Merkle Health: 2017
Merkle Health
7001 Columbia Gateway Drive
Columbia, MD 21046
Telephone: 410-443-4000
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: merkleinc.com
Accounts
Account wins 11
Services Mix
Active business clients 76
Digital Agency Services 32%
Technology Solutions 26%
Analytic Solutions 23%
Marketing Consulting & Strategy 19%
Client Roster
1800Petmeds
Aid for Starving Children
AARP/AARP Advocacy/AARP Foundation
Abbott Nutrition
AbbVie
Allergan
Allied Health Media
Alzheimer’s Association
American Cancer Society
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
American Heart Association
American Institute for Cancer Research
American Lung Association
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Americares
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield
Aqua Pharmaceuticals
Arthritis Foundation
ASPCA
Astellas Pharma US
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
Avocados from Mexico
Bayer Pharmaceuticals
Blinded Veterans Association
Blue Cross Blue Shield DC
Blue Cross Blue Shield NC
Boehringer Ingelheim
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Canine Companions for Independence
CARE
CareSource
Cell Signaling Technology
The Children’s Hospital Foundation
Children’s National Medical Association
Cigna International
City of Hope
Combined Insurance
Costco Wholesale
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Delta Dental of VA
Dignity Health
Doctors Without Borders
ECG Management Consulting
Eli Lilly
EmblemHealth
Feed the Children
Feeding America
Foundation of Children’s Hospitals of MN
Genentech
General Nutrition
Gerber Products
GlaxoSmithKline
Habitat for Humanity International
Hair Club for Men
Humana
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Johns Hopkins Oncology Center
Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health
Laser Spine Institute
Life Line Screening of America
Livestrong
March of Dimes
McKesson Specialty Health (NC)
Mead Johnson
Medical Mutual
MedStar Health
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Mercer Health
Michael J. Fox Foundation
Muscular Dystrophy Association
National Foundation for Cancer Research
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
National Parkinson Foundation
Neos Therapeutics
New Market Health
Northwell Health
Nutrisystem
Operation Smile
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Pet 360 – PetFoodDirect
PetSmart Charities
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Project Hope
Safeway
Samsung – DBG
Sanofi
Shriners Hospitals for Children
Sunovion Pharmaceuticals
Susan G. Komen
Team Red, White & Blue
United Pet Group
Vitamin World
Walgreens
Wine Enthusiast Companies
World’s Finest Chocolate
Merkle Health is “a data-driven healthcare communications and performance marketing agency focused on helping the best healthcare brands in the world create competitive advantage through people-based marketing.” According to agency leadership, Merkle is leading the future of how health brands connect with patients, providers and payers.
“Our passion is to activate relevant personalized experiences that change healthcare behavior, improve outcomes, and drive scalable shareholder value,” execs say. “Our legacy in data, analytics, and technology, and strength in performance media, strategy, and creativity are at the heart of our fully integrated solutions. We create people-based marketing across all media and channels, which leads to improved patient/customer engagement, conversion, adherence, and advocacy leading to scalable shareholder value. We help our clients transform health media and communications programs from mass advertising into addressable, connected journeys, and personalized real time dialogue. In so doing, we generate personal relevance, reduce ad waste, and drive greater reach to qualified target audiences.”
The Year’s Accomplishments
Merkle Health added several new members to its team last year. Michael Goldin joined as senior VP and vertical practice lead for Healthcare and Nonprofit. Goldin was with Young & Rubicam Health (Y&R) in New York City, where he was senior VP, group director for the Health practice. Coleen Kuehn became chief media officer. In this role, Kuehn is responsible for the leadership of Merkle’s media portfolio across search, display, social, and performance media as well as overseeing communications strategy capabilities. Michael Komasinski was appointed global chief operating officer for Merkle services. Based in London, he also serves as the general manager for media services, Europe.
The agency won several honors in 2016. Merkle was cited for a second year in a row by The Relevancy Group as a leader in its annual release of “The Relevancy Ring: Email Agency Buyer’s Guide 2016.” Merkle is the only agency recognized in four Forrester Waves as a Leader or Strong Performer for Customer Engagement Strategy, Marketing Database Operations, Customer Loyalty Solutions & Search Marketing Agencies.
Merkle achieved several partnerships in 2016. Merkle is now Google’s second-largest agency partner in the United States; became Baidu’s first U.S.-headquartered agency partner; and is now a preferred partner of Oracle Marketing and Data Cloud, Google DoubleClick and Analytics, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Pega Strategic Consulting, Twitter Tailored Audience, and Facebook Custom Audience. Merkle is an Adobe Preferred Partner and was named the 2016 Emerging Partner of the Year, Americas. In 2016, Merkle was also selected by Microsoft to join the Bing Elite Partners Program.
In the area of product developments, Merkle unveiled its Merkle Innovation Cloud, Publisher Addressable Marketplace, and DataSource. The Merkle Innovation Cloud is a rapid prototyping environment that brings to life user experiences on the Adobe Marketing Cloud, targeted with Merkle people-based data. The Publisher Addressable Marketplace (PAM) is a proprietary first-of-its-kind media-buying platform to enable people-based marketing through online advertising, executives say, adding that PAM is an audience-driven planning and buying platform that connects first-party data to programmatic, addressable display buying across premium publishers. DataSource is a data aggregation tool that enables the direct match of advertisers’ anonymous first-party customer and prospect data with publishers’ known subscriber and logged-in user data, and enriches personal profile to improve media and message targeting, according to agency leadership.
In new business ventures, Dentsu Aegis Network, headquartered in London, acquired a majority stake in Merkle. “This is a significant strategic combination that will accelerate Merkle’s ability to grow as a global agency while offering people-based marketing across the DAN network of global clients,” executives note.
Structure & Services
Merkle Health offers a unique and groundbreaking approach to addressable advertising and media driven by data. “We call it people-based marketing, which is helping mass marketers move to connected journeys that are more personally relevant, and give the patient/customer the content they want, when they want it.” The agency’s skills include planning and strategy; performance creative; performance media; analytics and reporting; marketing automation; and transformation and change management. Planning and strategy includes patient, physician, payer, and healthcare provider engagement strategies with reach and frequency programs that are formed into connected journeys, and target customers with two-way personalized interactions across all channels.
Performance creative encompasses omni-channel creative ideation, design, development, approval, and deployment. Performance media includes digital and direct media solutions tailored and aligned to a client’s business, marketing, and media goals and objectives, with comprehensive media programs that deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right customer to maximize behavior change and business impact. Analytics and reporting includes site analytics, audience analytics, attribution, and media analytics driving continuous improvement and navigation of marketers through increasingly complex digital marketing landscape. These include “faster cycles of planning and optimization to get brand marketers up to speed in real time 24/7 digital health environments.”
For marketing automation, AI, and the marketing cloud, Merkle offers a proprietary full-stack marketing technology platform and alliance partnerships with Adobe, Oracle and Salesforce that “bridge the gap between mass advertising and rapidly expanding, personalized digital and relationship marketing engagements that drive two-way dialogue.” Transformation and change management address organizational change and comprise maturity assessments that harness key audience platforms, addressability, personalization, and media optimization to drive the marketing execution. According to Merkle execs, there is “end-to-end support to ensure all key client stakeholders are vested, trained and empowered to maximize adoption of marketing technology and machine learning capabilities.”
Future Plans
“In 2017, Merkle Health will continue to be aggressive in uncovering the challenges, successes, and outcomes necessary for delivering people-based marketing across devices and channels for clients. Our heritage in data, technology, and analytics gives us the ability to drive better integration across audiences and channels to deliver improved customer experiences that positively impact outcomes for HCPs, pharma companies, and consumers.”
Merkle continues to track, report, and advise clients on the rapid rise of addressable digital media as reported in the release of its quarterly Digital Marketing Report. “The report analyzes trends across paid search, social media, display, and organic search, while providing highly regarded insights into the performance of major industry players like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo.”
Philanthropy/Citizenship
Through its Women in Leadership (WiL) organization, Merkle is “very proud to announce its role in the US as a co-sponsor of the Association of National Advertisers – Alliance for Family Entertainment (ANA/AFE) movement to accurately portray women and girls in media,” managers explain. “The goal of the AFE effort is to make significant progress by 2020 (which is the 100th anniversary of U.S. women’s right to vote), to help women and girls see themselves as they truly are. The AFE is working closely with the White House and more than fifty leading marketers, on this effort to challenge and overcome the unconscious bias that exists against females and is so often portrayed in media.” Merkle Health also supports a “robust” health nonprofit client roster, and “participates actively in the missions of our clients.”
