Ryan Partnership has spun off its channel marketing division to form a sister agency, Catapult Marketing.
The Westport, CT-based shop opened its doors Oct. 1 with 100 staffers and $30 million in billings— a third of the $100 million in billings that D.L. Ryan Cos. claims— Ryan clients Subway, Mott’s, Timex, Pedigree, Dannon, Dole Sunbeam, Sunkist, Baker’s Square and Village Inn Restaurants.
The spin-off gives D.L. Ryan Cos. six divisions: Ryan Partnership (promotions), iDirect (formerly Ryan Direct and Ryan Interactive, which merged earlier this year); Retail Zone in Bentonville; Hispanic division PanaVista! in Dallas; and Ryan Canada as well as Catapult. There are about 400 staffers in all.
Three Ryan veterans will run Catapult. COO Paul Kramer had been president of channel marketing at Ryan Partnership; Peter Cloutier, now president East, and Matthew Jonas, president West, had been executive VPs.
The spin-off was prompted by client demand as the channel marketing group handled more integrated work, Cloutier said. “Clients prefer one person sitting at the table; they asked us to simplify the engagement,” he said. “So we’ll have one key engagement manager for each client team, a single contact that will bring the resources across the agency to the client. It’s easier to set up a new group than to restructure the whole [Ryan Partnership] organization around that.”
Catapult will work with Ryan Partnership divisions as it builds a range of disciplines in-house.
The shop establishes its own headquarters in Westport, takes over Ryan Partnership offices in Los Angeles and Phoenix, and shares the Bentonville office, called Ryan Retail Zone, with Ryan Partnership. Ryan Partnership maintains its Wilton headquarters and offices in Columbus, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis and Toronto. It remains under Chairman-CEO David Ryan, with Mary Perry as president of Ryan Promotion; John Kuendig in charge at iDirect; and Dan Sullivan running PanaVista.
Both Ryan Partnership and Catapult are owned by privately held D.L. Ryan Cos.
Ryan Partnership ranked No. 48 in the 2005 PROMO 100 with 2004 net revenues of $52.6 million, up 21% from 2002.
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