Merkle (www.merkle.com), a leading customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm and the nation’s largest privately-held agency, announced that it has hired Kevin Walsh as Vice President, Experience Architect to help grow the agency’s  Experience Design Group. Merkle posted 2011 experience design services revenue growth of 21% and has created this new role in support of its ongoing commitment to being the premier CRM agency in the digital space.

Walsh joins Merkle with extensive know-how in bridging the gap between clients’ business needs and the requirements for meaningful customer encounters. His career to date has included successful leadership roles over countless online promotions, rich media expressions, and content strategy solutions across a wide range of industry verticals. An accomplished and inspiring mentor of interactive teams, Kevin is a seasoned cross-discipline leader of interactive art directors, designers, writers, user experience (UX) planners, and web developers.

Among the category-leading clients that have enjoyed the benefit of Walsh’s counsel and skill are Target, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Ford Motor Company, Ameriprise, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, US Bancorp., United Airlines, and other dominant brands. Before joining Merkle, Walsh led multi-practice digital teams as a partner at OgilvyOne Worldwide and as UX planner at Organic.

“A brand’s ability to properly connect with customers on multiple levels relies on a close proximity to rich, timely data,” said Walsh. “Merkle is a proven leader in responsibly managed consumer data and I am thrilled to be joining the company’s diverse and talented experience design team. Crafting customer experience to match business drivers will enable the leading brands that Merkle serves to continue to achieve success in customer-centric marketing.”

Merkle’s Chief Creative Officer and Experience Design Group leader Mark Weninger, said, “As Merkle continues to invest in the caliber of our creative talent and providing new capabilities across the full media spectrum, Kevin’s ability to address clients’ business challenges with compelling experience solutions will be a valuable addition to our team. Kevin’s appointment further strengthens and unifies Merkle’s user touchpoint capabilities, and comes at a time when our clients are seeking integrated customer approaches that are directly informed by insights from consumer data. We selected Kevin for his wealth of knowledge and experience, and his ability to lead teams across a wide range of industries. On behalf of the entire Merkle team, I am thrilled to welcome him to this new role.”