Marketing services agency SolutionSet MediaWhiz Partnership merged with D.L. Ryan Companies, an independent promotions and digital marketing agency, to form the Hyper Marketing Incorporated Network (HMI).
This new group will be one of the largest independent marketing services networks in North America, with $400 million in annual revenues and 1,200 employees in 19 cities. The new firm will merge capabilities and offer integrated performance marketing tools, as well as transaction and behavioral marketing services.
Zain Raj, CEO of HMI, said that the reason for the merger was to create a network to serve the evolving marketing landscape. “The world of marketing is evolving from changing people’s attitudes towards changing people’s behavior,” he said. “There wasn’t a company out there at an independent level who could take the process of direct marketing, digital marketing, mobile, promotional and shopper marketing and combine it together.”
Raj said that the two companies decided to merge because of complimentary capabilities. “Coming together within the framework of a merger made sense,” said Raj. “SolutionSet brings direct and digital marketing capabilities and D.L. Ryan brings shopper marketing and promotional capabilities, and we are taking both to build a transactional solution.”
HMI’s management includes leaders from each former company. D.L. Ryan Companies’ former president/COO Paul Kramer will serve as HMI’s president. The Partnership’s Tom Lanzetta and Michael Miller are now HMI’s COO and CMO. David Ryan and Jeff Haggin will serve as vice chairmen of HMI.
No layoffs are planned, Raj said. “There is no duplication between the two companies in terms of capabilities,” he said.
Agencies across the HMI network will be focused on growing the network’s breadth of services including digital, direct, data, shopper marketing, promotion and media. HMI’s services will be integrated and offered to each firm’s prior clients, which includes adidas, AT&T, American Express, AMD, Cisco, Dell, eBay, Energizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg’s, Office Depot, The Home Depot and Unilever.
“The reason we went through this process was to serve our clients better, a number of them can benefit from the new capabilities,” Raj said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
