Digitas started as a direct-mail shop and went public as a digital marketing firm, at $24 a share, well above the $18 to $20 range it first expected. Michael Bronner founded it in Boston in 1980 as Bronner Slosberg Humphrey. By the late 1990s it had reinvented itself, using data to reach customers by mail, email and the web. It went public in March 2000, as big brands scrambled to work out how to market online.

Data Behind Every Letter

Digitas bet that marketing would become more personal and measurable. Big companies would need a partner to make sense of their customer data. Digitas combined strategy, data analysis and creative work in one firm. Its work blended the discipline of direct mail with the reach of the web. Its clients included banks, telecom companies and car makers, and they spent heavily on its services.

Into a Global Network

Digitas priced its IPO at $24 a share in March 2000 and listed on Nasdaq as DTAS. Revenue fell in the downturn, and the company recovered as online advertising grew. It bought other agencies, including Modem Media. In 2007 Publicis Groupe acquired Digitas for about $1.3 billion, and it became a core part of Publicis's digital business. The agency still uses the Digitas name today.

Cover: Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands and Thimble, Alfred Stieglitz. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for hands (digits).