadelphia was the city in which it
could be made a success, and that Phila-
dephia business methods would make
a success In the little room on SAMSON
street, father and son adopted the now
we'll known Philadelphia motto; Keeping
everlastingly at it brings success On
the walls of the two entire floors or the
Mariner and Merchant building, at Third
and Chestnut streets, and the two floors
Of press and work rooms in the rear, that
motto is today engraved for the 229 EN-
ployes of the big firm to read.
In 1873 N. W. Aver passed to his rest
and left the business and the name to
his son, f. w. Aver, who then took into
his partnership an employee named George
O. Wallace who died in 1887 Before Wal
lace's death another employe, Henry y.
Mckinney, had been taken into the hrin
in 1875, and finally Albert g. Bradford ana
Jarvis A. Wood were made partners III
1898. they also having come up through
the business These last three partners,
together with F. w. Aver, conduct the
business today
In 1876 increasing trade brought the firm
to the then new Times building at
Eighth and Chestnut streets, where IL
rented one floor This was before the
Times moved in. During twenty-h%s
years n. w. Aver & Son graduai!
spread until they occupied all the upper
doors. Then they moved to their present
quarters at Third and Chestnut, on the
Site. by the way. of the first advertising
agency In America, which was ESTABLISH
cd by Nolney g. Palmer In 1871.
Spealxing of the immense growth OF ad-
vertising, F. w. Aver, the vetern mem
Der of the firm said yesterday:
..'rhere was hardly such thing as ad-
vertising until after the Civil war. Then
The country began to feel its muscle and
to stretch out into new lines. We nave
seen a great evolution in JOURNALISM.
When we started It was in the days Oh
the weekly newspaper, which was
great power. There We're the Ioleuo
Blade the Atlanta Constitution 1oio-
mel Forney's 'Press' and the New York
,rrih,1ne' and Sun But now increased
nosta1 facilities have rendered the daily
naper the vehicle of news in every part
of the country The farmer 100 miles
from the city gets it the same day 1t is
issued.
yes. this is the day of the daily, and
more and more is the public Depending
upon It for an account of what 1t cannon
personally see and hear: and more and
more the advertiser is depending upon 1t
to tell the people that he cannot meet
personally of the goods he has to sell
do | think advertising will increaseY
Yes. We began in the days when staples
were not advertised, when business men
thought 1t all right for makers of patent
medicines to advertise because they We're
supposed to bring a great profit. But for
sugar bread, biscuits and the like, on
which profits were close, it was thought
there was no margin for advertising
THAT was the idea we started to dis
prove and we have by no means ex-
hausted the list of staples that will be
exploited. Let me tell you something
the immense advertising of Uneeda Bis
cult was done by setting aside a frac-
ton of cent on each package.
Eyes. the old idea that certain things
will not stand advertising is passed. Men
are advertising today who told us five
years ago that advertising would do them
no good. Others who now say the same
thing will themselves be advertising In
another five years.
why" concluded Mr.. Aver. with