Block & DeCorso
Block & DeCorso is a branding, marketing and public relations company based in Verona, New Jersey. Headed by David Block, CEO, and Bill DeCorso, President, the agency primarily serves European and US clients in the food & beverage, financial, home décor, healthcare, education, and real estate industries. They have been responsible for introducing to the public innovations such as the automated teller machine (ATM), online mortgage information and distance learning as well as imported fine foods that are now household names, including Barilla pasta and Bertolli olive oil.
Over the past four decades the agency has attracted clients as diverse as Hunter Douglas Window Fashions, Nielsen Bainbridge, Pitney Bowes, Atlantic Health Systems, Thomas Edison State College, Holy Name Medical Center, Gibraltar Securities, Medaglia D’Oro Caffe, Christian Health Care, CIT Group, Smith & Solomon Training Solutions, Mountain Development, Control Group USA, Pompeian, Inc. (the olive oil and red wine vinegar importer), Loan Search, and PGB Trust & Investments.
The agency has been the recipient of numerous advertising, packaging and public relations awards and Bill DeCorso has been quoted in business publications on industry trends.
The founders
David Block
David Block was born in Newark, New Jersey. Following graduation from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, he served in the Air Force during the Korean War conflict. He then landed a job as an industrial designer at an industrial design firm in New York City, where he designed corporate and product logos, furniture and packaging.
David joined Lasky Advertising in 1960 as an account executive and purchased the firm less than nine years later. Under his leadership, the agency expanded from serving strictly financial accounts to a broadly diversified client base including healthcare, real estate, Business-to-business, and education.
As Block Advertising expanded, it moved from Newark, to Bloomfield, to Montclair and then to Verona, New Jersey where it was transformed into Block & DeCorso.
David Block has served on the board of the Mental Health Association of Essex County and the North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Bill DeCorso
Bill DeCorso was born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He began his career at Block Advertising. After a few years, he left to become an award-winning art director at various New York agencies. He opened his own agency, DeCorso & Partners, where he successfully launched products like Bertolli olive oil and Barilla pasta. When he re-joined Block, he brought with him his expertise in packaged goods.
The agency soon attracted many accounts in the food & beverage industry, and Bill became partner in 2002 and president of Block & DeCorso in 2006.
Bill DeCorso, working with Bill Monroe at Bertolli, they gave olive oil sales an extraordinary boost in sales by advertising a scientific study that showed the health benefits of the product. This revolutionized the category.
Currently, DeCorso and Monroe, now at Pompeian, Inc., are working together on another groundbreaking product, OlivExtra Plus with Omega-3 DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid), which promotes brain, eye and heart health.
Services
Block & DeCorso is a full-service agency and provides:
- Brand Building
- Marketing Research & Strategy
- Advertising – Print, Broadcast, Digital
- Direct Marketing
- Packaging / POP / Point of Sale
- Corporate Identity
- Public Relations
- Internet / Intranet
- Incentive Marketing
- Media Planning & Placement
Company details
- Founded: 1969
- Location: 3 Claridge Drive, Verona, New Jersey 07044
- Industry: Advertising
- Phone: 973-857-3900
- Website: blockdecorso.com