Merkle (www.merkle.com ), a leading customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm and the nation’s largest privately-held agency, announced it has been selected by KeyBank N.A. to be its direct marketing services provider for building household growth. The relationship is illustrative of Merkle’s focus on serving the customer-centric needs of the banking and finance industry.

Merkle’s relationship with Key, one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, is launching the development and execution of trigger and acquisition programs, employing Merkle’s strategic, analytic and agency capabilities to meet KeyBank’s customer growth goals. KeyBank is looking to Merkle as a strategic partner that will help add value to the bank by acquiring high-value households that lead to long-term relationships.

“As the retail banking market evolves in response to regulation, the economic environment, and the changing customer engagement model, KeyBank is placing more focus on the cost-effective use of direct channels to bring in new valuable households,” said Ken Chipman, SVP, Director of Database Marketing and Analytics for KeyBank. “We chose Merkle because of the team’s deep expertise in the retail banking sector, and their experience in data driven marketing strategies that align direct media programs for household acquisition to KeyBank’s profitable market segments.  We’re excited about this new partnership in evolving our marketing across direct media.”

“We are proud to be one of KeyBank’s strategic agency partners,” said Will Bordelon, SVP, general manager for Merkle’s banking and finance practice. “Innovative retail banks are finding competitive differentiation in integrated, customer centric marketing, breaking down the product and channel silos.  The Merkle team will partner with KeyBank to develop their approach for acquiring high value households by aligning offers to customer needs, and integrating engagement across direct media.   Merkle is excited to start this evolution with such a strong, iconic brand in the industry.”