DRUM Agency was an independently owned marketing agency with operations in

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and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It shut down without notice on April 15, 2020. It was the result of the merger of BKV (Bennett Kuhn Varner), unified.agency, Hiccup and Umarketing firms. The oldest agency, BKV, originally specialized in

direct response marketing Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. B ...

, then later expanded into traditional media, followed by digital media. Clients included both for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations.

History

BKV

BKV was founded as Bennet Kuhn Varner in 1981 with Six Flags Theme Parks as one of the first clients. In 1996, BKV created and produced a two-minute

DRTV Direct response television (DRTV) is any television advertising that asks consumers to respond directly to the company — usually either by calling a toll-free telephone number, sending an SMS message, or by visiting a web site. This is a form of ...

commercial for

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to introduce the Broom Vac three months before a retail launch. This direct response television campaign sold a total of 100,000 units during the period. The ad was launched after the Christmas season and helped lead into the Mother's Day gift-buying season. Early and mid-March 2001, BKV launched a series of direct response television commercials for Marietta's Matria Healthcare Inc. for their

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

self-care division. The DRTV commercials target audience was seniors age 65 and over. They were to call a toll-free number to order diabetes-care supplies through the mail instead of through pharmacies. June 2001, Direct Results Network was created as a sister company of BKV. In 2002, the name was changed to Response Mine Interactive (RMI). In 2002,

Ad Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...

named BKV one of the top agencies by U.S. direct marketing revenue at #49. On Sept 2, 2005, BKV employees collected money on the streets of

Buckhead Buckhead is the uptown commercial and residential district of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, comprising approximately the northernmost fifth of the city. Buckhead is the third largest business district within the Atlanta city limits, behind Downto ...

for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Agency owners Brent Kuhn and Maribett Varner matched the donation raised and BKV sent $3,218 to the American Red Cross. In 2006, BKV began using marketing techniques to better reach clients and consumers by using video and audio Podcasts and mobile platforms. In 2007, Equifax chose BKV to handle its $11 million account for direct response,

search engine optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as "natural" or " organic" results) rather than dire ...

and marketing services. To expand communication programs beyond the internet, Equifax chose to utilize print, direct mail and

direct response television Direct response television (DRTV) is any television advertising that asks consumers to respond directly to the company — usually either by calling a toll-free telephone number, sending an SMS message, or by visiting a web site. This is a form of ...

. BKV merged with Weyforth-Haas Marketing of

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in 2007. The joined company took on the name BKV Inc. in 2008. BKV and sister company RMI moved to 8th, 9th and 10th floors of Lenox Towers at 3390 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, Georgia, 30326 in June 2009 with the help of CresaPartners. BKV was previously located at 2964 Peachtree Road for ten years. In 2013, Dave Mundo, Analytics Director at BKV, spoke at Digital Summit Atlanta on media and marketing content alongside entrepreneurs and digital strategists. In 2014, Jana Ferguson, EVP and Director of Client Services, spoke at Digital Summit Atlanta about the importance of being results driven and analytical within paid search marketing,

display advertising Digital display advertising is online graphic advertising through banners, text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose of digital display advertising is to post company ads on third-party websites. A display ad is usually interactive (i.e. ...

, email acquisition and web development. Greg Lee, Director of SEO at BKV, spoke at SES Atlanta in 2015 on brand visibility and search engine optimization. SES Atlanta is a conference that focuses on various types of search marketing from paid search to organic search. In 2015, Todd Chambers, Group Creative Director VP at BKV, discussed the strategies and trends of web design and user experience at SEMPO Google+ Hangout. Expert guest speakers discussed these topics in an open question and answer format. In October 2015, BKV provided nonprofit marketing services to support 48in48 as both a sponsor and source of volunteers including web designers, developers and copywriters. This event, which took place at General Assembly in

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, provided 48 custom

WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

websites for 48 Atlanta-based nonprofits in no more than 48 hours.

DRUM Agency

In 2016 BKV began collaborating with three other agencies, Hiccup, Umarketing and unified.agency as a planned two-year consolidation. Then in 2018, these agencies merged into one marketing firm under the name DRUM Agency, led by CEO George Wiedemann and COO Ken Lomasney with operations in Atlanta, Chicago and New York. In April 2020, DRUM Agency shut its Atlanta office down suddenly and without explanation.

Services

Offerings under BKV included digital advertising,

search engine marketing Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine op ...

, advanced data and analytics, direct mail,

customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study big data, large amounts of information. CRM systems data collectio ...

email marketing Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to ...

, broadcast creative and media services,

social media marketing Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for ...

and digital PR. The company also provided web and mobile development services, such as design, static site generation, API integration, and database administration. With the merger to DRUM Agency, additional creative, technology and analytics services were added to the offering.

Awards

References

{{reflist, 30em Advertising agencies of the United States Digital marketing companies of the United States Companies based in Atlanta Marketing companies established in 1981 Online advertising services and affiliate networks Privately held companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)