Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, today announced the appointment of Craig Dempster to global CEO, effective June 1, 2020. A Merkle veteran, Dempster has held the role of president of Merkle Americas since 2017, overseeing the organization’s many service lines, including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise technology, data, analytics, performance media, user experience, performance creative, promotion and loyalty solutions, and customer strategy consulting.
David Williams, chairman and CEO of Merkle for more than 32 years, will remain chairman of Merkle while retaining his role as CEO, Global CRM Group for Dentsu Aegis Network and chairman of Dentsu Aegis Network Americas. Under Williams’s leadership, Merkle has grown from $2.5 million in revenue to more than $1.0 billion in revenue annually and become a truly global business. He oversaw the company’s sale to Dentsu in 2016 and its integration over the past 4 years. Purpose built for the digital age, Dentsu has focused on acquiring relevant, high-performance businesses globally in high-growth areas, including data, brand commerce, customer experience, performance marketing, social, and mobile.
Dempster’s appointment comes at a time of major disruption in marketing, with a changing regulatory environment and the decline of third-party cookies causing a heightened focus on first-party data. These pressures, coupled with the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, have brands looking to experienced marketing services providers to help them navigate through the uncertainties they are facing and adjust their marketing strategies to deliver the total customer experience – from marketing to sales to service. Dempster’s deep leadership experience and tenure with Merkle equips him to take the helm to lead the company and its clients through this new normal.
