Rosetta Marketing Group Acquires Wishbone

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosetta, the nation's largest independent interactive marketing agency, and Wishbone, the award-winning professional healthcare marketing agency, today announced the acquisition of Wishbone by Rosetta.  Purchase price and terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Wishbone, Med Ad News' Category III 2009 Agency of the Year winner, had revenues of over $15 million in 2009, up over 20% versus a year ago. Wishbone's major clients include Baxter, CardioNet, Dey, Genzyme, Meda, Novartis, Otsuka, and Pfizer. Rosetta, one of Advertising Age's 10 Largest Digital Agencies, is a $131 million digital agency with expertise across multiple markets including healthcare, banking, insurance, consumer products and retail. Rosetta's healthcare business grew by 33% in 2009. Among its current clients are Allergan, Amgen, BMS, Covidien, Johnson & Johnson, Medco, Novartis, Otsuka, Shire and Takeda.

"Major changes in the healthcare industry are affecting sales and marketing. These changes include a decreasing reliance on face-to-face detailing via professional sales forces and an increasing use of digitally-enabled communication channels between the brand and healthcare professionals. This dynamic is driving the demand for agencies that can provide the skills and integrated capabilities their pharmaceutical clients need to compete effectively in this new digital environment. We believe the addition of Wishbone to Rosetta will allow us to deliver the services our clients need in both the current and future healthcare marketing environment," said Kurt Holstein, Rosetta's co-founder and President.

Wishbone founder and CEO Steven Michaelson said, "Rosetta and Wishbone bring highly complementary strengths to the table that will benefit our clients immediately. Wishbone's industry leading strategic and creative capabilities – now combined with Rosetta's expertise in insight-based marketing strategy consulting and personality segmentation, world-class digital technology and interactive media – will result in a new kind of agency that's even better equipped to help clients prevail in the challenging times ahead."

Wishbone will retain its name, and its management team, and will continue to operate from its offices at 245 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Wishbone will be integrated as a separate professionally-focused group within Rosetta's overall Healthcare internet marketing business and the two agencies will immediately start leveraging the synergies and team members across the two groups to provide additional capabilities to existing and prospective clients.

About Rosetta

Founded in 1998, Rosetta has rapidly become the largest independent interactive agency in the US. AdAge ranks it amongst the top ten digital agencies and the fastest growing agency within the top 50. Rosetta is rated a "strong performer" in a recently published Forrester Wave report. Using a patented approach to segmentation, called Personality® Segmentation, which provides deep insights into the underlying drivers of consumer behavior, Rosetta builds its clients' brands by identifying, understanding and enhancing relationships with its customers. Rosetta's industry-focused marketers and creative teams translate these insights into relevant marketing solutions that use world-class technology, search and media to attract, retain and strengthen a brand's most valuable customer relationships. 

Rosetta brings deep industry expertise to its client work within the Retail & Consumer Products; Healthcare; Financial Services; Communications, Media & Technology; Travel & Leisure and B2B markets. Rosetta's clients include OfficeMax, Scholastic, Jos. A. Bank and David's Bridal (retail); Allergan, Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, and Otsuka (healthcare); Citizens, HSBC, Nationwide and Fidelity (financial services); and Marriott (travel and leisure), Microsoft and T-Mobile (communications, media & technology).

Rosetta is headquartered in Princeton, NJ, with additional offices in New York, Cleveland, Denver, Boston and Chicago. For more information, visit http://www.rosetta.com.

About Wishbone

Founded in 1998, Wishbone is a full-service pharmaceutical advertising agency that was awarded "Agency of the Year" honors in 2009. Since its inception, Wishbone has defined its mission as delivering "the big-agency experience without the big-agency bureaucracy." For clients, this has meant getting the highest level of strategic, creative, and tactical support in the most efficient way possible.

All of Wishbone's work for clients continues to be guided by its proprietary Discovery Process, a system that powerfully marries customer insight and strategic vision with creative and tactical implementation. The Discovery Process continues to help Wishbone deliver the most compelling strategies and world-class creative for its clients and their brands.

In addition, Wishbone offers clients the benefit of an independent global network. This newly created independent network is currently comprised of 30 independent healthcare agencies spread around the globe. Wishbone's current clients include Baxter, CardioNet, Dey, Genzyme, Meda, Novartis, Otsuka, and Pfizer. Wishbone is located in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.wishbone-itp.com.

SOURCE Rosetta