Rapp Collins Acquires E-mail Marketer Innovyx

Direct marketing agency Rapp Collins Worldwide, an Omnicom Group company, acquired email marketing services firm Innovyx Wednesday, with an eye to integrating Innovyx’s services into RCW’s interactive marketing arm, RappDigital.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition gives RappDigital access to Innovyx’s Dialogue 1to1 email marketing platform, which allows companies to create, deliver and track personalized, database-integrated marketing messages.

“Innovyx is a pioneer in developing and managing highly personalized email marketing programs for Fortune 1000 clients,” said RappDigital president and chief executive J. G. Sandom.

“We will combine the sophisticated targeting and reporting capabilities Innovyx provides with the decision sciences and database expertise already found within Rapp Collins to deliver unprecedented control and relevancy through the email channel.”

In addition to broadening RappDigital’s offerings, Wednesday’s acquisition adds some big-name clients, including Microsoft, Disney Interactive, and automotive aftermarket portal and B2B exchange CarParts.com.

RappDigital’s clients include Pfizer, SBC Communications and UPS.

The deal follows a recent trend of purchases and partnerships by i-agencies to broaden their offerings in the interactive space.

RCW’s acquisition of Innovyx echoes a partnership it formed last fall with i-shop Critical Mass to expand its combined digital offerings to Web integration and design and to compete with similar services offered by competing integrated on- and offline agencies.

More recently, Wednesday’s acquisition resembles last month’s partnership between Interpublic ad agency Lowe Lintas and email marketer ClickAction, in that it broadened the offerings of the agency’s digital unit, Lowe Lintas Interactive, through a cross-selling agreement between the two firms.