Marketing agency inks downtown lease

With Mars as client, Connecticut-based firm aims to hire 20 in coming year

Email | Print By Geert De Lombaerde

03-24-2008 11:15 AM — After quietly setting up shop here last fall, a Connecticut marketing agency will next month move into a building across the street from Cummins Station with plans to triple its local work force in the next 12 months.

Catapult Marketing’s local business centers on the Pedigree and Whiskas brands of Mars Petcare, which last year moved its North American headquarters to Cool Springs. Chief Operating Officer Paul Kramer said the company now has about 10 employees on the ground in Nashville and plans to hire another 20 to service the Mars business.

Catapult is moving from a small office on West End Avenue to 304 10th Ave. S., an 82-year-old owned by Alley Land Partners. There, Hawkins Development is handling the build out of 5,000 square feet.

Catapult was founded in 1994 to focus on consumer marketing and has since added offices in California, Phoenix and Bentonville, Ark. Its local operations, which are managed by Mark McDonald and Maura Priem, handle the promotional, in-store and interactive marketing campaigns for Pedigree and Whiskas. Agency giant TBWA/Chiat/Day – which also works with Nissan – is Mars Petcare's agency of record.