Cross-Sell Advantage Earl Palmer Brown Cos. continued its shopping spree last month when it bought BEN Marketing, the 9-year-old Stamford, CT, promo agency with $6.7 million in 1997 net revenues.
Bethesda, MD-based EPB has bought seven companies including BEN in the last 10 months, swelling billings to $600 million from $400 million. New holdings include the Henry J. Kaufman agency, DC's oldest ad and PR firm; The Square, a London-based ad agency; The Silberman Group and Reimel Carter, both Philadelphia; and ad and promotions firm Warner Bicking Morris, New York. EPB also has its own offices in New York, Philadelphia, and Greenwich, CT, which will merge with BEN's 50-person office in Stamford. An EPB spokesperson said that no client conflicts are anticipated due to the merger.
The sale gives BEN - No. 53 in the 1998 promo 100 ranking - more resources to compete for new business, says BEN Marketing co-founder and ceo Chuck Nardizzi.
"Having enough resources is crucial today. Ten years ago smaller companies could pick up big accounts. Today you are competing against firms with 100 or 200 people. This is an opportunity for us to join forces with a fully integrated marketing communications agency," Nardizzi says. EPB is a good fit because "they have the same philosophy we do about building brands," he adds. "We feel strongly that our expertise in marketing and promotions will mesh nicely with their existing talent and blue chip client roster, and its network of companies will allow us to expand on a national level."
EPB was looking for a sales promotion agency to round out its holdings in advertising, PR, direct and database marketing, design, media planning, and interactive. Agency execs liked BEN's "high caliber of talent and integrity," says EPB partner of business affairs Peter Schelfhaudt.
"We think they are one of the premiere agencies" with a "fantastic" client list that includes Coca-Cola, Holiday Inn, Johnson & Johnson, Campbell Soup Co. and its Pepperidge Farm subsidiary, and International Paper.
"BEN understands brand marketing better than most sales promotion firms. That's why they got Coke," Schelfhaudt says.
EPB plans to cross-sell BEN's services to its own clients, including Novartis and Amoco Oil. "We hope to put at least one representative from BEN in each of our offices," Schelfhaudt explains.
BEN was founded as Block & Nardizzi in 1989. With the sale, founding partner Joe Block, who has been serving as a consultant to the shop, will leave. Nardizzi remains as ceo, Chris Milhous and Bruce Perlman as co-presidents in Atlanta, and Julie Miller as senior vp-president of BEN Direct.
Ringa a Ding Ding Aspen Marketing Group, Evergreen, CO, bought Phoneworks, St. Petersburg, FL, in July. It's the sixth purchase in a year for Aspen as it taps $100 million in capital to buy marketing businesses from premiums suppliers and sampling to events and direct marketing. Aspen ranked 18th in the 1998 promo 100 with 1997 net revenues of $21.7 million; the agency projects it will hit $400 million in revenues by 2000.
Phoneworks' interactive voice-response promos are new territory for Aspen. "Phoneworks has developed award-winning promotions for over 300 Fortune 500 companies," says Aspen chairman-ceo Neil Cannon. Phoneworks' "leading edge interactive technology adds a whole new competitive level to our range of products and services."
Phoneworks' awards include recognition for the 1997 Right Guard Halfway challenge for Gillette. Nascar fans vied for a Pontiac Grand Prix by calling a toll-free number and then, when Gillette and Phoneworks called back, identifying a winning driver's name.
Joining Aspen gives Phoneworks the chance to develop "fresh turn-key solutions," says Brad Wendkos, who continues as Phoneworks ceo. Clients include America n Express, General Motors, Nabisco, Gerber, and Coca-Cola.
Gotta Have Friends Two top Cyrk-Simon Worldwide execs, Joseph Sequenzia and Matthew Armstrong, rejoin old associates by taking new posts at The Marketing Agency of Marketing Corp. of America, part of a reorganization at the Westport, CT, shop.
Last month Sequenzia resigned the top creative job in Cyrk-Simon's New York office to become senior vp-creative director in a new consumer promotion division at The Marketing Agency. Armstrong, who had been senior vp-account service and business development at Cyrk-Simon, joins The Marketing Agency as senior vp-director of business development.
The two worked together at Fusion 5 in Westport before moving to Cyrk-Simon last year. Both have known MCA execs Bob Petisi and Stephen O'Shea for years: Sequenzia worked with O'Shea at Ryan Partnership, and Petisi and Armstrong worked together at the Howard Marlboro Group, New York. Sequenzia and Armstrong came close to joining Petisi at Dryden-Petisi, the shop he co-founded and left last year to run MCA's promotion business. Petisi tried to hire Armstrong for MCA last year, but "it was just as the Interpublic Group acquistion was taking place," Armstrong says, so he declined. "After a year had gone by, we saw the acquisition made a lot of sense."
Petisi approached Armstrong first, and "the conversation got around to hiring them as a team," Petisi says.
MCA split The Marketing Agency into consumer promotion and business-to-business divisions following the June departure of executive creative director Rick Hill, who won't be replaced.
O'Shea has been named exec vp-group account director of the consumer promotion division.
Jill Marino becomes senior vp-creative director of the business-to-business side, headed up by Lynne LeBarron.
Cyrk-Simon is "actively searching" for a new senior creative director to replace Sequenzia, who joined in April 97, says Cyrk-Simon chief marketing officer Laurel Rossi.
The agency retains "very deep talent in our creative staff," she adds.
