1. In a nutshell, what do Merkle do?
Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled performance marketing agency. We specialise in the creation and delivery of unique, personalised customer experiences that drive performance across all platforms and devices. We call this ‘people-based marketing’ and, with over 30 years’ experience, we are proud to be recognised as a global leader
2. Why are you launching an office in Edinburgh?
We chose Edinburgh for a number of reasons:
- It is well placed to reach all major cities in the north of the UK from Manchester to Aberdeen
- It provides access to a talent pool unrivalled in the north of the UK for the services we provide due to the excellent universities in Scotland and the north of England
- It has a mature financial services sector as well as rapidly growing startup community
- It has a strong economy and a growing reputation as a European tech hub
Even with the strengths of the region there is still a significant skills gap for digital, data and tech resource in the north of the UK generally. Merkle is well positioned to help fill this skills gap with their data science and digital DNA.
3. What services will you be providing?
We provide a full range of services that support our clients on their people-based marketing journeys. We use evidence-based decisions to drive continuous business performance improvement for our clients and, wherever possible, we adopt a consumer focus.
Our services include:
- Data management
- 3rd party consumer data services
- All forms of analytics for customer, channel, media and operational performance
- Search experience optimisation combining SEO and PPC
- UX and Conversion Rate Optimisation
- Creative Services
- Display Advertising and Paid Social
We can provide all the services above on an outsourced basis or provide consultancy to support clients embed the capability in house. We can also provide implementation services for technologies which support the services above e.g. Google stack, Adobe, Pega.
4. How is it different to what you already provide?
To date the Merkle service offering in Edinburgh has been focussed predominantly on Data Analytics and Decisioning. We are expanding that significantly and bringing all our data analytics, decisioning and digital media services under one roof in Edinburgh to offer clients the full people-based marketing service offering. We believe the market is moving in a direction that demands support from commercially focussed partners who can work across the full spectrum of these technical services.
5. What sort of clients do you serve?
We work with any clients who have a passion for being consumer centric, data led and commercially focussed. We find we work well with clients who are looking for a collaborative partner who can help them get the best return from their data, technology and media investments. We like making a positive difference and it’s much easier to do that with a positive forward-looking relationship.
6. Why is it the right time to be launching?
Merkle believe the timing of this proposition arriving in Edinburgh is good. Edinburgh currently has a growing reputation as a European tech hub. The Financial Services sector in Edinburgh is also very established, diverse and globally recognised. The Scottish Government sees the Fintech and AI sectors as a key area of investment and there is significant inbound investment into the city from abroad. The economy in Edinburgh is strong with a growing population, low unemployment rates, high business survival rates and a thriving student population from top quality Universities which provides confidence for the future.
Location aside, the competitive landscape for engaging consumers also continues to change and brands now appreciate that they are having to compete much harder on the omni channel experience. At Merkle, we believe we are well positioned to support the demand for joined up optimisation using our data and digital expertise.
