Hockaday Associates made a splash with Capezio, and often with such national notoriety comes national demand. Hockaday Associates discovered this to be true. The agency's second client, Fuller Fabrics, also experienced great success. Hockaday decided to give the company a chauffeur as a spokesperson, symbolizing the richness of Fuller's materials. Johnson noted that by 1957 the company had jumped from six million dollars to thirty million dollars in gross volume (1957, 50).

Dunbar Furniture also knocked on Hockaday's door, and in working with the furniture manufacturer, Hockaday proceeded to revolutionize advertising in the category. A nature lover, Hockaday made her home in both Manhattan and Connecticut. Here was her influence for the original 1953 Dunbar campaign. Margaret decided to place a Dunbar couch in an open Connecticut field and take advantage of natural light and outdoor photography to make a statement. Placing furniture in unusual places caused audiences to notice. Neuberger-Lucchesi quotes Hockaday as stating that with the Dunbar campaign, "it was the association of a dream and a hope with that product that would give you an emotional reward. We sold everything that way" (1994, 190). Neuberger-Lucchesi also notes that "the vast success of the Dunbar campaign inspired the rest of Madison Avenue to follow Hockaday outdoors. Central Park, the Bronx, and Greenwich became popular locations for photo shoots" (1994, 190).

Here is an example of a Dunbar ad. While the image quality is admittedly poor, as it was taken from a March, 1957, issue of Advertising Age that was not in the best of condition, one can see the sofa placed in a natural environment, and understand how different and intriguing the visual must have been in its day.

Hockaday Associates created a stir with its work for Arkin Fashions in 1956. The agency produced ads that resembled comic strips. An Advertising Age article notes that the strategy was "to get the reader to look at the pictures to discover the story and absorb the humor. And all the while she is looking 'hard, fast, and long' at the Arkin fashions" (Sept 1956, 79). Many magazines thought that they were receiving comic strips in error.

Hockaday Associates also took on Jantzen as a client, and the Jantzen campaign of 1959 again attracted the attention of both consumers and critics alike. William Tyler wrote in 1959 that "there was no more striking ad last month than the spread for Jantzen shown here...."

"This is a case of a startling headline and a startling illustration working together and both focusing attention sharply on the merchandise, rather than on the cleverness of the ad .... In its headline, Jantzen may well have something that will catch on ..." (Tyler 1959, 37). And catch on it did. The 'smile' theme ran at least through 1963 as an integrated promotions campaign, with a color movie and a song (Neuberger-Lucchesi 1994, 190). Clearly crossing media in nontraditional ways was something that Margaret Hockaday had a flair for, and in turn that flair garnered attention and made her small agency a success.

To find out about Margaret Hockaday's thoughts on copywriting, click here.

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