Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993                   TAG: 9303310086
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEW AD COMPANY TO REPLACE THE OLD

Jack Smith, who last week announced he was closing his agency, has become vice president for marketing at R. Frazier Inc., a Salem computer-salvage company with an international business.

The new advertising firm will be formed by three people who formerly worked with Smith: Bill O'Connor, who was executive vice president; David Hodge, who was vice president for creative services; and Betsy Smith, vice president for account services.

Hodge said they will call it the Robert Claiborne Agency, using the middle names of O'Connor and Smith.

The new partners will move by the end of the week to offices in Commonwealth Park, the former Leggett building at Campbell Avenue and First Street Southwest in downtown Roanoke.

Hodge predicted the agency will be successful, because its partners will stand on the creativity of the former Smith agency.

Hodge, who previously worked for Times-World Corp., is a designer. O'Connor, previously with Medeco Security Locks Inc., is a marketing specialist. The Robert Claiborne Agency will do its own creative work and also hire free-lance talent, Hodge said.

Smith attributed his agency's problems to internal turmoil in the European holding company of its two large national clients.

The internal shake-up began last November, he said, and billings from that client dropped from nearly $40,000 a month to $2,000.

The problems dragged on for 120 days, Smith said, and "the revenue simply didn't come in."

Smith said the agency is winding down and will close when all pending work is completed. He expects his other clients to follow the new agency.

The Jack Smith Agency gained and lost many clients during its seven years of existence. But Smith said that sort of volatility is the nature of the advertising business, where an account is put up for review every time a client hires a new person in marketing.

In the advertising business, he said, "you're guaranteed to get new business and guaranteed to lose business."

Frazier was an agency client, Smith said, and the offer of a vice presidency was "a good career opportunity for me."

Frazier, with headquarters at Intervale Industrial Park, has interests in other U.S. cities as well as Scotland, China and Mexico.

Smith said the company is an "end-of-life asset manager." It buys used and outdated equipment, such as mainframe computers, then refurbishes and sells the equipment to a new user who lacks access to later technology.

If the equipment cannot be resold, its parts and metals are reclaimed. Frazier and the former owner split the proceeds after expenses.

Frazier specializes in electronic and telecommunications equipment, doing work for companies such as IBM Corp. But Smith said it also handles other types of items. A recent example was outdated microscopes from an American university that were sold to a medical school in the Caribbean.