• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, December 11, 2020

TSY Enterprises, parent company of Columbus, OH-based agency The Shipyard, has entered into an agreement to acquire independent agency Mering. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. 

Mering was founded in 1985 by Dave Mering. For a time the agency was known as Mering Carson with partner Greg Carson serving as Chief Creative Officer. He departed in 2019 and his name was dropped from the agency. 

Mering’s offering includes insights and strategy, content creation, integrated media, analytics, and production. Mering becomes an equity partner and Vice Chairman of TSY Enterprises. 

The Shipyard was founded in 2014 and has offices in Columbus and Newport Beach, CA.  It positions itself as a “marketing engineering agency,” that unites the power of data, analytics and storytelling.  The Shipyard first entered the California market with its acquisition of Newport Beach-based O’Leary and Partners in 2016. It recently introduced an ecommerce service dubbed the Growth Engineering Practice.

With the acquisition, the group totals 120 people across four cities including:  Columbus, Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Diego. Clients include In-N-Out Burger, American Electric Power, Scotts Miracle Gro, Weleda, Protective Insurance, Bollé, NCR, BrewDog, Sempra, Nationwide and CO-OP Financial Services. 

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. 

Rick Milenthal, CEO of The Shipyard; and Chairman at TSY Enterprises stated: “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. We see tremendous business growth opportunity in California” and Mering will help the group tap that potential. 

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