• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, March 21, 2012

Banyan Branch, which bills itself as a full-service social media agency, just got a little more full service. It has launched a media buying practice that will focus on paid social media ads to amplify and compliment the work on social media programs that it does for clients.

Banyan has hired two media agency veterans to run the new practice, including MEC’s Matt Haynes, who has been named director of social strategy and media planning, and Kerry Antezana who has been appointed director of agency services.

At MEC Haynes was most recently social media lead and media director at MEC Interaction. Antezana was creative director at JWT Inside before opening a consultancy in 2010.

In addition to buying, the new unit will plan out purchase strategies and do post-buy ROI analytics. 

Commenting on the new buying practice, agency president Blake Cahill stated, “Brands need to amplify their social campaigns, and paid social ads provide an effective and measurable approach for extending reach and increasing interaction with a target audience.”

The launch of the new buying practice comes after a recent round of Series A funding in the amount of $1.7 million for the agency. The Seattle-based shop also recently a hired a new senior vice president of client services, Jennifer Blank Hecht and two new account directors.  

The shop’s clients include Amazon, Fox, Gilt Groupe, Microsoft, Porsche and T-Mobile.

Investors in the agency include Bob Gay, CEO and co-founder of Huntsman Gay Global Capital, Bill Bryant, venture partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Geoff Entress, venture partner at Voyager Capital, among others.