New venture aims to streamline enterprise marketing
Procter & Gamble and Web-based marketing technologist Worldwide Magnifi form a company aimed at managing the way workers share marketing information.
Under the terms of the agreement, P&G and Magnifi will hold a minority stake in the company--currently known by its working name, Project EMM (enterprise marketing management). P&G will invest some of its own marketing resources. The new venture will be a stand-alone marketing management company, company executives said during a press conference Tuesday.
Financial details of the venture were not disclosed.
The new company will assist clients with marketing strategy, development and interactive services, and will offer research, forecasting, testing and market simulation tools. It will also use Magnifi-built centers to host marketing databases and software in the United States, Europe and Asia.
P&G and Magnifi are setting up Project EMM because they see enterprise marketing management becoming a $2 billion to $5 billion market in the next couple of years, said Hunter Hastings, chief executive of the new company.
The company will build an online system to let marketing professionals, from marketing companies to advertising agencies to retailers, simultaneously view every step of a project, from strategic development to finished campaigns.
Its software will be developed for the office computers of P&G workers, as well as other customers. The new technology will allow workers access to advice about different stages of a marketing process that has been provided by P&G managers. It will also include software tools allowing rapid marketing tests with online focus groups and offer assessments of the campaign's chances of success.
The new company's early clients will include Coca-Cola, Philips Domestic Appliances and BBDO Worldwide.
Cincinnati, Ohio-based P&G markets more than 300 brands, including Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste, Pantene shampoo and conditioner, Pringles potato chips, Pampers diapers and Vicks cold medications. Los Gatos, Calif.-based Magnifi develops marketing technology tools and services for advertising and marketing agencies.
The new company will have 80 employees, including Magnifi and P&G employees and new hires, and will have offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Cincinnati and Los Gatos, Calif.