Nashville's Fresh Dirt Marketing and Bowling Green, Ky.-based Earnhart and Friends Advertising announced a merger Wednesday, spawning Werkshop Marketing.

The new firm will have a robust portfolio as a result of the merger. Fresh Dirt developed marketing plans for Lyric Financial, the Peterson Foundation for Parkinson's and Tennessee Titans placekicker Rob Bironas and his Rob Bironas Fund. Earnhart developed advertising campaigns for Minit Mart convenience stores and Auburn University's Athletics Department.

"Bringing these two firms together just made perfect sense," Tim Earnhart, the new company's principal and CEO, said. "We saw that our clients would be better served with strategic direction on the front in while [Fresh Dirt] saw an opportunity to give their clients top-notch creative."

Fresh Dirt founder Holly Rooks Grenvicz will serve as a Werkshop principal and chief strategist and head up the company's education arm.

"Good marketers are also effective teachers. We are passionate about sharing our knowledge of the marketing toolbox with our clients so that they will have the ability to make effective marketing decisions," she said.

The new company will be headquartered in Nashville with a secondary office in Bowling Green.