The Marketing Arm

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The Marketing Arm is a network of marketing services agencies, all owned by Omnicom Group, including Millsport, USMP, Davie Brown Entertainment, and ipsh! The company is based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, Stamford, Conn., and Bentonville, Arkansas.

In June 2006, the company was recognized by the editors of PROMO magazine as the No. 1 marketing agency in the U.S. in its rankings of the top 100 agencies. The PROMO 100 annually recognizes the nation’s top marketing firms on the basis of net revenues, two-year growth, and the quality and results of campaign work.

In addition to its No. 1 overall ranking, The Marketing Arm was the top-ranked agency in terms of two-year growth (729.6%), and earned a top 10 ranking for its campaign work (strategy, execution, creativity, scope, and results).

Founded in 1992 by former ProServ and Talent Sports International executive Ray Clark, The Marketing Arm was created as the event and corporate sports marketing division of Athletic Resource Management Inc. (ARM), a successful Memphis-based sports agency headed by Kyle Rote, Jr., a former professional soccer player in the NASL whose father, Kyle Rote Sr., starred in the NFL during the 1950s before serving as the first president of the NFL Players Association.

Omnicom Group acquired The Marketing Arm in June 1999. In 2003, The Marketing Arm joined event operations with USMP, an Omnicom sister agency based in Torrance, Calif. USMP now serves as The Marketing Arm's event unit, specializing in experiential and engagement marketing, and “retailtainment,” a promotional technique that combines retail and entertainment to create an entertaining shopping experience.

In 2004, The Marketing Arm merged its sports consulting division with Millsport, a leading sports marketing firm owned by Omnicom, to form an agency retaining the Millsport brand name. Founded in 1975, Millsport was a pioneer in using sports sponsorship as a branding tool.

Los Angeles-based agency Davie Brown Entertainment, which was acquired by Omnicom in 2001, joined The Marketing Arm network next. In 2006, Davie Brown's talent division created the Davie-Brown Index (DBI), a celebrity index that determines a celebrity’s ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent.

ipsh!, an Omnicom company based in San Francisco and the leading North American mobile media and marketing services agency, joined The Marketing Arm in October 2005 as its wireless marketing consulting division.

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