Circular Logic
In some circles, Dan Snyder may be better known for buying the Washington Redskins than he is for masterminding Snyder Communications Inc. The Bethesda, MD-based media mini-conglomerate has bought or developed some of the more interesting agencies. If he can be as successful with the Redskins, he’ll have a winning football team.
The latest example of Snyder’s gift for synergy is Circle.com, an interactive agency dedicated to online customer relationship management for such high-profile clients as IBM, Bell Atlantic and MSNBC, among others.
Circle.com attempts to build clients’ market share by devising Web sites that combine traditional data with information gleaned online, creating individualized Web experiences for clients’ customers. The agency says its approach derives from the direct marketing background of its principals.
Circle.com’s chief executive officer is Robert Wilke, who was appointed to the post when the agency was launched in Baltimore last May. Wilke has some 20 years of direct marketing and interactive experience, including 15 spent at Blau Marketing Technologies.
At Blau, Wilke worked with Charlie Tarzian, now Circle.com’s chief technology officer. There they developed what became Circle.com’s proprietary technology for Blau’s customer relationship management software.
In November, Snyder acquired Roger Black’s agencies (the Interactive Bureau as well as Roger Black Inc.), paired him with Wilke, and appointed Black chief creative officer at Circle.com. Of course, Black’s clients (America Online for one; Drugstore.com for another) came into the fold at Circle.com.
Black’s agencies mixed his type, print and interactive design services. He provided brand design, corporate identity and media development for such clients as Newsweek, The New Republic, HBO and The Discovery Channel.
He also wrote “Web Sites That Work,” with Sean Elder, in 1997. The book offered such opinions as, “Everything a Web designer needs to know about typography was developed in the Renaissance.”
That’s nice to know for those who always preferred Bembo to Times Roman. In any event, a sequel is in the works.
So far it seems to be a winning team for Snyder. Circle.com’s estimated 1999 revenue exceeds $45 million, of which some 40% is gross margin. Its projected annual growth rate is about 50%.
More significant, perhaps, is that Circle.com has started to develop synergies of its own. Just last month it bought NetMarquee Inc., a Needham, MA, Internet direct marketing company.
