March 5, 2015

Digital Marketing Ripe for R2i’s Big Move

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Today’s announcement that Baltimore-based digital marketing firm R2integrated will acquire Silicon Valley’s CatapultWorks signals a broader development for technology creators, says Anil Gupta at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

“Technology today has become so ubiquitous and so accessible, and increasingly less and less expensive, there is a huge opportunity for technology creators," says Gupta, the Michael D. Dingman Chair in Strategy, Globalization and Entrepreneurship.

Gupta tells Baltimore Sun reporter Arthur Hirsch that the expanding field draws on such “high priests” as Microsoft, Apple and Google, making technology readily available.

R2i’s clients include Hershey’s, Microsoft, Under Armour and MasterCard. CatapultWorks, near San Jose, serves the likes of Chevron and United Healthcare. The firms are driving messages in a marketing universe of “literally a thousand new technology software platforms and tools,” CatapultWorks founder and president Tom Beck tells the Baltimore Sun.

The R2i deal reportedly will not involve layoffs or transfers, creating a 200-employee, $30 million revenue operation with offices in Baltimore, Seattle, St. Louis and northern California.
 
Gupta says the multiple offices makes sense because there's only so much that can be done through email, phone and Skype. "The more creative the task, the more the need for communication with the client,” he says.

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About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business

The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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