Hometown ad agency grows with technology

By Samantha Roberts
Las Cruces Bulletin

The story is actually quite ironic.

As a young boy, David Wilson, partner and account executive of Wilson Binkley Advertising & Marketing (WBAM), thought he was going to be an automotive mechanic. His father owned the first Volkswagen dealership in New Mexico. However, Wilson's parents had bigger dreams for their son, so he enrolled at New Mexico State University and graduated from the university in 1981.

After working for large-scale ad agencies for eight years, Wilson took a job at Borman Autoplex where he oversaw the company's marketing and advertising.

"The company was called Borman Motor Co. back then," Wilson said. "After a while, we started adding so much business that we decided to make advertising a separate business."

Partners Ken Binkley, Rob Sharp and Dave Wilson of Wilson Binkley Advertising & Marketing stand with technology through the ages that has served as advertising media. Las Cruces Bulletin photos by Samantha Roberts

The separation created Wilson Borman Advertising, which was formally known as Borman Advertising when it was an advertising department in the dealership.

"We handled advertising for other dealerships, but we made sure they weren't competitors of ours," said Ken Binkley, who is currently a partner and account executive with WBAM. "It wasn't a direct conflict."

Binkley, who started working for Wilson as a college intern in 1990, came back to the company in 1992 after a stint with Dillard's.

"Ken understood desktop publishing when the technology was first coming around," Wilson said. "This was the beginning of sending an ad layout over a modem. It was the beginning of a technology curve."

As of June 1992, Wilson and Binkley were both employees of the motor company.

One month later, Wilson said business started to grow, picking up larger accounts such as Crawford Buick GMC.

In April 1994, the company established itself as a separate operation, moving into a building that once housed a company also owned by Frank Borman that collected revenue from laser patents.

"We had really outgrown the space," Wilson said. "Once we started to move down the hall and took that first sales office, it was time to find another location."

Wilson's office is in the same one Borman used.

"It has a real sense of history," Wilson said. In December 1995, Rob Sharp, who is now a partner and creative director of WBAM, joined the team, becoming the fourth employee.

By 1998, Borman left what was known as Wilson & Associates. And in 2000, the company became what it is known as today – Wilson Binkley Advertising & Marketing – with Wilson and Binkley as co-partners.

"MountainView (Regional Medical Center) was a big client in 2000, and it really gave us a sense that we were making a name for ourselves," Binkley said. "The hospital generated a lot of news because it was the first de novo hospital (which uses innovative sources for disposable medical products and private labeling) and only part of the community was behind it.

"A lot of conversations were happening about it and it generated a lot of work." At one point, Binkley said the company was representing six automotive dealerships, which became one of the company's specialties.

"The company also has a significant amount of experience in real estate," said Sharp, who became a partner with the company in 2005.

"Today, we are a full-service ad agency," Wilson said. "Today, in the realm of web-based media, we really have to work with our clients to provide them with what will help their respective businesses."

Wilson said the company can also do inhouse video editing.

"We use a variety of voices from all over," Wilson said. "We pride ourselves in being a full-service agency that includes design, logos, writing, creative execution, etc."

"We like to put our services in the context of marketing and reach beneath the surface of an ad," Sharp said. "We really look at the big picture."

Wilson said the company also provides direct mailing services and can handle short-run printing.

"We are constantly looking at the progression of communications in technology as it's moving so fast," said Wilson, who considers himself a radio-enthusiast. "After World War II, TV infiltrated the markets, and the ad agency business has changed with each progression in technology.

"Now, Internet is vastly changing the way the business operates. We just have to stay ahead of it."