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PLANO, Texas — Crossmark has acquired PromoWorks, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based provider of insights-driven shopper marketing solutions.
Terms of the deal, announced Monday, weren’t disclosed. Crossmark said the acquisition will make it the preferred product sampling and demonstration agency for 10 of the top 20 food retailers in North America, as well as the exclusive event marketing planning agency for many top consumer brands.
"Through intense focus and execution, we have become the North American leader in in-store marketing for brands," Crossmark chief executive officer Joe Crafton said in a statement. "Not only does PromoWorks add to Crossmark’s scale and coverage, but we also are excited about the company’s ability to create integrated and innovative omnichannel campaigns."
PromoWorks specializes in customized shopper engagement and product sampling/demonstration events. Since 1999, the firm conducted more than 5 million events and engaged over 1.5 billion people with shopper buying decisions, Crossmark reported.
Crossmark noted that the deal marks its second recent acquisition of an engagement-focused marketing firm. In early August, the sales and marketing firm acquired Marketing Werks, an out-of-store consumer-engagement firm based in Chicago.
"The PromoWorks and Marketing Werks transactions create solutions for our clients that are unrivaled. As traditional advertising continues to lose relevance in many categories, we are experiencing an explosion in utilizing people as media to engage with consumers on-the-go," according to Crafton.
Crossmark Marketing Services president Jim Rose commented, "There is no more powerful marketing tactic than someone telling you face-to-face about a product benefit or giving you a sample of the product to taste or touch when you’re on the path to purchase. That is experiential marketing that leads to conversion and loyalty. And it’s why we’re so excited about making investments in this growing segment."
Plans call for PromoWorks to be led by industry veteran Julie Beck. Before joining PromoWorks in 2011, Beck held leadership positions at Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft and The Partnering Group.
Crossmark’s range of sales and marketing services include headquarter sales, retail merchandising, retailer solutions, in-store events, experiential marketing, shopper marketing, consumer engagement, in-store data collection and field intelligence, retail analytics and retail technology.
