In their search for growth, both domestically and in foreign markets, ad agencies are forever on the lookout for friendly merger and acquisition opportunities.

All too frequently, these corporate marriages of convenience are rushed affairs in which dissimilar cultures are thrown together and expected to gel.

But there are times when the cultural divide is too profound to be bridged without excessive turmoil, and even if the merger remains intact, key people and clients are likely to leave to escape the inevitable infighting and chaos.

Such an undesirable fate is unlikely to befall Rapp Collins Communicaide.

Formed last month from the merger of Oakville’s Hughes Rapp Collins, the 60-person Canadian office of international direct marketing giant Rapp Collins Worldwide, and Communicaide Integrated Marketing Services, a 31-employee Mississauga, Ont. agency, rcc is a corporate union some 4 1/2 years in the making.

It was that long ago that hrc, which specialized in database and direct marketing but did not have a creative department, first began tapping Communicaide, known primarily for its public relations, corporate communications and promotional marketing expertise, to execute direct marketing creative on a project basis for hrc clients.

Patrick Folliot, principal shareholder and president of Communicaide, says upon first meeting with the people at hrc, he was enthralled by their passion for ‘database and one-to-one’ marketing.

‘At that time, we were heavily into pr and promotions. We decided to develop our own company in sync with where they were going. We invested in the people and technologyto give us holding power on the Hughes relationship.

‘We’ve learned as much as possible from the Hughes people, so that we understand database right from the quantitative and analytic aspects of the business through to how to apply it creatively,’ says Folliot.

Eventually, hrc projects came to represent about 30% of Communicaide’s total revenues.

At the same time that Communicaide was learning the database and direct marketing business, hrc was looking for a way to expand its services to include creative execution.

‘We were running on a parallel track and learning from each other,’ says Folliot.

The first serious talk of a merger took place 18 months ago.

Although he found the offer tempting, Folliot says that as an entrepreneurial agency owner, he was worried that Rapp Collins, which employs 1,400 people in 31 countries, would be a poor cultural fit with his own agency.

To allay the fear, Folliot took a trip to the Rapp Collins head office in New York, where he discovered a work environment as loose and unconventional as Communicaide’s.

‘I felt it was like walking across the hall at my office in Mississauga,’ says Folliot.

That’s when he knew it would work.