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The Shipyard’s Parent Company, TSY Enterprises, To Acquire Mering

Columbus, OH/ Sacramento, CA – TSY Enterprises, Inc. (TSY), parent company of The Shipyard, announced today that it has entered an agreement to acquire independent agency Mering. The move combines strengths in marketing, creative and analytics. Mering has decades of experience as a results-driven. strategically-grounded advertising agency, known for memorable global creative for brands. The Shipyard leads with its “marketing engineering” philosophy, leveraging data and creativity. Combined, the companies will provide clients with expanded capabilities and a strengthened growth proposition, which will be more important than ever post-pandemic. The group now totals 120 people across four cities including: Columbus, Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Diego.

Founded in 1985 by CEO Dave Mering, Mering is known for creating work that moves people to engage with brands and drive positive business outcomes. Its services include: insights and strategy, content creation, integrated media, analytics, and production. Mering becomes an equity partner and Vice Chairman of TSY Enterprises.
The Shipyard, founded in 2014, with offices in Columbus, Ohio and Newport Beach, CA, is the world’s first “marketing engineering agency,” known for uniting the power of data and storytelling to create and deliver courageous marketing that is compelling, effective and measurable. The Shipyard first entered the California market with its acquisition of Newport Beach-based O’Leary and Partners in 2016.

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of The Shipyard’s creation of its new eCommerce Growth Engineering Practice designed to create, foster and grow marketers’ direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels. The agency serves iconic brands such as In-N-Out Burger, American Electric Power, Scotts Miracle Gro, Weleda, Protective Insurance, Bollé, NCR, BrewDog, Sempra, Nationwide and CO-OP Financial Services.
The two founders were acquainted but were reintroduced during a Worldwide Partners (WPI) call for agency CEOs who were discussing business successes and challenges in our world today.

“What began as a friendly personal dialogue between founders transformed into a plan for our companies to join forces,” Mering said. “Rick and The Shipyard have a track record of success bringing first to market solutions to brands and innovating ahead of competitors. As we moved into more serious conversations, a few things were clear about our possible shared future. First and foremost, by combining strengths we can provide our clients with deepened expertise. Additionally, we saw the benefits of our diversified experiences across so many industries. This not only makes us stronger, but it also makes our companies a more exciting place to work for our teams, who like to be challenged with new opportunities.”
Mering clients include: Visit California, San Diego Tourism Authority, VSP Vision Care, KSL Resorts, Monarch Beach Resort, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, Merlin Entertainments (LEGOLAND), California Wine Institute, California Grown, Tahiti Tourism North America, Visit Napa Valley and Visit SLO CAL.

In announcing the deal, Rick Milenthal, TSY Chairman said: “Marketing today requires data and technology and creativity. We were attracted to Mering because of its strength in designing compelling campaigns for clients that drive consumers to action,” said Milenthal. “We see tremendous business growth opportunity in California and Mering is California’s leading independent agency. Dave is going to be an incredible asset to our team and I couldn’t be happier to have him and his agency on board.”

The two firms plan to further integrate leadership and branding in 2021.
About Mering

We Move People. Founded in 1985, Mering is a consumer action agency. We create work that moves people to engage with your brand, and drives positive business outcomes. With offices in Northern and Southern California, Mering serves a roster of clients that include: Visit California, San Diego Tourism Authority, VSP Vision Care, KSL Resorts, Monarch Beach Resort, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, Merlin Entertainments (LEGOLAND), California Wine Institute, California Grown, Tahiti Tourism North America, Visit Napa Valley and Visit SLO CAL. For more information, visit mering.com.
About TSY Enterprises

TSY Enterprises (TSY) is a private holding company established in 2013 to innovate and build marketing services that leverage data and creativity for growth. The company launched The Shipyard as the world’s first “Marketing Engineering” agency in 2014. TSY subsequently acquired ad agency O’Leary and Partners; content company Revolocity; design shop SteamDigital; and the strategic consultancy Tomorro LLC. TSY also created SmartHarbor in 2017, a digital marketing company focused on the insurance industry. In 2019, TSY successfully sold Smart Harbor to Accel-KKR Ventures, using the resulting capital and resources to continue building The Shipyard. For more information theshipyard.com.