Merkle, the global performance marketing agency and part of the Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), has completed its acquisition of Amicus Digital, which will now be called: Amicus Digital, a Merkle Company. Amicus Digital, the cloud consulting and technical services provider with offices in Sydney and Melbourne, assists clients with its marketing cloud product, which provides digital marketing automation and analytics software and services. The current managing director and co-founder Blair Cooke and co-founder Jessie Mitchell, the commercial and client services director, will continue to run the agency. Blair will report to Simon Ryan, CEO of DAN ANZ and Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle APAC.

DAN’s APAC Ambitions
 
Merkle’s acquisition of Amicus Digital is another step in strengthening the former’s position in the APAC region. Founded in 2015, the Sydney-based marketing technology company Amicus Digital has been recognized by Salesforce as being one of the top 10 partners in the APAC for the past two years. According to Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle, APAC, ‘Australia is a priority market’ for the company’s global expansion. The acquisition of Amicus Digital will accelerate Merkle’s growth and differentiation in Australia.

As per sources like CMO.com and mumbrella.com, Simon Ryan, CEO of DAN, said, “Fully backed by the power of the Dentsu Aegis Network and with our clients increasingly looking to their agency partners to provide seamless expertise across multiple communications services, building our capability across data and digital skills is a strategic imperative.”

The Impact of the Acquisition on Customers
 
As stated on the Dentsu company blog, Amicus Digital’s team of expert consultants will help Merkle clients and customers with highly competitive data and marketing technology services to transform their consumer experience (CX). Apart from furthering Merkle’s growth strategy in the APAC, the acquisition implies that Merkle has expanded and augmented its array of data and martech services. According to a statement made by Simon Ryan, CEO of DAN (Source: Adnews.com.au) – Merkle acquired Amicus Digital to address the growing demand from its clients for assistance across multiple communications services.

He reiterated this fact to Anews.com, saying, “Amicus Digital has a market-leading reputation for expertise across all aspects of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and brings a unique and in-demand offering to our group. There is a strong cultural and strategic fit, and we look forward to welcoming the Amicus Digital team and supporting them through the next phase of growth for our business and that of our clients.”

As per sources like CMO.com and Adnews.com, Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle, APAC, commented that, “Amicus Digital is one of the few consultancies in Australia that can provide people-based strategy, transformation, technical implementation, support and campaign execution.” Shen continued, “This acquisition provides considerable differentiation for Merkle and DAN in Australia and we look forward to delivering on the opportunities and potential for our clients and partners.”

Definitely, a conglomerate to watch out for in the APAC region in the years ahead!