Barton Nelson, Inc. (BNI) called a "family firm par-excellence" by Forbes magazine was founded by B.J. Nelson as an advertising agency in 1961. The cornerstone philosophy of the agency was"creatZing". A term coined by B. J. Nelson meaning growth through innovation and hard work. 

The agency specialized in financial institutions using the famous tightwad Jack Benny as a spokesman and pioneering the use of premiums to attract deposits.
The use of premiums introduced the agency to the Promotional Products Industry and in 1975 BEBCO was purchased.

BEBCO was a long time manufacturer of small books with annual sales of $180,000. A host of new products were added to the BEBCO line including removable sticky note pads, called Touchdown Notes. The product was developed independently of the 3M product, Post -It Notes^®.

BNI marketed its sticky notes through the Promotional Products Industry emphasizing innovation. Multicolor printing, die cuts, cubes, bright, pastel, transparent papers, multiple imprints were all innovations first introduced by BNI.

BNI phased out the advertising agency in 1980 and has been ranked as one of the Top 25 manufactures in Industry since 1985. Today, Touchdown Notes are sold as SpiderTac Notes^®. 

BNI continues its "creatZing" ways by offering customers of the Promotional Products industry huge discounts on non-imprinted office products and other items.