Best Kicks Off Ad Blitz

Business and financial software conglomerate Best has launched a comprehensive advertising campaign targeting its client base of roughly 2.3 million small and midsized businesses. The effort, which is slated to appear in some 60 business and trade publications throughout the United States and Canada during 2005, represents the largest media buy to date for Best Software. The campaign, which trumpets the tagline "Your Business in Mind," uses a series of images, including a breakfast cereal box that says, "There has to be a better way to check my inventory than getting up every morning at 3:00 a.m." The campaign, developed by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based shop of Colby & Partners, a full-service agency, was designed to support an array of Best-owned products, including its Act!, Peachtree, Timberline, Accpac, SalesLogix and Abra lines. The advertising campaign debuted in the January issues of Inc., Entrepreneur, Fast Company and Accounting Technology, a sister publication of WebCPA. Best Software chief executive Ron Verni said that the impetus behind the campaign was "to tell business owners that Best is there for them, that we truly have their businesses in mind. When it comes to solving business problems, we are small business experts: We've been there." Best Software is the North American operation of European parent The Sage Group plc.