Merkle (www.merkle.com), a leading customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm and the nation’s largest privately-held agency, announced that it is sponsoring the 2012 Mobile Strategies Forum, hosted by Trilibis and Webtrends. The invitation-only event will be held April 5, 2012 at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio, San Francisco.

 Merkle’s Bruce Hershey, director of mobile strategy, will participate in a panel-based keynote address to kick off the event at 9:00 am. He will also host a workshop centered around Merkle’s “Four Pillars of Mobile Marketing.” The session will take place in a roundtable format from 1:30 to 3:30 pm – alternating with several other provocative topics – and will focus on how to develop and maintain successful mobile marketing strategies. Hershey will review Merkle’s four pillars of developing a successful mobile marketing program, which includes mobile strategy & planning, mobile marketing tactics, media plan integration and connected CRM.

 In addition, Adam Harris, Director of Loyalty and Innovation for Men’s Wearhouse, Inc, will deliver a general session from 3:45 to 4:45 pm, entitled “How Mobile Drives Revenue and Creates Loyalty for K&G Fashion Superstore.” In this session, Harris will discuss how mobile has become a key part of the marketing strategy through its ability to drive revenue by identifying and connecting with high value customers.  “We launched the K&G Mobile program to create a highly effective channel which would increase loyalty and drive incremental sales,” said Harris. “Not only has the program delivered fantastic results, but in a recent campaign mobile coupon redemptions are outperforming our email results, indicating that mobile is the preferred customer contact channel of K&G customers.”

 The Mobile Strategies Forum is an educational event for brands and media companies who have already begun investing in mobile marketing and want to gather with peers and industry experts to exchange ideas and learn best practices. The forum promotes open discussion and relationship building without a promotional or sales-oriented focus.

 “Companies that follow the four pillars of mobile marketing, or strategically approach mobile marketing in a thoughtful way, are emerging as leaders in this space,” said Chris Wayman, Merkle’s vice president of digital development. “The Mobile Strategies Forum is a great venue for bringing together this select group of digital pioneers for an immersive dive into mobile marketing. Merkle is proud to play a thought leadership role at this interactive event.”