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Marcus Thomas acquires DigiKnow
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: January 10, 2012
Integrated marketing communications firm Marcus Thomas, with offices in Cleveland and Youngstown, has merged—or, rather, re-merged, with DigiKnow, one of the area’s true digital marketing pioneers. The acquisition, which was completed on November 15th, will allow Marcus Thomas to expand its digital offerings and give DigiKnow’s current clients access to one of the area’s leading marketing companies.
Even in this very short time, Marcus Thomas Managing Partner Jim Nash like what he sees from the partnership. “This is working out even better than we thought that it would,” he said. “We are getting along better than anyone expected.”
Early on in the digital age, DigiKnow very much led the way for area companies that wanted to get into the new technology but did not know how to go about dealing with all of this new and confusing information. The company once described itself as, “as an advertising agency that slammed into a software development firm, ‘integrated’ not because it's the buzz on Madison Avenue but because technology and creativity are woven into our DNA.”
It led the way as an integrated company, hiring advertising, software, marketing and content experts to become a one-stop shop. The company recently was among the leaders of the move to mobile advertising, and became one of the country's first 50 Google Analytics Certified Partners in 2010.
But that company now ends as a corporate stand-alone, a move that may be a precursor to a shift in digital media consulting from small companies to large ones. The merger allows DigiKnow clients to be a part of a larger operation, but it also may be a signal of the end of the digital pioneer companies.
Two market events are militating against the use of small, specialized companies like DigiKnow, in favor of larger digital media companies with bigger footprints. The first and most obvious is cost—in the current economy, many companies would want to keep their digital marketing in one house and pay only one bill.
But the other, and more subtle, market condition is the continuing maturity of the digital marketplace. At this point, everyone seems to “get it”—digital media presence, whether that is a website, Facebook or Twitter page, smartphone presence, QR code placement, or anything else digital, is not only here to stay but is now a preeminent way to get out any message.
Companies who want a media presence are looking for a substantial, or traditional, marketing firm to roll out the high-end technology that DigiKnow provides to the potential market. A small shop like DigiKnow may no longer be able to provide that kind of service to larger companies, especially now that the digital world is the norm, and not the experiment that it was when DigiKnow started.
This acquisition also completes a very interesting circle of sorts. DigiKnow itself was formed in 1997 as a spinoff of Marcus Advertising, which itself later merged with Ira Thomas Advertising in 2000 to create Marcus Thomas.
The two companies kept in close and friendly contact through the intervening years, sharing several of the same clients, including Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Nestle, and the Ohio Lottery. Marcus Thomas brought in other clients like Akron Children's Hospital, Diebold, MTD Products Inc., Shearer's, and Swagelok, among others, while DigiKnow developed client relationships with The Eaton Corporation, FirstEnergy, Lake Erie Shores & Islands, MMPI, Ohio Tourism Division, Quanex, Rockwell Automation, St. Jude Medical Center, STERIS, Visa, and others.
As a result of the merger, four top DigiKnow executives have moved to Marcus Thomas: former DigiKnow president King Hill, along with former DigiKnow vice presidents John Katila, Ian Verschuren, and Scott Chapin. All four will take the identical Marcus Thomas title of senior vice president/digital strategist.
The skills that the DigiKnow team brought into Marcus Thomas, said Nash, are very difficult to develop, especially mobile utilities and analytics, which DigiKnow has been working on for the last two years.
Marcus Thomas LLC is a $110 million company which will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year.
Marcus Thomas has closed DigiKnow’s Cleveland office and integrated most of the smaller company’s 17 employees into its 120- member workforce. DigiKnow’s Buenos Aeries, Argentina office, which employs 32, has been spun off as a stand-alone company.