Already growing at torrid pace, 10-year-old ad agency Rosetta Marketing has just announced the acquisition of Brulant, a Cleveland-based ad agency. The move will boost Rosetta’s staff size from 250 to 650. Both firms specialize in what they term “interactive marketing,” which relies heavily on the Internet and on sending targeted messages to just the people most likely to be receptive to them.
“The interactive marketing landscape is rapidly shifting from mass to personalized targeting and from fuzzy equity measures to precisely measured, managed and optimized customer relationship economics,” Chris Kuenne, Rosetta’s founder and CEO, at right, said in announcing the acquisition.
Rosetta, which had 2007 revenue of $50 million, has a client roster that includes Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, Allergan, Shire, HSBC, and Microsoft. The firm’s 2007 revenue totaled $50 million. Kuenne projects post-acquisition revenue to be $130 million.
Brulant relies heavily on technology, while Rosetta’s point of differentiation is a heavy reliance on what it calls “personality-based segmentation.” In an article on reaching potential banking clients, Kuenne, a Princeton University graduate (Class of 1985), explained that success hinges on understanding personality traits. He said, for example, that people who are confident about their ability to handle money are likely to gravitate toward online banking, while those who are less confident will probably prefer to visit a bank branch. But, stressing the importance of detailed customer research, he also said that the same highly confident people who pay all their bills online might want to turn all of their investment decisions over to a professional.
Doing the research and understanding why some people are good candidates for a particular product or service is at the heart of Rosetta’s business.
Rosetta and Brulant, its new acquisition, are expected to consolidate under the Rosetta brand after a short transition period. The acquisition will add offices in Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston to Rosetta’s current locations at the American Metro Center in Hamilton, in New York, and in Denver.
This is not the first acquisition for Rosetta, and it is unlikely to be the last. In 2005 the firm acquired interactive marketing agency SimStar. In announcing the Brulant deal, the two companies said that they plan to grow, in part, through further acquisitions, and are looking for candidates among some 100 companies in the areas of mobile, media, and social networking.
Rosetta, 100 American Metro Boulevard, Suite 201, Hamilton 08619; 609-689-6100; fax, 609-631-0184. Christopher B. Kuenne, president. Home page: www.rosettamarketing.com.
