Ascentium and miller.whiterunkle join forces: “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!”

In a move reminiscent of that classic Reeses Peanut Butter Cup commercial, where two great tastes taste great together, Ascentium has announced the acquisition of miller.whiterunkle. What makes this extra cool for me is that I used to work at miller.whiterunkle.

Update: The Spokesman-Review has an article on the acquisition.

Here is the press release:

Acquisition Deepens Ascentium’s Interactive Marketing, Advertising and Creative Services

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ascentium Corporation, a leading interactive marketing and technology consultancy, today announced the acquisition of advertising agency miller.whiterunkle (www.millerwr.com). Ascentium is among the nation’s fastest growing private companies, and this acquisition delivers on its strategy of becoming one of the top creative, interactive marketing agencies in North America. miller.whiterunkle—with offices in Spokane, Seattle and Atlanta—offers talent that complements and expands upon Ascentium’s deep interactive marketing capabilities while infusing branding and advertising capabilities into the company’s national marketing and technology portfolio.

Based on current revenue projections for 2007, the combined company revenues will exceed $55 million, positioning Ascentium near the top 20 of U.S. interactive agencies ranked by revenue according to the Advertising Age published list of Top Interactive Agencies in 2006.

A full-service, integrated advertising agency, miller.whiterunkle has more than 27 years of experience in online and offline brand and media strategy, award-winning creative advertising campaigns, direct response solutions, public relations, consumer insights and research, and multicultural marketing, with a specific emphasis on Hispanic advertising. Clients include Motorola, McDonald’s, AT&T/Cingular, and Henry Weinhard’s.

“The acquisition of miller.whiterunkle maps to Ascentium’s customer-focused growth strategy,” said Jim Beebe, president of Ascentium. “We’ll immediately deepen our creative, interactive marketing and advertising services while creating a national presence to better service our clients from coast to coast. The incredibly talented team from miller.whiterunkle will further help us meet our customers’ expanding needs to optimize online and offline communications with their customers.”

“This just made sense,” said Ed.Miller, president and CEO of miller.whiterunkle. “Given growing client demands for more integrated and comprehensive offerings, the timing couldn’t be better for us. We are delighted to join Ascentium as they share our passion for creating great customer experiences.”

Ascentium Services

Committed to providing its customers with solutions to a broad range of business problems, Ascentium offers a broad range of services, including:

• Interactive marketing and advertising

Ascentium customers profit from brand experiences that build awareness, differentiate them from competitors and increase conversion—all at the rapid pace marketing demands.

• Portals and collaboration

These services increase conversion and improve productivity. Ascentium helps customers and users discover and share information, both on the Web and across their operations.

• Customer relationship management (CRM)

Ascentium CRM solutions transform customer data into broader intelligence that every aspect of an organization can act on—all without changing the way customers run their businesses.

• Business intelligence (BI)

Ascentium BI solutions improve the bottom line. They help customers monitor, understand, and predict the behavior of important business indicators by putting quality data, analytics, and business insight into their people’s hands.

• Application and product development

These services increase operational efficiency, create revenue, and capitalize on market opportunities with cost-effective technology that matches the pace of the customer’s business.

About Ascentium Corporation

Ascentium Corporation (www.ascentium.com) is an interactive marketing and technology consultancy that delivers award-winning experiences, products, and information-driven business solutions to achieve its clients’ strategic objectives. Making Inc. magazine’s list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for the past three years, Ascentium continues to see substantial growth in customer relationship management, digital marketing, Web initiatives, enterprise content management, systems integration, custom development and strategic business engagements. The company’s clients include Boeing, Dell, Expedia, InfoSpace, Microsoft, Providence Health Systems, and Starbucks. Ascentium is headquartered in Bellevue, with offices in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Spokane, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas.