Nearly 45 years ago Dennis Holt first conceptualized a new business model for the advertising industry, one through which media could be bought as a service that would only work with advertising agencies or in-house agencies. Dennis’ ingenuity was in unbundling media and capturing the value generated by specific services in the media management process. He had understood that providing advertising agencies (and consequently their clients) with a volume buyer that could aggregate their money and manage their media planning and buying activities would create economies of scale that in turn would translate into better deals for them from the media.

The old advertising model had consisted of certain giant national and international advertising conglomerates that dominated the interaction between their clients and the media, supplying all the media deliverables. Their oligopoly had restricted the flexibility of both clients and media in terms of pricing, personalized services, responsiveness, etc.

In 1970, Dennis founded Western International Media Corporation, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, to provide various specific resources to advertising agencies based on his new media planning and buying model. The company’s early successes lead to it expanding to 39 offices in the United States and Canada, Europe and Asia. It became the largest media management company in North America with annual billings of $6.1 billion, and over $12.5 billion worldwide, making it the largest media management company in the world.

Dennis augmented his media planning and buying business with many ancillary services including dedicated client services, research, promotional services and strategic planning. Dennis also buttressed his new value system with a strong commitment to building enduring relationships with clients, vendors and employees. Additionally, he brought his own personal work ethic into the mix, routinely working 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week. These elements would enable him to fully realize his media management concept in ways that would eventually eclipse the results his competitors were delivering under their business framework.

Dennis created a long list of other successful businesses with various divisions to service his highly diversified client bases, including Western International Research, Western Multicultural Group and Promotional Broadcast Service, to name just a few.

During Dennis’ tenure, Western International Media Corporation made various acquisitions, including Newspaper Services of America, the largest buyer of newspaper in the United States, ATI, an enhanced 800 number business that was an extension of Western's Patriot Direct Connect System, Media Partnership Corp., and Media Inc. In 1989, Dennis founded Patriot as a division of Western International Media Corporation. Patriot Communications has become a leading provider of on-demand interactive telecommunications services, database management and Internet solutions.

After selling Western International Media Corporation to The Interpublic Group of Companies in 1994, and his five-year non-compete agreement had expired, Dennis quickly re-connected with his business roots. In 2004 he founded U.S. International Media, the most diversified, fastest growing, full-service media management company in the United States.

Early life

Dennis was born in the economically blighted Pico-Union enclave of Los Angeles, California, to Swedish immigrant parents. His youth was forged by his family’s constant struggle to support itself and the demands of surviving on the tough streets of gang-infested neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles (now officially called South Los Angeles). His life story reads like the quintessential “rags to riches” tales popularized in books by 19th century American author Horatio Alger, whose dime novels showed how destitute young men could achieve wealth and success through hard work, fortitude and unselfish regard for others.

When Dennis’ father was debilitated by a heart attack, Dennis went to work at the age of 13 to support the family. He was a stand-in actor on TV’s The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He worked various odd jobs simultaneously during his high-school days at Manual Arts. He attended USC on a baseball scholarship and was mentored by legendary USC head baseball coach Rod Dedeaux. Dennis was a member of the USC team that won the College World Series in 1948.

After graduating from USC with a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration in 1950, he considered a career in baseball, acting or politics but ultimately decided that his skill set and personality traits made him more suited to sales. He worked as a salesman for a local Los Angeles radio station (KEZY) then joined RKO and sold radio airtime in Los Angeles and San Francisco and television time in New York.

Influences

One of Dennis’ most influential benefactors and mentors was Ozzie Nelson, the acclaimed American entertainer who originated and starred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet radio and television series with his wife and two sons. Dennis describes Ozzie Nelson as not only the man who helped give him his start in show business and provided financial support to his family, but also as a spiritual and moral counselor who helped instill in him a life-long desire to help less fortunate individuals, loyalty and an appreciation for the biblical golden rule. It is likely that Dennis learned from Ozzie Nelson the virtues that would be a key to his future business success, particularly the art of personal service. For Dennis, personal service includes seeing the client as a co-partner in marketing, not simply as a source of income.

Personal life

Dennis is married, with an 18-year-old daughter, Ashley. He also has two adult children, Alexis and Clayton, from a previous marriage. Dennis lives in California.

Awards, recognition and accolades

Dennis is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the American Legion Award; Life Saver, Life Award and Golden Life Saver awards given by the Advertising Industry Emergency Fund (AIEF); Silver Medal Award; Man of the Year Award in Advertising; Knight of the Sovereign Order of the State of California; Southern California Broadcasters Association Lifetime Achievement Award; Horatio Alger Award; Humanitarium Award; Millennium Southern California Broadcasters Association Lifetime Achievement Award and countless others. Dennis sits on various boards of directors and holds many trusteeships.

Philanthropy and environmental activism

Dennis and his wife, Brooks, are ardent patrons of the arts, philanthropists and fund raisers for many charitable causes. Dennis was the founder of the AIEF and continues to support its fund raising activities. The AIEF is a volunteer organization comprised of advertising and promotions industry professionals who have united to help their colleagues survive catastrophic emergencies when they have no other resources left.

Dennis has built a 6,500-acre wetland wildlife preserve in South Carolina (he has planted over one million trees in the wetland wildlife preserve) and is actively purchasing properties contiguous to the current green zone to expand the preserve.

Dennis and his wife have pledged $1 million to endow the Dennis F. and Brooks Holt

Professorship in Public Policy and Communications in the USC School of Public Administration.

Dennis remains true to his impoverished beginnings by helping at-risk students at inner-city schools to develop self-worth, positive thinking and receive educational opportunities. One of his favorite charities is Challengers Boys & Girls Clubs, whose mission is to motivate, educate and elevate the children and teens of South Los Angeles to become responsible, caring and productive adults.

By Darrell Woody

Gazette Staff Writer