German Innovation Award 2023 for Fortius and Merkle DACH

Merkle & Fortius have won the "German Innovation Award 2023" for delivering a fully integrated multi-event commerce platform for major events such as UEFA EURO 2024™ and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Zurich, June 01, 2023 – Merkle is thrilled today to announce that it has been awarded this year’s German Innovation Award for work in partnership with Fortius. The German Design Council’s Innovation Award celebrates cross-industry projects and stories that enhance our lives, where clear user orientation and product value-add are the two key distinguishing factors.

Fortius' vision aims to move the event experience into an open marketplace, designed to extend customer lifecycle, with a balanced B2B and B2C model, and expanding the journey of rightsholders to its full potential. In partnership, Fortius and Merkle developed the first fully integrated, white-label experience platform that empowers event organizers to explore entirely new revenue opportunities as well as building up scalability and adaptation.

This innovation tackles the global challenges faced by event organizers at unifying multievent commerce solutions and will be utilized at many major sports events. Fortius is Sales Agent and Member of the 2024 Hospitality Experience Group, the Official UEFA EURO 2024™ Hospitality Provider and the Official Sub-Distributor of On Location for the sale of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 Official Hospitality Products in more than 50 countries. Through our collaboration, Fortius' platform today has improved their time-to-market for D2C event commerce platforms, specifically crafted to enhance the end-to-end premium experience.

The award recognizes Fortius & Merkle’s innovative work in improving user experience through product added value and reflects the commitment to future growth and growing revenue streams for its customers. Merkle appreciates the jury's recognition and Fortius' trust and cooperation in creating impactful user experiences.

Max MĂĽller CEO Fortius & DAIMANI

"Customers are at the center of everything we do, and our technology will provide them with all the necessary tools to select and curate an exceptional Official Hospitality experience”, says Max Müller, CEO Frotius AG & Daimani. “We thank the German Innovation Award for the recognition in developing the most connected and digital hospitality experience that the world of commercial sports hospitality has ever seen.”

Patrick Fromm

"Innovation without scalability is just prototyping – with Fortius we are showcasing our capability of creating and implementing innovative and scalable business models with a fast time to market. Making the platform as seamless as possible for the end-consumer is key: in hospitality time to market and innovative experiences must always come before technologies and platforms”, says Patrick Fromm, Chief Client Officer, Merkle Switzerland.