FloNetwork, Y&R's impiric in Asian E-mail Deal

E-mail marketing firm FloNetwork, which last week agreed to be acquired by ad giant DoubleClick, continued its recent efforts at expansion this week, inking a deal to expand its footprint to Asia.

Through its alliance with New York-based integrated marketing firm impiric, Toronto-based FloNetwork’s services — which include permission email design and delivery, address list management and result analysis — will be offered to impiric’s clients in Singapore, East Asia and China.

Impiric, formerly known as Wunderman Cato Johnson, is a subsidiary of ad group Young & Rubicam and specializes in strategic consulting and marketing communications.

Financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed.

The agreement extends FloNetwork’s distribution channels, and gives it the opportunity to deliver mass permission email for some high-profile clients. In Asia, impiric’s client roster includes Ericsson, Ford and IBM.

“Impiric Asia’s selection of FloNetwork as its e-messaging platform highlights our market leadership position in the email marketing field,” said FloNetwork’s Joe Nardi, who is vice president for international development at the firm.

Impiric said its Asian direct marketing practices would gain by being able to combine their offerings with an email marketing component.

“We chose FloNetwork because its combination of direct marketing sophistication and technical capabilities have made them market leaders,” said impiric Asia’s online marketing director, Charles Tidswell. “Now our clients can benefit from FloNetwork’s leading expertise in personalization and campaign management using highly scalable technology.”

Thanks to the impiric-FloNetwork deal, DoubleClick will now have a greater email marketing presence in Asia when the acquisition closes in second quarter. The deal is especially sweet as it concerns a region where the U.S. ad networks and email marketers are already in hot competition with local firms and agencies.

Additionally, FloNetwork’s new relationship with impiric — which has close ties with other Y&R units — will surely help DoubleClick’s email expansion efforts as well.

FloNetwork also Wednesday unveiled its XML email platform, aimed at helping marketers integrate their recipient databases with personalized and automated email campaigns.

For instance, the new system could allow clients to automatically update and add subscribers from a variety of sources to permission-based mailing lists. In another application, clients could send dynamically generated messages after customers make an e-commerce purchase.