Merkle Teams With Direct Group for Expanded Mailing Services
Lanham, Md., and Trenton, N.J. (March 16, 2006) — Merkle, a leading database marketing agency, announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Direct Group, a major provider of high-volume direct-mail services and solutions, to provide a wide range of mail production services including direct mail printing, personalization, and assembly to existing and future Merkle clients.
Manny Ortiz, chairman and CEO of Direct Group, said, “We are extremely pleased to be working with Merkle, an established leader and innovative database marketing agency. Our capabilities are highly complementary, and we are looking forward to delivering a high level of service to meet the ongoing needs of Merkle’s clients. Direct Group has more than 700,000 square feet of premium production space for direct-mail and fulfillment production, and we can offer a wide array of services for any direct mail project.”
At its main production facilities in New Jersey, Direct Group prints, personalizes, assembles, affixes cards, inserts, commingles and mails on average more than five million pieces of mail every day of the year. Direct Group also provides full pick ’n’ pack, kit assembly and complete fulfillment services as well as full-color, full-variable print-on-demand capability.
David Williams, president and CEO of Merkle, said, “We continue to roll out increasingly extensive multi-channel marketing approaches for our base of nationally recognized clients. By partnering with Direct Group, Merkle will be able to provide our clients with additional services and increased capabilities that will readily scale to their requirements. Direct Group has the knowledge, technology, and resources to quickly and accurately implement complex mailing programs.”
Chris Ryan, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Direct Group, said, “This two-way strategic partnership opens new doors for Direct Group customers. Merkle’s industry-leading database marketing capabilities will add state-of-the-art analysis to our toolkit to help our customers meet their promotional goals.”
Michael Mathias, senior vice president and Agency Group leader of Merkle, said, “This partnership reflects Merkle’s evolution to a full-service agency model. With that, we will rely more heavily on external partnerships to fulfill the direct mail production and processing needs of our clients’ marketing campaigns.”
Petsky Prunier, a New York-based investment bank providing merger and acquisition and private placement advisory services, served as strategic advisor for the agreement.
About Direct Group
DG provides a full suite of direct mail services from prepress, print and personalization through lettershop, commingling and mail to telemarketing, response and fulfillment through long-term partnerships with world-class customers throughout the United States. The company’s three operating facilities and corporate offices are in New Jersey. For more information about the company, visit www.directgroup.net.
About Merkle
Merkle is a leading provider of data-driven marketing solutions that enable large national organizations to maximize the results from their marketing investment. Merkle provides customer strategy, business intelligence and analytics, data sourcing, media targeting and measurement, and marketing technology solutions to Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations. With over 800 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Lanham, Maryland with additional locations in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-MERKLE or visit www.merklenet.com.
–30–
|
