“It’s an honor to receive the Lifetime Achievement award from Marketing EDGE,” said Hawthorne. “I’ve dedicated my career to pushing the advertising industry forward and fostering the next generation of marketing leaders. I deeply appreciate the recognition and thank Marketing EDGE for this opportunity.”

Hawthorne graduated cum laude from Harvard University. After producing and writing news documentaries with CBS and NBC TV stations in Minneapolis and Philadelphia, he founded Hawthorne Productions in 1980 and was accepted into the Directors Guild of America. Early clients included the prime-time programs Real People and That’s Incredible! and the syndicated shows You Asked for It, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and Entertainment Tonight. He also contributed programs to the emerging Cable Health Network.^[2][3][4]

In 1986, Hawthorne founded Hawthorne Communications, now Hawthorne Advertising, the first full service agency focused exclusively on long form direct response television (DRTV). Since its inception, the company has managed over 600 DRTV campaigns and grossed billions of dollars in sales for its clients with its performance marketing expertise. Hawthorne Advertising consistently wins dozens of awards each year for the excellence of its work and collaborates with an impressive roster of Fortune 500 clients. The agency stands out for the impact, influence, and innovation of its campaigns.

Tim Hawthorne is credited with a number of DRTV industry firsts. He was the first advocate of major brand advertisers incorporating long-form TV advertising in their media mix and negotiated the first long-term bulk media contract with a national cable network. He co-founded NIMA (later known as the Electronic Retailing Association) and wrote the industry’s most cited full-length textbook. Hawthorne produced and managed the first infomercial for a Fortune 500 company, a major credit card company, a major health insurance company, and created the first campaign using DRTV to drive retail sales for an established brand. He oversaw the development of the first software program dedicated to analyzing sales and viewership performance of long form media and coined the term Media Efficiency Ratio (MER), a key performance indicator now a standard industry metric.

Hawthorne has garnered many awards throughout his career including a Lifetime Achievement award from the former Electronic Retailing Association and induction into the Direct Response Hall of Fame. He has been named the “Entrepreneur of the Year” for the Midwest Region by USA Today and Ernst & Young and recognized as one of the “25 Most Influential People In DRTV” by Response Magazine. Hawthorne’s long-term leadership in the DRTV field earned him the moniker “Father of the Infomercial.”

Today, Hawthorne Advertising is owned and operated by his daughter, Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, a former Marketing EDGE Rising Star who also has a host of awards including the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” for Greater Los Angeles. Hawthorne-Castro continues the tradition of being an industry leader in performance marketing and data analytics, delivering an ROI for their clients that exceeds all others.

“Tim was the person who first introduced me to the advertising business and has always been a tremendous source of wisdom and support,” said Hawthorne-Castro. “It’s wonderful to see his achievements recognized in this way and I am excited to celebrate with him.”

Now in its fifth year, the Marketing EDGE Awards celebrate excellence in marketing leadership. Each year, Marketing EDGE considers a Lifetime Achievement Award honoree by reviewing an individual’s hard work and success throughout their career and considering their dedication to supporting marketing educational programs. The ceremony for the 2020 EDGE Awards will take place on Monday, June 1 at Pier Sixty in New York City. Proceeds from the evening will benefit Marketing EDGE, to further its mission of launching the next generation of diverse and inclusive marketing leaders.

This year, Marketing EDGE held its first ever kick-off event on January 21 at the Nasdaq offices in NYC’s Times Square. Hawthorne-Castro attended the January 21 event to represent her father. To learn more about the company and how they deliver value by combining creative services with data science, visit hawthornedirect.com.

About Hawthorne Advertising:
Hawthorne Advertising, a creative, analytics and technology-driven advertising agency, specializes in strategic planning, creative development, production, media planning, buying and analytics, and campaign management for integrated marketing campaigns. With nearly 35 years of proven excellence, the agency combines persuasive brand messaging with best-in-class analytic systems to create accountable, high performance advertising campaigns. Hawthorne helps brands efficiently target their consumers, improve cost per acquisition, optimize the lifetime value of a brand’s customers, and even drive consumer response to key retail outlets or corporate locations. As a leading analytic and data driven, accountable brand advertising agency, Hawthorne specializes in integrated campaign solutions. The company offers a full suite of integrated solutions with creative, media, digital and mobile services. Hawthorne maintains brand integrity and metrics to efficiently and effectively optimize the results of its clients’ integrated media budgets via leading edge and proven data analytics. Hawthorne has developed successful award-winning campaigns for countless Fortune 500 brands. Please visit www.hawthornedirect.com and http://www.linkedin.com/company/hawthorne-direct for more information.

Media Contact:
Rachel Bernstein
rbernstein@sspr.com 
856-745-3268