About Me
Bill Hillsman is the founder of and the driving force behind North Woods Advertising, and the genesis for some of the most successful and attention-getting marketing campaigns over the past decade. Regarded as without peer nationally in achieving results by using unorthodox marketing methods to persuade a jaded public, Hillsman has devised creative and cost-effective solutions to marketing communications problems previously thought unsolvable. His work for Paul Wellstone's 1990 U.S. Senate campaign won the Grand EFFIE — awarded by the American Marketing Association for the most effective marketing and advertising in the nation — and changed political advertising in the process. His work for Jesse Ventura's gubernatorial campaign in 1998 received even more accolades and is generally considered to be the biggest upset in American political history.
Bill was named a Resident Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics in the spring of 2002. That fall, he served in Washington as Director of Communications for interim U.S. Senator Dean Barkley (I-MN). In 2003, Bill created critically acclaimed television advertisements that propelled political neophyte John Hickenlooper to mayor of Denver. In fact, the successful communications campaign enabled Hickenlooper to run up the largest margin of victory ever in Denver’s mayoral election. Bill also worked on Arianna Huffington’s independent campaign for governor during the California recall election of 2003.In 2004, Bill supervised and integrated all marketing communications for the successful launch of the Air America Radio network. He also helped launch the nonpartisan Iraq veteran’s organization Operation Truth, and founded the organization Independent Voters of America.Bill's commentary on marketing, advertising, and politics has appeared on the editorial pages of The New York Times, NBC's "Today" Show, National Public Radio, CNN, C-SPAN, The Nation, Slate and Salon on-line magazines, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), and Japanese and German television. Advertising Age named Hillsman to The Marketing 100, their annual selection of the 100 best marketing people in America. He has also been named one of Minnesota's "100 Most Influential People" and one of the "100 Smartest People In Minnesota" by Minnesota Law & Politics, as well as one of "100 Minnesotans To Watch" by Minneapolis-St. Paul magazine. His work for clients such as Mall of America, Ralph Nader for President, Twin Cities Public Television, the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team, Republic Airlines, Arctic Cat snowmobiles, the Minnesota AIDS Consortium, the Air Line Pilots Association, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, Mayor Sharon Sayles-Belton, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, and Governor Jesse Ventura have become textbook cases in marketing and models for others to emulate. Most recently, he has been profiled in The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, PR Week, George, Salon, Slate (which dubbed him "the world's greatest political adman"), and Brill's Content, which named him to the "Influence List 2000," fifty high-impact people (including Oprah Winfrey, Tim Russert, J.K. Rowling, and Katie Couric) who shape our world by influencing our media and our culture.Bill’s book, Run The Other Way: Fixing theTwo-Party System, One Campaign at a Time, was published in 2004 by The Free Press/Simon & Schuster.
