O2 Ideas

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O2 Ideas (originally Steiner Bressler Zimmerman) is an advertising and public relations firm headed by Shelley Stewart with offices in Birmingham; Chicago, Illinois and Greenville, South Carolina. Its offices are located in the Shipt Tower at 420 20th Street North.

The firm was founded in 1967 by Cy Steiner and Harry Bressler with Stewart as a silent partner. In 1991 the firm had fewer than 20 employees and around $11 million in annual billings, of which about 70% was from their account with Bruno's supermarkets. Account executive Mary Faust was traveling with several executives of the chain when their plane crashed near Rome, Georgia in 1991, killing all 9 aboard. Steiner died from suicide the following year, leaving the firm with a $1.6 million debt to his estate.

John Zimmerman joined as a partner in the 1990s and re-organized it, with Stewart, as O2 Ideas. The company's clients have included Verizon Wireless, Home Depot, Honda of Alabama, Bruno's, Parisian, and Buffalo Rock as well as organizations like Samford University, 16th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. In 2000 the company had more than $400,000 in unpaid invoices from VisionLand, which left media outlets unpaid.

O2 Ideas moved to the former Unity Health Management Services building at 2160 Highland Avenue in 1999. In 2003 Stewart was made a majority shareholder and CEO of the firm. The Birmingham Advertising Federation honored Stewart with their "Advertising Industry CEO of the Year", "Ad Man of the Year" and "Mentor of the Year" awards in 2006. That year the firm had 80 employees and had $92 million in billings. Bill Todd was president of its public relations division.

In 2007 the firm moved its offices from 2160 Highland Avenue and the adjacent Bradshaw House to an entire 25,000 square-foot floor of the 600 University Park Place building off Lakeshore Drive. In early 2008 Zimmerman left for personal reasons and the firm's internal structure was reorganized to better serve client accounts. Stewart assumed 100% ownership in August 2008.

O2 Ideas has been involved in community-based pro-bono work such as Stewart's "InsideOut" motivational video and the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, both of which encourage young people to stay in school.

The firm is the parent of Barking Dog Studios, an in-house media production company.

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