Merkle (www.merkle.com), a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company, today announced that it ranked as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Database and Engagement Agencies, Q1 2021 by leading independent research firm, Forrester Research, Inc. The agency is recognized for its holistic services for CX-focused marketing and received highest vendor scores in the strategy category and analytics services criteria.

The Forrester Wave™: Customer Database and Engagement Agencies, Q1 2021 report uses 29 criteria to evaluate eight top customer database and engagement agencies, including how each provider measures up and helps B2C marketers select the right partner for their needs.

Merkle is recognized as a Leader among the top customer database and engagement agencies and for its ability to deliver the full complement of critical services for CX-focused marketers. One key market differentiator observed in the report is the vendor landscape’s data deprecation readiness, emphasizing that marketers should partner with an agency that offers identity solutions to support all facets of marketing, enables and coordinates second-party data relationships, and provides data ethics and diversity, equity, and inclusion guidance. “Marketers who want an agency partner that can help them flex into a future without cookies and help them deploy a data and marketing technology (martech) strategy that goes beyond marketing to permission-based 1:1 customer “conversations” should put Merkle on their short list,” the report stated.

Merkle received the highest vendor score and the highest score possible in the strategy category, which evaluated the organization across aspects including execution and innovation road map; diversity, equity, and inclusion; market approach; agency and vendor orchestration; and strategic planning. According to the report, “four years after being acquired by dentsu, Merkle’s strategic vision and roadmap are laser-focused on connecting customer experience with sales, service, marketing, and commerce.” One client reference said, “you can see its strategy coming to fruition through the acquisition; it plays to the strengths of its network (dentsu) while keeping the management structure of the account really tight. Merkle offers consistency and new expertise at the same time.” Merkle also received the highest score possible in the market approach criterion, defined as a global footprint with strong localization and multinational support, in-region data operations, and regional executive support.

“In what has been a tumultuous year centered around ever-changing customer experience preferences, we’re proud to be included among the top customer database and engagement agencies in Forrester’s report,” said Craig Dempster, global chief executive officer at Merkle. “We are always working toward excellence, and our unique approach to customer transformation has allowed us to be recognized as a dependable yet forward-thinking partner to CX-focused organizations. We challenge our clients to rethink the status quo—as cited in the report—and continue offering world-class services for brands to meet consumers in a privacy-safe and real-time way.”

Merkle will be presenting a webinar, The Road to Privacy-safe and Real-time CX in the Cookieless World, featuring Forrester on Tuesday, March 9 at 2pm EST.