Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | September 18, 2017 | wbjournal.com BlueHive finds serendipity in merger with boutique marketing firm Different names, same ambition BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor BlueHive: Corporate lobbies and other interiors: Covidien, Hanover Insurance Group, TempAlert, Waters Corp., Zildjian. Trade-show exhibits: Clarks, Harvey Building Products, Planet Fitness Mill work: New York University student center, Worcester Country Club, Worcester State University dining hall Paris Marketing: Commonwealth Consulting Group, Mechanics Hall, Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center, Worcester Railers, Jones Kelleher Client list Sources: Each company BlueHive and Paris Marketing have notable clients in the Worcester area and beyond. P aul Hanlon has spent decades in marketing and has ambi- tions that lead him to regu- larly eye competitors to potentially team with. Lisa Woodford began her own marketing agency five years ago after a career in marketing at larger firms. It took only a year of the two compa- nies working together for Hanlon to make a pitch: Why not combine the two Worcester agencies? On a handshake, Hanlon's BlueHive and Woodford's Paris Marketing became one. Paris moved into BlueHive's space just off Goddard Memorial Drive on Sept. 1 and quickly settled into the building. "It was serendipity," Hanlon said. "It was all timing." BlueHive and Paris Marketing will keep their separate names and books but under the BlueHive parent compa- ny will share resources and comple- ment each other's specialties. True partners BlueHive, the much larger of the two, has more of a social media and video expertise. In part through its subsid- iary, Continental Woodcraft, it has a long experience creating millwork and presentation spaces for clients. Paris works with service companies like law firms, insurance companies and certi- fied public accountant agencies. Their cultures were the same, but their respective work didn't overlap. "We were true partners from the beginning," Woodford said. "The tran- sition, the merger, it was all very seamless." Hanlon started BlueHive in 2005 after earlier success afforded him some time off. He sold his first company, Folio Exhibits, which made convention presentation books. But his former col- leagues later came to him and pitched him on a plan, that if he were to start up another company again, they'd join in. BlueHive was started a year later. The trade-show component remains from Hanlon's earlier days in the indus- try, but BlueHive has added in recent years a digital marketing department called BlueHive Media that includes a full-time video designer — not typical for a firm of its size that might other- wise have to farm out video work. Humor, and guts Hanlon considered other mergers before, but he said Woodford and the rest of the Paris team had the ambition to match his own team's and a younger staff that brings new ideas. Woodford worked for years for law firms and other larger agencies before two Achilles injuries forced her to con- sider a transition. Five years ago this summer, she started Paris on Hope Avenue in South Worcester to provide marketing to law firms, CPA firms and others. She has a sense of humor, too. Paris is named not after the city but after the mythical Greek man of the same name who shot Achilles in the heel with an arrow. Paul Hanlon, the founder of BlueHive, and Lisa Woodford, who started Paris Marketing, found quickly that their companies' styles matched. Their headquarters is pictured on the opposite page. P H O T O S / C O U R T E S Y

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