Margeotes-Fertittia & Partners & Blur Advertising Form Multicultural Venture.

George Fertitta, Founder and President and CEO of advertising agency Margeotes/Fertittia & Partners, announced the joint venture with Blur Advertising, whose Managing Director is Joseph Tolton.

“As marketers continue to recognize the importance of communicating with America’s fast-growing ethnic communities, we’ve always felt compelled to connect with multicultural consumers in a sophisticated, organized way,” Fertitta explains. “We sought out BLUR,” he continues. “About 2 years ago, we began to search the marketplace in order to align ourselves with forceful, insightful multicultural professionals. BLUR was known as a dominant force and had recently won the coveted Carver Federal Savings Bank account, competing against some of the nation’s largest ethnic agencies. In addition, the agency works with Hewlett Packard and several premium alcoholic beverages and had formed a research partnership with the University of Virginia’s Darden Business School. “We look forward to this joint venture and working closely with BLUR; we anticipate the investment will allow us to take clients beyond simple demographics and elevate their multicultural marketing efforts to levels of effectiveness.”

“This alliance capitalizes on BLUR’s strength and solidifies our competitive position within the market,” Tolton adds. “BLUR’s staff has increased to 10, and our intellectual capital around ethnic marketing is well complimented by the depth of resources now available to us.” Tolton, a Columbia MBA who founded BLUR in late 2000, has held positions at Young & Rubicam and KPMG Peat Marwick. Prior to launching BLUR, he was Director of Ethnic Marketing & Brand Measurement at Mercedes-Benz.