Award Winning Marketing & Content Creation
Fitness Edge "Frankenstein"
As an Junior majoring in English at Kent State University, Cliff was introduced to the University's brand new Advertising Courses taught by a veteran of J. Walter Thompson. The Professor began the first day of class by stating, "I'm telling you right from the beginning that it is darn near impossible to get an A in this class."
He had thrown down the gauntlet and Cliff aced both of his classes.
Fresh out of college, Cliff followed the logical career path; performing novelty songs in local clubs and manging bands. His first managed act got signed and produced by B.B. King and the second band he worked with, the Pure Prairie League, got signed to RCA and recorded one of his songs on their first album.
Finally he began his freelance copywriting career and within the first six months won recognition with a first place (small space advertising) in the New York Annual Advertising Awards.
Stepp went on to conceive and write campaigns for clients as diverse at Valvoline, Proctor & Gamble, the Red Cross, the Cincinnati Zoo, Pioneer Electronics and Powell Valve.
He became a full time copywriter and then agency writer/TV-radio producer in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cliff's parting shot to the Queen City was a carpet store promotion that involved the governors of two states and a ribbon cutting for a new bridge across the Ohio River. This event involved a really looooong swath of red carpet!
Cliff was eventually hired away by a 10 million dollar a year consumer electronics mail order company in San Luis Obispo, CA to write catalog copy and develop and write some legendary national print and radio ads.
Next he helped launch a San Luis Obispo retail record store with a series of ground breaking radio ads that are still talked about to this day.
Demand grew for Cliff's unique, results driven, approach to radio and TV in the local market and he opened his doors as Boomerang Business Communications ("We'll get back to you.").
Always an early adopter of new technology, Boomerang became one of the handful of businesses in the county to have in-house desktop publishing and computer aided audio/video production capabilities.
One of his larger clients at this time was a local, regional and national marketing campaign for a microbrew brand. This included creating all advertising, POP, newsletters, direct mail and public relations and speaking engagements.
Also a home winemaker, Cliff saw the potential of the area's burgeoning wine industry (there were 35 wineries then, 240+ now). He put together a "touring and tasting" map project with a local publishing company and the next thing he knew he was heading up a winery marketing co-op.
This group grew from six to 25 wineries and eventually evolved into the area's first wine industry association, now known as the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.
During this time Stepp created the State's first ever "Passport Tasting" promotion which has since been copied throughout California. This was to be the first of several industry marketing innovations he spawned.
As part of his efforts to promote what is now the third largest wine region in the world, he created, produced, marketed and co-hosted a radio show dedicated to interviewing area wine makers, chefs and wine-food event promoters.
Cliff currently co-hosts a descendant of that first show on 920 AM KVEC which is also live streamed at www.grapevineradio.net.
Current projects include restaurant groups, several wineries, wine service companies, organic agricultural compounds and the launch of a national organic health and beauty brand.
He had thrown down the gauntlet and Cliff aced both of his classes.
Fresh out of college, Cliff followed the logical career path; performing novelty songs in local clubs and manging bands. His first managed act got signed and produced by B.B. King and the second band he worked with, the Pure Prairie League, got signed to RCA and recorded one of his songs on their first album.
Finally he began his freelance copywriting career and within the first six months won recognition with a first place (small space advertising) in the New York Annual Advertising Awards.
Stepp went on to conceive and write campaigns for clients as diverse at Valvoline, Proctor & Gamble, the Red Cross, the Cincinnati Zoo, Pioneer Electronics and Powell Valve.
He became a full time copywriter and then agency writer/TV-radio producer in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cliff's parting shot to the Queen City was a carpet store promotion that involved the governors of two states and a ribbon cutting for a new bridge across the Ohio River. This event involved a really looooong swath of red carpet!
Cliff was eventually hired away by a 10 million dollar a year consumer electronics mail order company in San Luis Obispo, CA to write catalog copy and develop and write some legendary national print and radio ads.
Next he helped launch a San Luis Obispo retail record store with a series of ground breaking radio ads that are still talked about to this day.
Demand grew for Cliff's unique, results driven, approach to radio and TV in the local market and he opened his doors as Boomerang Business Communications ("We'll get back to you.").
Always an early adopter of new technology, Boomerang became one of the handful of businesses in the county to have in-house desktop publishing and computer aided audio/video production capabilities.
One of his larger clients at this time was a local, regional and national marketing campaign for a microbrew brand. This included creating all advertising, POP, newsletters, direct mail and public relations and speaking engagements.
Also a home winemaker, Cliff saw the potential of the area's burgeoning wine industry (there were 35 wineries then, 240+ now). He put together a "touring and tasting" map project with a local publishing company and the next thing he knew he was heading up a winery marketing co-op.
This group grew from six to 25 wineries and eventually evolved into the area's first wine industry association, now known as the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.
During this time Stepp created the State's first ever "Passport Tasting" promotion which has since been copied throughout California. This was to be the first of several industry marketing innovations he spawned.
As part of his efforts to promote what is now the third largest wine region in the world, he created, produced, marketed and co-hosted a radio show dedicated to interviewing area wine makers, chefs and wine-food event promoters.
Cliff currently co-hosts a descendant of that first show on 920 AM KVEC which is also live streamed at www.grapevineradio.net.
Current projects include restaurant groups, several wineries, wine service companies, organic agricultural compounds and the launch of a national organic health and beauty brand.
