Mercury Communications names former Wunderman exec CEO

Mercury Communications has appointed former president of Wunderman Eric Larsen as CEO with the mandate to continue growth of the company — which is the result of an April 2007 merger of Mercury Media, Advanced Results Marketing and RMG Marketing.

The new entity is being touted as the largest independent measurable media company in North America.

“What's going on into today's media space has created what I would call the perfect storm for a marketer with a technology background,” Larsen said. He began his career at Apple Inc. and went on to be VP of client care at Gateway Inc.

He went on to say that while Mercury had three branches of service offerings — long-form, short-form and digital — “the piece that glues those together is analytics.”

Under Larsen's helm, the company will be seeking strategic acquisitions, new personnel and more resources to compliment the network's existing media strategy, planning and buying capabilities.

He said that with the economic downturn the company was seeing an uptick in spending among debt counseling, debt consolidation and personal data security. However, he was optimistic about spend with measured media in all verticals.

“With a firm that's focus is measurability, we've got a message that resonates with everyone at the table: CMO, CFO and chief procurement officer,” Larsen said.