Merkle (www.merkle.com), the nation's largest and fastest growing independent customer relationship marketing agency, announced its recent win of a Silver Marketing Award for Excellence and Innovation (MAXI) from the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DMAW) for its work with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Awards were held Monday, July 26, 2010 at the Gaylord National Hotel & Conference Center in National Harbor, Md. The awards recognize the best talent and work in the direct marketing and response industry.

Merkle earned the honor in recognition of its recent work on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Community Challenge campaign. For the campaign, Merkle's creative team developed an actionable and direct call-to-action that centered on an emotional theme- "Where you live should not determind whether you live." Each letter included a call-to-action urging each donor to not only give, but to also sign a proclamation to end breast cancer.

The campaign achieved impressive response rates and results to support Susan G. Komen's mission. The program achieved 29% year-over-year increase in response rate from 2009, and saw a 78% year-over-year increase in Net Yield Per Thousand (NYPM), which drove an overall 44% ROI increase.

Merkle first became the Agency of Record for Susan G. Komen in 2009. As past of this relationship, Merkle performs a full range of agency services, including fundraising strategy, data analytics, creative development, production and contribution processing services to help the organization better manage its constituent relationships and increase results from its nationwide donor renewal and acquisition programs.

Tabetha Leinweber, director of direct marketing, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, said, "We are very happy with our relationship with Merkle, and we consider the agency to be a valued partner in our mission to raise funds and ultimately win the fight against breast cancer. Merkle's recent work on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Community Challenge campaign saw impressive response from our donors and we are confident that with Merkle's continued help we will be successful in reaching and growing our remarkable base of dedicated, passionate and active individuals across the country and throughout the world."

Angie Moore, senior vice president and general manager for Merkle's fundraising services group, said, "The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Community Challenge campaign was a great experience for both teams, and we are excited to be recognized by the DMAW for the impressive results. We look forward to helping the nonprofit continue to develop constituent relationship programs that will maximize the value of their donor portfolio and achieve outstanding results."