Merkle (www.merkle.com), the nation's fastest growing customer relationship marketing agency, today released its annual Year in Review for 2010. Merkle reported total revenue for $254 million for the year and record revenue for Q4 2010, partly fueled by the company's highest revenue month in its history in December 2010. These results provide steady traction as the firm enters 2011 and are the culmination of a year's worth of achievements that include continued momentum in CRM strategy and branding initially launched in 2009, industry recognition, corporate expansion, increased capabilities and additions in executive talent.

Corporate Strategy and Expansion: Merkle continues to be recognized as a leader in Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) strategy and enablement services. In 2010, Merkle continued to expand both geographically and in its capabilities. 2010 also saw Merkle open its first international office in Shanghai, China- expanding its presence in the international market and allowing the agency to better meet the needs of its multinational clients. This location supports five U.S.-based clients, including Dell's regional and global consumer CRM operations.

Awards and Recognition:In 2010, Merkle was honored for its work with a diverse group of clients. Advertising Age recognized the company as one of the "Top 50" agencies in the world, and the National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) presented Merkle with its Silver Database Excellence Award in the Business-to-Business category. The International Academy of the Visual Arts awarded Merkle its Silver W3 Award. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) honored Merkle and its subsidiary LogicLab with two Innovation Awards. The Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DMAW) presented Merkle with two Silver Marketing Awards of Excellence and Innovation (MAXIs) for the company's work with both The U.S. Navy Memorial and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Merkle also received three Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association "Benny Awards." Additionally, the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) presented Merkle with its Corporate Leadership Award this past fall.

Capabilities:To meet the increasing demand for new and innovative marketing solutions across a growing number of technology platforms, Merkle launched and expanded several practice areas in 2010. Notably, the agency introduced Integrated Social Marketing, which allows marketers to optimize their use of social media and better engage their customers, leverage influencers and refine brand positioning online. Merkle also began creating and delivering targeted, graphically-rich, mobile-optimized e-mail content on behalf of clients. This new offering reflects the agency's focus on the intersection of digital and traditional marketing as it continues to expand its integrated mobile marketing practice to meet clients' needs in an increasingly mobile consumer environment. Further expanding its digital business, Merkle added capabilties in the area of targeted display advertising- representing its ongoing commitment to expand its presence in the digital media space. Here Merkle leverages its expertise in data management, data integration and analytics for both targeting and measurement in order to create competitive advantage for its customer executing display media strategies.

The demand for CRM consulting prompted Merkle to make significant investments in executive talent to support the creation of repeatable business processes and methodologies to drive scale. In addition to consulting, leading marketers have been looking to Merkle to support their increasing needs in the area of analytics. Merkle expanded its off-shore analytics capabilities with the opening of its China operation which will initially house 75 employees, with the capacity to expand as its global business requires. With the growth of its U.S. multinaional client base, Merkle has leveraged its highly successful data agnostic, analytic data evaluation and procurement processes and expanded its data sourcing capabilities to offer international data services.

Merkle also introduced its new Retail Marketing Suite (RMS), which provides the company's multichannel retail clients with world-class CRM technology solutions through a best-in-class vertical approach. The RMS was designed to fulfill the spectrum of needs facing retail marketers in today's market.

Merkle continues to invest heavily in its LogicLab business and in mid-2010 launched a new service called TargetLab. This offering is an on-demand Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that, for the first time, provides advertisers and media planners the ability to evaluate and execute media plans across all channels with precise alignment on their core targeting and messaging strategy.

Talent:In 2010, Merkle grew to 1,400 employees, operating in 11 locations worldwide. Over the past year, Merkle promoted Zhengda Shen to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Craig Dempster to Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Merkle hired several key executives, including Mark Weninger, Chief Creative Officer; Russ Pearlman, Chief Technology Officer; Jim Foley, Chief People Officer; Jeaneen Andrews-Feldman, Vice President of Marketing; Greg Curran, Vice President of Advanced Communications Operations; Nick Dryfuse, Vice President Technology Solutions; Shambho Krishnasamy, Vice President & Chief Solution Architect; David Magrini, Vice President, Insurance and Wealth Management Practice; Ramin Mikaili, Vice President and Segmentation Practice lead; Wayne Oliver, Vice President of Operations; Megan Pagliuca, Vice President Display Media; and Chris Wayman, Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Practice.

Merkle's record results and achievements as a leading CRM agency puts it on a trajectory to deliver revenue in excess of $300 million in 2011. The shift to customer strategy as a business strategy and a greater appetite for marketing accountability will propel Merkle's growth over the next year. Additionally, current micro and macro trends in the digitalization and fragmentation of media and the demand for integrated media optimization will continue to fuel Merkle's investment in CRM consulting, and digital capabilities. Merkle's global expansion will focus on building on its momentum in China while expanding into EMEA in support of its U.S. multinational clients. Merkle's past and future growth are a result of its emphasis on customer satisfaction and focus on delivering on unparalleled customer experience.