Contact Center Solutions Industry News

[April 13, 2006]

Winning combination: Cimbrian, Kelly Michener form new type of firm

(Lancaster New Era (PA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 12--Opposites can attract -- and complement each other too.

That's the logic behind Cimbrian's acquisition of Kelly Michener for an undisclosed price.

Cimbrian is a custom software and Internet applications firm, Kelly Michener a marketing agency.

"You're taking the left brain and the right brain and sort of putting them together," said Cimbrian's Kirk Barrett.

"We (at Cimbrian) certainly look at the problems that our clients have one way and the idea folks, the communications folks (at Kelly Michener) look at them an entirely different way," he added.

The combination of the two city firms, forming a 50-employee firm with annual revenues exceeding $6 million, is intended to "infuse marketing with technology," said Barrett, Cimbrian's founder and chief executive officer.

"The idea behind it is to deliver a new experience, with a greater depth of service, to advertising and marketing communications clients, unlike most any agency in this region is able to deliver," he said.

After the deal takes effect May 1, Kelly Michener will move from its leased 333 N. Arch St. location to Cimbrian's 415 N. Prince St. office.

The transaction will bring an end to Kelly Michener, one of the county's best-known marketing, advertising and public relations firms, after 34 years.

However, agency founder Robert L. Kelly will join Cimbrian, assuming a title to be determined, where he'll continue to serve the agency's current clients and develop new business.

The two firms already have a running start toward their combination, having collaborated on a number of projects over the past three or four years, making the most of their different perspectives.

Cimbrian's software and Internet skills will help meet a rising demand for marketing that targets separate segments of a client's customer base and contacts those segments with individualized messages, the executives said.

By using Cimbrian's expertise in "mining" a client's customer data and tracking customer responses, campaigns can be developed that are both "memorable and measurable," said Barrett.

This customized approach is gaining popularity among clients who find customers becoming more skeptical about marketing messages and the media used to reach those customers becoming more fragmented, they said.

"The traditional isn't working very well anymore," explained Kelly, "and it's going to work less and less well as the years go by.

"Most of our industry is searching for new solutions, new ideas to beat the problem that the traditional ways on their own are no longer working adequately," he said.

On the other hand, the marketing expertise housed at Kelly Michener will be useful to Cimbrian, the two said.

Barrett recalled instances where Cimbrian created "powerful business solutions that are innovative" but struggled to communicate their upside to client staffs and customers.

"I wish I could go back with so many clients and be able to bring the marketing" savvy to them, he said.

Still, some Cimbrian clients won't need the marketing pieces, observed Barrett, "and that's fine too," just as some Kelly Michener clients won't want the technology-driven pieces.

Whether technology is part of the process or not, the marketing service will retain its strong creative component, Kelly emphasized.

"The 'big idea' part of this business must, and will, continue. That's the point I would like to make. The traditional 'big idea' delivery is critically important to us. We are simply empowering it with a far more effective way to deliver and to measure," he said.

Cimbrian, formerly Peripherals Plus Technologies, has served private industry and government with custom software development, Web services, and coaching and mentoring for 20 years.

Led by Barrett and president Michael Schmelder, it has 35 employees and posts annual revenues of $4 million.

Kelly Michener counts among its clients Fulton Bank, Harrisburg International Airport, J.C. Ehrlich and the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority.

It has 15 employees, a number that reflects its impending sale to Cimbrian, said Kelly. Had the agency stayed independent, the volume of business would require 25 employees, he said.

Kirk Barrett (right) founder and CEO of Cimbrian a custom software and Internet applications firm is acquiring Kelly Michener marketing agency founded by Bob Kelly (left).

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