DoubleClick today announced that it has completed its acquisition of SmartPath, a privately-held Marketing Resource Management (MRM) software company.
SmartPath's solutions help marketers and their agencies manage the operational aspects of marketing, including strategic planning, project management, workflow, document management and marketing financial management. MRM provides a common operating platform for marketers to plan and develop campaigns and budgets across all marketing channels.
The SmartPath MRM solution adds marketing planning and operational management solutions to DoubleClick's existing offerings in channel execution and data and analytics optimization. In addition, it provides DoubleClick with expanded platform and services capabilities to enter traditional marketing channels such as print and television.
DoubleClick will immediately begin to sell the SmartPath MRM solution through its global sales force as a standalone product, in addition to integrating it with DoubleClick Ensemble 7.0 in June 2004. The company will also assess opportunities to integrate SmartPath with other DoubleClick solutions.
DoubleClick will continue to base its MRM capabilities in North Carolina and expects to increase its North Carolina personnel during the next year. The MRM business will be part of DoubleClick's Marketing Automation division, which together with DoubleClick's campaign management software and email and analytics tools provide customer-centric marketing solutions to more than 500 world-class marketing organizations globally, including Procter & Gamble, J.Crew, Sprint, TerraLycos, Orbitz and FedEx. Some of SmartPath's customers include marketers such as Victoria's Secret, Kohler, the National Geographic Society, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth, and agencies such as Leo Burnett and Carmichael Lynch.
"The response to this acquisition from customers, industry analysts, employees and the media has been overwhelmingly positive," said Kevin Ryan, CEO of DoubleClick. "Our goal is to provide technology solutions that empower marketing departments and their agencies to manage their entire marketing activity from planning, budgeting and reporting to managing workflow and execution. As such, we are delighted to welcome SmartPath to the DoubleClick family, as we build together towards this goal."