Customer relationship management firm Harte-Hanks Inc. wants to hire an undisclosed number of executives after combining its direct and interactive agency divisions under the new Harte-Hanks Direct & Interactive.
Likely additions include strategists, creative executives, artists and account executives.
“We expect to drive additional growth and additional staff as a result of this combination,” said Frank Harvey, the new president of Harte-Hanks Direct & Interactive.
Harvey previously was president for three years of the interactive division at Harte-Hanks in Lake Katrine, NY. That office and Harte-Hanks' Langhorne, PA, outpost, where Harvey has relocated, will serve as the base for Harte-Hanks Direct & Interactive.
Wayne Rosenberger, who previously had overall charge of Harte-Hanks' direct agency services, moves up to vice president of business development for marketing services at Harte-Hanks, San Antonio.
The combined entity will continue to operate within the marketing services division of Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing.
The merger of the two agency divisions was led by client developments.
“It's more meant to create better synergy and better ability for the clients to use Harte-Hanks,” Harvey said. “In the past, clients looked at e-business as separate from marketing. They're now combining those functions.”
The majority of Harte-Hanks' direct marketing agency clients are in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, automotive, hospitality and leisure. The interactive arm handled mostly pharmaceuticals, financial services, healthcare, and education and training.
Harte-Hanks Direct & Interactive will have clients like Pharmacia, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, Amgen, CNA and Abbott Laboratories.
Working alongside Harvey will be Hensley Evans, newly promoted to president of interactive at Harte-Hanks Direct & Interactive. She will work out of the Lake Katrine office.
Harvey said the Harte-Hanks agency changes and potential addition to the employee rolls comes as he sees a rebound in the economy.
“At this time, we're starting to see marketing budgets pick up a little faster than in the past [slowdowns],” he said. “I just think we've evolved as an economy and the turns evolve more rapidly, so the economy gets back on its feet more quickly.”
