Merkle (www.merkle.com), a leading customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm and the nation’s largest privately-held agency, announced its prominent rankings in a new report from Advertising Age magazine. The Agency Report 2012 places Merkle among the leaders in its CRM/Direct Marketing Agency rankings, both at the global and U.S. levels. Merkle received additional distinction among the World’s Top 50, ranking overall agency services worldwide. The rankings were published in the April 30 issue of Advertising Age magazine (www.adage.com). The magazine’s annual report ranks marketing and advertising companies according to their 2011 revenue.

 Merkle’s 2011 revenue totaled over $303 million, placing the company in the number six  position on the list of Top 25 CRM/Direct Marketing Agencies in the U.S. Merkle also ranks number nine on Advertising Age’s World’s Top 10 CRM/Direct Marketing Agencies list.  Among the World’s Top 50 Agency Companies, covering all agency disciplines, Merkle took the number 24 spot. The rankings place Merkle as a consistent leader among many of the world’s most recognized agencies.

 “This year’s Advertising Age Agency Report rankings reflect Merkle’s momentum as we continue to enhance our status as a leading full-service CRM Agency,” said Merkle chairman and CEO, David Williams. “Merkle’s connected CRM approach helps our clients achieve sustainable competitive advantage by creating customer strategy as a business strategy.  Moving up in the Ad Age rankings validates the effectiveness of our strategically-led consulting and data-driven, industry-focused methods for developing solutions that maximize customer value for our clients and achieve continued growth for our company.”  

 The 68th annual Advertising Age Agency Report, published April 30, 2012, was produced by the Ad Age DataCenter. The report appeared in Advertising Age's print edition and on AdAge.com. It includes rankings of more than 900 advertising, marketing-services and media agencies based on 2011 revenue.