Seeking to strengthen its business-to-business marketing initiatives by increasing the focus on direct-to-customer relations and communications, Sprint Corp., Westwood, KS, has assigned all advertising and direct marketing activities for its Sprint Business division to MRM Worldwide's McCann Relationship Marketing, New York.
Under the terms of the agreement, MRM will be responsible for the conception, development, execution and implementation of advertising and direct marketing activities for Sprint Business. MRM also will provide media planning and will serve as the Sprint Business strategic partner and primary resource for marketing and advertising leadership and counsel. MRM's Sprint assignments span business-to-business marketing and advertising, as well as consumer acquisition work.
Dallas Diggs, senior director of communications planning and marketing operations at Sprint Business, said the assignment marks a new relationship between MRM and Sprint's BTB marketing division. He said that by choosing McCann, Sprint was moving to underscore the division's commitment to direct-to-customer marketing and relationship building with business customers and prospects.
“MRM understands that today's technology investments must be responsive to emerging business trends in order to stay ahead,” Diggs said. “Today, business growth and success increasingly rely on developing and managing customer relationships — organizing strategies around the customer rather than the traditional product or service line approach. MRM will be working with us to develop an integrated marketing strategy [that] focuses on [that kind] of direct customer contact.''
Pam Larrick, president and chief operating officer at MRM Worldwide, characterized Sprint Business' division managers as “true leaders” who genuinely understand customer relationship marketing.
Tracey Owens, executive vice president and general manager at MRM, said the company was also negotiating with other firms as part of an effort “to surround ourselves with additional strategic alliances that will soon further bring more unique service offerings to clients that want to stay on the cutting edge.”
She declined to be more specific. However, she conceded that “everyone's a threat in this industry” and that it is important to stay focused on “aligning with the right partners that can best [serve] your overall customer base.”
Sprint is a $20 billion global communications company that provides long-distance, local and wireless communication. The company serves approximately 20 million business and residential customers.
MRM Worldwide is the CRM division of McCann-Erickson WorldGroup, an agency brand of the Interpublic Group of Companies, New York.
