MDC Partners has merged two media agencies it acquired in 2012—TargetCast and RJ Palmer—to create a new media agency called Assembly. The Toronto-born, New York-based holding company has also rebranded its umbrella media unit, Maxxcom, as MDC Media Partners.
Former Carat USA president Martin Cass has been hired as CEO of both Assembly and the new media unit. Steve Farella, previously CEO of TargetCast, will serve as chairman of both Assembly and MDC Media Partners. Peter Knobloch, former CEO of RJ Palmer, has been appointed chief investment officer of Assembly, leading all buying.
“We have innovated our business around the conviction that creativity is a force for profitable business change, and we see that advertising technology is rapidly leaving traditional media agencies behind, forcing clients to go elsewhere to navigate the landscape,” said Miles Nadal, chairman and CEO of MDC Partners, in a release.
“To provide clients with a crucially necessary new model, Martin and Steve have combined proven media expertise with a legacy-free, entrepreneurial approach to developing media technology and MDC’s heritage of disruptive creativity.”
Assembly will use the media technology developed by sibling shop Varick Media Management, a data-driven agency trading desk.
“We don’t see advertising technology and automation as contradictory to the human creativity powering meaningful communication,” said Cass, in a release. “By optimizing a marketer’s media investments more effectively with technology, we are freeing up significant resources to create the truly breakthrough ideas that meaningfully connect brands with consumers.”
