Leap, a full-service Interactive Agency headquartered in Louisville, is opening a third location in Cincinnati on October 1, 2009. To quickly establish the company’s presence here, Leap has purchased metaphor studio, a full-service brand performance consultancy, located in Over-the-Rhine.
Leap has been selected as one of the country’s fastest growing companies by Inc. Magazine three years in a row. The company has built its business by delivering results-driven interactive marketing strategies and programs to brands such as Lily of France, Graco Baby, Fiserv CBS Worldwide, McGraw-Hill, Tommy Hilfiger and many others. While the company covers every facet of interactive — from creative design to development and programming to comprehensive online marketing and promotion management — it’s an aggressive research and analytics practice that has turned project work into long-term partnerships.
Leap was established in 1999 and now employs 75 full-time staff members. The acquisition of Metaphor means that the company will have a fully-functioning office in Cincinnati to include account management, art direction, design and programming roles.
As part of the acquisition, Leap will retain metaphor’s top principals, founder Ran Mullins and SVP/Chief Strategy Officer Suzanne Beane, as well as the Metaphor client base. “We’re thrilled to be a part of the Leap team,” says Mullins. “Both companies have years of experience with interactive. Our intent is for Metaphor’s brand performance background to enhance what Leap already does.”
Leap’s purchase of Metaphor was coordinated with the assistance of Cincinnati-based Keate Partners Ltd., one of the oldest and largest business brokers in the region. Keate Partners played a vital role identifying metaphor as a proper fit for Leap’s specific needs.
By acquiring Metaphor, Leap will be adding a deeper, more targeted branding process to its interactive marketing services. Leap CEO Daniel Knapp explains, “By infusing metaphor’s expertise and process, we’ll
give our clients new ways of looking at their customers in the digital space and show them how to use that knowledge to cut through the clutter and engage directly with the consumer.”
Metaphor’s long-held philosophy, Community Experience Development (CeD), will help Leap
clients leverage consumer insights into real bottom-line results. Knapp expects that a performance-oriented brand strategy coupled with outstanding creative, programming depth and comprehensive marketing programs, will round out a powerful spectrum of services.
“A combination of strategic vision and roll-up-your sleeves doing is what every client wants,” says Suzanne Beane, who will be directing the Cincinnati office. “We feel that this acquisition will increase our
capacity to do just that on a daily basis,” says Beane. The firm will retain metaphor’s 538 Reading Road address in Cincinnati. Corporate offices will remain in Louisville where Leap was founded.
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Knapp, Chief Executive Officer
at 502.212.1390
