Location: New York

URL: www.mrmworldwide.com

Key executive: Bill Kolb, CEO

Employees: 2,000

2012 revenue: N/A

2012 b2b revenue: N/A

Key clients: CSC, Google, Hitachi, Intel, Verizon

Major 2012 campaigns: CSC, “CSC.com,” website redesign; Hitachi, “Social Innovation Business,” microsite, online banners; Intel, “IT Center,” content marketing, social media

Comments: Won b2b accounts including AOL, Dun & Bradsreet, Deloitte, Google, Hitachi, MasterCard, NetSuite and Staples; b2b is 40% of the agency's business

MRM had a robust 2012 on a number of fronts, from client work to account wins to new hires.

“It was a very, very good year, a mix of client and people success,” said CEO Bill Kolb, pointing to the addition of a number of notable new executives and the promotion of several existing employees. “We also did very well in terms of reputation and improving our awareness in the marketplace.”

B2b account wins for the year included AOL Inc., Deloitte, Dun & Bradstreet, Ellucian Co., Google Inc., Hitachi, NetSuite, Regence, Staples and Yammer. MRM also won additional b2b assignments from existing client MasterCard Inc.

Among MRM's most successful efforts last year were its “Social Innovation Business” campaign for Hitachi, a website redesign for Computer Sciences Corp. and a content-driven campaign for Intel Corp. that helped the client register more than 118,000 IT professionals in its IT Center program.

The common thread connecting those efforts—and the agency's work in general—is “the ability to make the complex simple and the simple compelling,” Kolb said. “That's hugely important.”

The agency also looked inward in 2012, beginning what Kolb called a “cultural transformation”—a complete re-examination of the organization's values and goals that has given it a renewed sense of purpose. As part of that effort, MRM identified six beliefs that are most important to it as an organization, tenets such as “complexity can be managed” and “it only counts if we deliver.”

MRM's corporate culture was always strong, Kolb said, “but it hadn't really been codified into important things that we believe as an agency—and it hadn't been codified around the people.”

As part of the focus on its culture, MRM stepped up its efforts to be one of the great places to work—an initiative that is significant for the agency's people but also for its overall business strategy, Kolb said. “It is something we've committed human capital to, something we've committed financial capital to and something as a global enterprise that we've really focused on,” he said.

Adding to the agency's talent base in multiple areas, from the executive ranks and communications to technology and creative, is part of Kolb's five-year growth plan for MRM. “Our point of view is you have to be brilliant at creativity, technology and performance analytics—and those have to be skills that are resident in the agency,” he said. —M.E.M.