Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company and part of dentsu, has appointed Stephen Derbyshire to the position of Adobe Experience Platform practice lead for Merkle EMEA and dentsu’s CXM Service Line.

In this new role, Derbyshire will launch and lead a unified regional Adobe practice to address the key challenge brands face in today’s landscape – connecting the total customer experience. With each step of the customer journey requiring consistent and personal interactions, brands must connect the dots across touchpoints. This new practice will combine Merkle capabilities across Adobe Experience Cloud applications collecting and harnessing first party data to activate personal experiences.

Adobe Experience Platform is a purpose-built platform for agile CXM, stitching together data spanning the entire customer journey - including CRM, commerce, product usage and digital platform data - into real-time customer profiles. With this, brands can offer customers products and services more effectively based on their online activities, purchase history, and other criteria. Ultimately, this closes the gap between the customer, the channels they engage on, and the brand experience they expect.

Derbyshire’s role will be to rapidly scale up an integrated team that accelerates value for clients through this capability. Building a regional practice around Adobe Experience Platform empowers Merkle to provide a robust offering to clients, delivered through experienced teams across EMEA to deploy the solution through a standardised delivery model. This ‘Centre of Excellence’ approach leverages the expertise of more than 500 people across key markets, including the UK, Spain, DACH, and Northern Europe.

Merkle is one of Adobe's leading partners globally. With over 600 certified professions, the agency was the first to be accredited on Adobe Experience Platform, having delivered successful programmes for a number of clients in the EMEA region.

Derbyshire spoke at the Adobe Summit on the 28th April 2021, discussing improving customer experience and delivering growth through Adobe Experience Platform in partnership with Signify for their Philips Hue consumer lighting brand. He has been with Merkle for three years, heading up and  expanding the marketing technologies practice in the UK.

Peter Cummings, Senior Director and Head of Partners International, Adobe, said: “We are delighted that Merkle is organising to scale their business around the Adobe Experience Platform; their CXM vision and capability make them one of our leading partners in the space. Stephen and his team have been pioneers at every stage of the evolution of Adobe Experience Platform, and this is a great move in our partnership together.”

Margaret Wagner, president EMEA, Merkle added: “Stephen could not be better suited to the challenge of integrating and scaling this capability.  With years of experience leading teams in the implementation and running of customer marketing platforms, he has helped many brands maximise time-to-value from marketing technology investment. I have no doubt he will accelerate the growth of this business for Merkle and ensure we remain Adobe’s leading partner for this new platform as more organisations inevitably switch to Adobe Experience Platform.”

Stephen Derbyshire, EMEA Adobe Experience Platform lead added: “Adobe Experience Platform represents a strategic shift by Adobe from integrating acquired technology to engineering their own best-in-class platform. This single platform will ultimately replace multiple tools within the Adobe stack and enable brands to increase the speed, relevance, and reach of personalisation across the total customer experience; this aligns well with Merkle’s vision for the future of CXM. Over the next twelve months, we have ambitious targets for scaling our team to meet demand whilst delivering service excellence.”