Mike Ricci Appointed Vice President of Mobile Solutions
Columbia, Md. – July 15, 2009 – Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing database marketing agencies, announced the creation of a new mobile marketing practice that will focus on developing and executing best-of-breed mobile campaigns for clients across a wide range of vertical markets. Appointed to lead the practice as Vice President of Mobile Solutions is Mike Ricci, who is chartered to oversee the strategy, planning, deployment and performance measurement for mobile campaigns across Merkle’s client base.
Merkle is formalizing its new practice in response to skyrocketing interest in mobile marketing. According to a June 2009 report from Jupiter Research entitled, "Mobile Advertising Delivery Channels, Business Models & Forecasts 2009-2014," worldwide global mobile ad spend will grow to $5.7 billion by the year 2014.
Eric Kirby, Merkle’s Senior Vice President of Interactive Solutions commented, "The mobile platform is evolving into a powerful direct channel that is ubiquitous, and offers instant engagement and measurable interactions across a variety of mobile applications. Our approach is to take an integrated view of a client’s customer and prospect data to develop the most impactful marketing strategies. Mobile will be an increasingly important source of insights and marketing activity going forward."
Mike Ricci is a mobile marketing expert who began working in the channel as it first emerged in the U.S. about five years ago. Ricci joins Merkle from iLoop Mobile, where as vice president of creative and strategy, he oversaw mobile campaigns for clients such as Sony, Paramount, Coca-Cola, Western Union, The Weather Channel and Lexus. In 2008, Ricci played an integral role in the development of the mobile Internet strategy and mobile website for President Barack Obama’s election campaign, and his work helped Obama’s team win recognition from Mobile Marketer as Mobile Marketer of the Year.
Prior to iLoop, Ricci headed up content services at Volantis Systems, a mobile Internet technology provider, where he worked with clients such as CBS, EBay, ABC’s Oscars, Disney, Discovery, Hearst, AAA and many others. Earlier, Ricci was part of the team that launched Mobile Accord/mGive and developed mobile text-to-give programs for leading nonprofit organizations.
Merkle President and CEO David Williams said, "We are extremely pleased and excited to welcome Mike Ricci into his new role at Merkle. At this moment, we are seeing a remarkable evolution in the mobile space, in that consumers are increasingly embracing mobile communications as their preferred channel for receiving product news and information – and even for making purchases. As a result, leading brands are rapidly introducing the mobile channel into their integrated customer marketing strategies."
Mike Ricci said, "Marketers are adopting increasingly sophisticated approaches that engage the recipient and invite them to interact with the brand in new, exciting ways. Whether campaigns simply involve text-based messaging, or involve mobile video and the mobile Web, they are discovering an almost unlimited array of marketing options within this new channel that engage the consumer and drive redemption and conversion."
Ricci continued, "Merkle’s approach is a natural extension of its core analytic strengths in creating highly integrated, customer-focused marketing programs that directly target consumers, measure results, and increase effectiveness. Our intent is to wed mobile analytics with all other campaign analytics to provide the marketer with a holistic look at how mobile is helping to activate other channels and drive campaign success metrics. I am genuinely excited about working with Merkle’s clients to break new ground in the mobile channel."
About Merkle Merkle is one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing database marketing agencies. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. By combining a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines, Merkle works with clients to design, execute and evaluate Integrated Customer Marketing™ programs. With more than 1,000 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered near Baltimore in Columbia, Maryland with additional offices in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Little Rock, Philadelphia, Seattle and Hagerstown, Md. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.
