Crossborders, LLC Merges with Rain

New York based digital content creation company Crossborders, LLC announced that it will merge with Rain, an award-winning Utah based software and interactive development firm. The newly combined, 75-person firm will operate under Rain’s company name, and Crossborders will become the official label for the documentary film and television segment of the entity.

The merger will combine Rain’s sophisticated custom software development capabilities with Crossborders’ full-scale video production and strategic digital branding expertise, resulting in a uniquely diversified and integrated content creation and intellectual property incubation platform. Rain – recently named Advertising Age’s Southwestern Small Agency of the Year – will now be linked with Crossborders’ highly regarded New York-based operation, at a time when New York City and the Mountain West are each rapidly emerging as new domestic technology hubs, both in terms of attracting businesses and developing some of the nation’s finest technology-oriented educational institutions.

Crossborders and Rain already have a recent history of close collaboration that has produced outstanding results. Of particular note, Crossborders partnered with Rain to launch the critically and commercially acclaimed mobile game, The Adventures of Timmy: Run Kitty Run, in October, 2011. Timmy has been downloaded more than 500,000 times worldwide. The game was the recipient of the 2012 Webby Award for “People’s Voice in Handheld Games” and a Mobile Favourite Website Award (FWA). Additionally, Timmy was nominated for a Mashable Award as “Best Mobile App of The Year”. The game has also been marketed by DoSomething.org as a component of its Stand Up To Bullying campaign.

“We’re tremendously pleased to have the opportunity to come together with Rain and its extraordinarily talented team,” said Brian Edelman, founder of Crossborders and CEO of the new Rain. “We’ve had a great working relationship for some time now. We think that the combination will fill a void by creating an agency that’s doing everything in house, that can provide a full suite of services to both clients and other agencies. We’ll have the flexibility and ability to serve Fortune 100s to the smallest, earliest-stage idea-centric ventures. We felt like there was a unique opportunity here to marry video and technology capabilities, which is becoming increasingly critical in our industry.”

Rain will be jointly based out of Crossborders’ existing Chelsea headquarters and Rain’s American Fork, Utah offices. The senior leadership of the new company will consist of Brian Edelman as chief executive officer, Andrew Howlett as chief digital officer, Nick Godfrey as chief operating officer, and Mark Stevenett as president. As a result of the merger, Crossborders will join with 40-plus software developers—as well as key production and management executives— from Rain, putting in place a 75-person team.

“We couldn’t be happier to be joining up with the creative team at Crossborders,” said Howlett. “Our shared vision is to become the leading private technology content provider. At Rain, we develop custom software that is really quite high-level and robust. We see this as a great match. We build tools. Crossborders excels in developing and implementing start to finish the strategic digital branding and social media strategy. We also see lots of synergies in putting together our software expertise with Crossborders’ video production shop. The most important thing, though – and the thing we feel the best about – is that we’ve been very deliberative in making sure this is the right partnership. We’ve been working on great projects with Crossborders for over a year and half now. We’ve had the chance to be totally sure that this is the right fit and the right time.”

The newly structured organization will provide client services and create content across an array of integrated platforms including:

• A complete suite of strategic digital branding, marketing and interactive services, including social media, creative and marketing strategy, campaign conception, website and application design and development, interface design CMS development, SEO/SEM/PPC, project management, QA testing, analytics assessment, experimental/guerilla and user experience.
• Extensive mobile and web software development capabilities, including HTML5, PHP/MySQL, Javascript, Drupal, Flight MVC, IOS (iPhone and IPad), Android and Windows Mobile 7.
• A full range of production services focused on content creation such as scripted web series, branded entertainment, feature length documentaries, marketing and promotional spots, commercials, music videos, infographic videos, hosted series, story editing, 3D modeling, visual effects, 2D/3D animation, compositing, and motion design.
• An innovation unit, geared toward in-house intellectual property development and toward serving as an ideas incubator for clients. The primary intellectual property focus will be on the creation and development of games, custom software, SAS, and mobile applications.

More information on the new Rain can be found on the company’s websites, www.mediarain.com.