KPS3: Acquisition accelerates move to digital

Stephanie Kruse had decided even before the economy went south that the Reno-based marketing firm she founded, KPS3, would find its growth in digital.

The firm's recent acquisition of Fuze LLC, a Reno company with a national list of clients for digital marketing services, reflects the realization by Kruse and her team that KPS3 needed to move even quickly into the digital arena.

"Organic growth would have taken much longer," says Kruse.

Fuze LLC, created by Bryan Lanaburu in 2003, developed a proprietary content management system that's used by some of the highest-volume Internet retailers in the nation.

In addition, Fuze had developed a sophisticated e-mail marketing system. It allows users to tailor messages based on the specific actions or lack of actions taken by individual users.

And Fuze operated Web hosting.

Those all were attractive growth areas to KPS3, but all would have required big investments of cash and time to develop from the ground up, says Rob Gaedtke, vice president of creative services and a shareholder in KPS3.

Equally important, Gaedtke says, was the opportunity to add experienced expertise to the KPS3 staff.

Lanaburu is providing consulting services during the transition, although he won't join KPS3. But a senior developer from Fuze will come to KPS3, which has expanded its office at 50 W. Liberty to handle growth of its digital business.

Kruse says KPS3 and Fuze staffers had worked together on projects in the past decade, and the two firms had developed similar cultures.

Talks got serious last October, and the transaction closed in February. Terms weren't disclosed.

Combination of the two firm's computer systems important for everything from e-mail marketing to internal accounting went smoothly, Gaedtke says.

With the acquisition, Kruse says the firm takes a major step toward the vision she began developing more than five years ago a firm with a strong presence in both traditional advertising and public relations efforts as well as cutting-edge digital marketing technologies.

"This makes a statement," she says. "We want to stay six or seven years ahead of everyone else."

KPS3 was founded in 1991.