WICHITA, KAN. – The Wichita Aero Club will present its fifth annual Wichita Aero Club Trophy to former Learjet Public Relations Executive and co-founder of Sullivan Higdon & Sink Advertising to Al Higdon at its annual trophy gala on January 24, 2015, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Wichita Airport. Along with Jim Greenwood, who served with him at Learjet, Higdon can be credited with making Learjet virtually a generic term for business jets, and he helped to establish corporate aviation as a viable industry segment in its early days.
In the early 1960s, Higdon’s efforts to promote the newly launched Learjet led to the brand becoming synonymous with business jets. As part of Bill Lear’s public relations team, Higdon worked to promote a brand-new product in a newly emerging market segment and was an early innovator of nontraditional brand building (e.g. pursuing Hollywood product placements, posting world speed records, etc.).
In 1971, Higdon joined forces with longtime friend and fellow aviation-marketing expert, Wendell Sullivan. Their agency, which became Sullivan Higdon & Sink, worked with major aviation clients and continues to do so today. SHS clients have included Learjet, Cessna, Rockwell Collins, AMR Combs, Signature Flight Support, XM Satellite Weather, Spirit AeroSystems, TECT Corporation, Curtiss-Wright Controls, and Lycoming Engines (www.wichitaaeroclub.org).