Merkle Inc., one of the leading database marketing agencies with clients such as Dell, Nike and GEICO, has launched a new mobile marketing practice.

The Columbia, MD-based shop has hired Mike Ricci as vice president of mobile solutions, charged with adding a mobile component to Merkle clients’ multichannel programs as well as bringing in new business. Mr. Ricci previously was vice president of creative and strategy at iLoop Mobile Inc., San Jose, CA.

“Defining mobile as a formal practice area increases our investment and engagement around the topic so that we can bring new and innovative solutions around mobile marketing to our clients at a faster pace,” said Eric Kirby, senior vice president of interactive solutions at Merkle.

“This coincides with the accelerating opportunities that our clients have to leverage mobile marketing,” he said.

Mr. Ricci’s duties at Merkle include handling strategy, planning, deployment and performance measurement for Merkle clients and prospects.

The new hire will keep his ties with iLoop warm. Merkle will use iLoop’s mobile platform to add a mobile component to client programs and campaigns.

“The real missing element in mobile is demonstrated ROI and measurement,” Mr. Ricci said. “Merkle’s core DNA is exactly that.

“What I’m anxious to do is take the iLoop platform and combine it with our IP to provide analytics capability,” he said.

Mr. Ricci has five years experience in mobile marketing, making him one of the veterans in the space.

At iLoop Mr. Ricci oversaw mobile campaigns for such marketers as Coca-Cola, Western Union, The Weather Channel, Lexus, Sony and Paramount.

A crowning achievement of Mr. Ricci and his colleagues was the recognition last year from Mobile Marketer for mobile Web site and strategy done on then-Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

ILoop was part of a clutch of Team Obama mobile specialists that shared the Mobile Marketer of the Year award along with Mr. Obama, now the 44th president of the United States.

Now, Mr. Ricci is looking to take those learnings and help Merkle clients use mobile to give legs to their existing database marketing efforts including email, social media and direct mail.

First stop for that effort is the Merkle client base: GEICO, Nike, Samsung, Blockbuster and Dell, among others.

“They’ve already done some mobile in some cases or they have a high degree of mobile involvement,” Mr. Ricci said. “Our mission is to augment that and integrate with their database and email marketing efforts.

“At its very core, mobile is a means of extending all the other channels and it’s a way of instantly engaging people and activating them,” he said. “We’re an email and database marketing solutions provider and we can offer people packages that activate email, that activate social media, that activate direct mail.”

Mr. Kirby agrees.

“Merkle is very focused on creating a fully integrated view of customer and prospect activity through our database solutions,” Mr. Kirby said. “This integrated view enables deeper customer insights and translates into more effective messaging strategies.

“As such, mobile will be an increasingly important source of behavioral data and will integrate into our database solutions just as data from email and Web sites are incorporated,” he said.

Mr. Ricci will work out of Merkle’s Denver, CO, office. The mobile marketing team of five is part of the 80-executive office.

The key mantra for the Merkle mobile practice is integration.

“As we look at it, the analytics that flow out of mobile absolutely should be closely integrated with the rest of the data that sits in front of the marketer,” Mr. Ricci said.

“What we’re already finding is that there’s enormous latent interest in our customer base in using mobile to extend what they’re already doing in the integrated marketing space,” he said. “The sophistication that we’re seeing in terms of what people want to do is impressive.”