The world’s biggest direct marketing agency just got bigger.

Last month, Rapp Collins Worldwide’s 60-employee Canadian office, Oakville, Ont.-based Hughes Rapp Collins, purchased Communicaide Integrated Marketing Services, a 31-employee agency located in Mississauga, Ont.

The merged entity, called Rapp Collins Communicaide, becomes the largest direct marketing agency in the country, according to Ron Fabbro, who was formerly president of hrc and will hold the same position at rcc.

Fabbro declined to reveal revenue figures for rcc, but Advertising Age reported last August that Rapp Collins Worldwide, a division of Omnicom, posted revenues of $174,729,000 in 1995, slightly more than its closest rival Wunderman Cato Johnson, which had revenues of $171,237,000.

In acquiring Communicaide, a 17-year-old integrated communications firm specializing in database and direct response marketing, public relations, media relations, promotional and event marketing and corporate communications, Rapp Collins adds an important ingredient previously missing from its Canadian agency: creative.

hrc, which Rapp Collins added to its global agency network in 1992 when it purchased Hughes Database Marketing, specialized solely in database marketing. Its practice was to farm out the creative component of client assignments to freelancers and creative agencies, including Communicaide.

It also works closely with another Omnicom subsidiary, InfoWorks, which specializes in database management and analysis.

Rapp Collins Chief Executive Officer Steve Dapper says he sees rcc as the ‘agency model of the future.

‘We’re really a holistic marketing company that has its foundation in the database field,’ he says.

hrc’s strength in database and direct together with Communicaide’s integrated marketing abilities will make the new company a formidable player in the market, says Dapper.

rcc’s client list includes Sears Canada, Labatt Breweries of Canada, Grand & Toy, SC Johnson Wax and Janssen Ortho Biotech.