Harte-Hanks Inc. and Digital Impact have formed a strategic alliance that will allow Harte-Hanks to offer Digital Impact’s e-mail marketing capabilities under a private label to its clients. In turn, San Antonio, CA-based Digital Impact will gain access to Harte-Hanks direct marketing and database services.
While Harte-Hanks did have some of the capabilities offered by Digital Impact, it did not do them “as robustly, as scale-ably, with as many bells and whistles as Digital Impact,” said Harte-Hanks president and COO Richard M. Hochhauser in an interview with DIRECT Newsline. “We wanted to do a best practices.”
Both companies see online marketing as an enhancement, instead of a replacement, for analog marketing. “What excites us is the ability to tie offline and online [together],” said Digital Impact’s director of business development Ettore Leale. “The two mediums, going forward, can really reinforce each other. Because of the cost savings [electronic marketing] provides direct mail can be nicer and more expensive.”
As part of the agreement, Harte-Hanks is taking “low, single-digit” equity investment in Digital Impact, according to Leale.
