Casting a wider net: Burrell's purchase of New York advertising firm fulfills threefold mission.

In a business move that merged three missions, Burrell Communications Group recently acquired a full-service, New York-based advertising agency that specializes in direct marketing. With the deal, Burrell becomes the nation's largest African American advertising agency. The acquisition of DFA Communications Inc. allows Burrell to better court blacks, as well as have access to other target groups via a mainstream firm. Also, the deal gives the 25-yearold Chicago-based shop a much-coveted presence in New York City. In DFA, Burrell gets a nine-year-old agency with $25 million in annual billings and a list of topflight clients, including Citicorp/Citibank, Dow Jones & Co. and the clout-hyavy American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, Burrell officials say that DFA, which is Thomas Burrell eyes composed of four companies, would be a wholly owned subsidiary and that its previous management would remain. The new firm is called Burrell/DFA Communications.

"We are very excited about this move because it broadens us in three ways," says company chairman and CEO Thomas Burrell. "Hopefully this will help us expand our scope and ability to serve current and future clients."

Burrell says his agency, which has $90 million in annual billings and also does public relations work, could make similar deals to further enhance and broaden its services. Its own company client list has heavy-hitters like McDonald's, Coca-Cola USA and Procter and Gamble. The DFA acquisition will bring annual billings at Burrell (No. 16 on the 1995 BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE list) to $115 million. The making of the deal began early last year, while Burrell was handling the account of the New York region's baby Bell telephone company, Nynex, according to Burrell.

The Nynex account called for the use of direct marketing, so Burrell enlisted DFA. While Burrell handled the ad campaign's television spots, DFA managed the account's direct mail needs. The working arrangement served both companies well. More importantly, it started Burrell officials thinking. "We saw the possibilities right away," says Burrell. "And we knew that direct marketing was underutilized in reaching African Americans. We know direct response is going to become increasingly important." While the DFA deal provides Burrell an extra avenue in reaching blacks, it also allows Burrell for the first time to expand beyond its traditional black target audience. With the AARP, for instance, black and white seniors are now at Burrell's advertising doorstep.

A calculated added dimension of the DFA acquisition was its New York location. With offices in Chicago and Atlanta, Burrell says he wanted his agency to have offices in New York, home to some of the firm's clients and another large African American advertising agency, UniWorld Group. "But we're not trying to challenge anybody," says Burrell, who formed his agency after working at leading mainstream ad firms such as Leo Burnett. "The better business is for them, the better business is for us, and so on and so on."