John Durham and Cory Treffiletti have launched Catalyst, a new marketing strategy firm.
The company’s name derives from its business strategy: to act as a catalyst, to initiate action among emerging technology companies, publishers and brand marketers, to help forge the integration of paid media, non-paid media and emerging media in marketing.
“There’s a lot of buzz being placed on emerging media platforms,” Treffiletti said. “I noticed after coming out of the agency world that agencies don’t have the resources or time to pay attention to [emerging media] right now. There’s a trend of integrating communications planning and strategic planning into the agency model, but increasingly we’ve identified that there’s few people trying to provide solutions for that in the marketplace right now. We might as well be the ones that do it.”
Specialists in various fields will be tapped by Catalyst on a client-need basis. Eric Yang, CEO of Black Bag Advertising, is currently working as Catalyst’s operations partner to help develop media and marketing strategies.
Catalyst will work with start-ups as well as multi-agency marketers and agencies. Seven companies, including social media tool Jitter Fingers, have already signed on to employ Catalyst’s services.
“The steps we take will change based on the clients’ objectives, but, fundamentally, we’ll identify the audience they’re trying to speak to and the challenges they provide solutions for,” Treffiletti outlined. “We’ll help [clients] understand the analysis and measurement of metrics to measure the success of the business, and in some cases we’ll do strategic campaign planning for them.
“We’re not executing those strategies, but we’re working with partners to execute them – that’s the difference between us and an agency.”
Treffiletti will act as president, managing partner of Catalyst. He previously worked as SVP, engagement architect at Carat Fusion. Durham, former president of sales and marketing for Jumpstart Automotive Media, will serve as CEO, managing partner of Catalyst.
