SARASOTA, Fla. — The Leedom Group recently made an acquisition that could help push the company into the advertising and marketing sector, according to officials.

The Leedom Group bought Horse Power Ads, a nationwide marketing and advertising company that has specialized in animated TV commercials.

Rob Boulware began Horse Power Ads in 1997 and since then, has produced animated TV ads for dozens of large dealership groups and hundreds of dealers, officials indicated.

"Rob's animated marketing techniques are known to hundreds of dealers, including many of our Leedom and Associates Twenty Group clients and literally millions of consumers nationwide," stated Chris Leedom, chief executive office of the Leedom Group. "This acquisition gives us a perfect entrée into the marketing and advertising arena with a quality program that has proven results."

According to the company, Horse Power has several animated characters it uses in commercials, including: Horse Power, Little Buck and Earl (the "Afford-a-Bull"), Low Price Cars, The Coach and Wrong Dealership.

Horse Power also has customized characters for specific dealerships. All the characters can be viewed at www.horsepowerads.com.

"We've been fortunate to serve automotive retailers whose marketing and advertising needs so closely mesh with our skills and expertise at Horse Power Ads," noted Boulware.

"We have created a stable of characters that are fun to watch, hear and be around. Dealers immediately relate to them," Boulware added. "They can incorporate their dealership, inventory and most any message they would like into the TV ads and quickly create top-of-mind brand awareness in the consumer."

Boulware began his career as a musician in the 1980s, but decided to venture into 3-D animation work and soon spread that to the advertising field.

"I then looked around me and quickly realized that the biggest and most frequent advertisers were car dealers," Boulware said. "So I met with as many car dealers as would see me, and many of them loved the packages we created."

Boulware said he is inspired by everything from relatives, friends, his pet dogs and pop-culture stars.

"Rob and his team are able to take the everyday and mundane and turn it into fun and memorable icon that delivers proven results for dealers," Leedom said. "Once dealers get their eyes on the packages available, they quickly see the value that we believe will have a dramatic impact on their bottom line."