Merkle Named 2019 Pegasystems' Partner Excellence in Digital Transformation Recipient

Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, announced that it has won the 2019 Pegasystems Award for Partner Excellence in Digital Transformation. The award recognizes Merkle's leadership and expertise in developing and delivering marketing solutions built upon the Pega Platformtm for enabling one-to-one customer engagement. The partner awards were announced during PegaWorld, which took place June 2-5 in Las Vegas, NV. This marks the sixth Pega Partner Excellence Award for Merkle.

Pegasystems, the software company empowering digital transformation at the world's leading enterprises, bestows the Partner Excellence awards upon its partners that most effectively leverage Pega technology to provide exceptional solutions to their clients, fostering digital transformation, accelerating growth, and thought leadership. Merkle was a standout in the digital transformation category, due to the transformational business outcomes of the companies' mutual clients.

Merkle and Pega have integrated their best-in-class strategic consulting and delivery capabilities to rapidly and effectively deliver personalized customer experiences in the marketplace. Pega Marketingtm and the Pega Customer Decision Hub enable Merkle's delivery of real-time people-based marketing solutions, using a combination of first and third-party data and analytics to build targeted, one-to-one interactions throughout the customer journey.

"One of Pega's goals is to empower brands to raise their marketing game in the age of digital by rapidly deploying and adapting software applications to meet strategic business needs," said Ken Nicolson, vice president, global alliances at Pegasystems Inc. "Our partner community skillfully supports that mission, each infusing its own unique expertise to drive digital transformation. As a strategic partner for Pega's Customer Decision Hub, Merkle shines in this effort. With more than 50 certified senior Pega Marketing consultants and nearly 100 certified global Pega Marketing consultants, they have completed more than 45 successful global implementations with leading companies over the past 12 years. The team is well deserving of the award for Partner Excellence."

"We're honored to receive this recognition from one of the premiere technologies in the industry," said John Anagnost, Pega alliance lead, Merkle. "It is our distinct privilege to work with Pega, infusing our data and analytics expertise with their premier marketing platform to create more relevant and personalized experiences that drive incremental sales and lifetime value for our mutual clients. Ultimately, the results that earned Merkle this recognition could not have been achieved without the collaboration of the Pega team."

Marketers can learn more about the partnership's unique capability in a complimentary webinar, "Delivering the promise of one-to-one customer engagement: Closing the gap between marketing vision and execution," on Wednesday, June 26, at 11:00 a.m. ET. The webinar, hosted jointly by Merkle, Pegasystems, and insurance industry research and consulting firm Novarica, will discuss how the decisive engagements powered by Merkle and Pega bring real-time, people-based marketing to life in an insurance application, enabling a seamless customer journey.

About Merkle

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The agency's heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive people-based marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 7,000 employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 21 additional offices in the US and 33 offices in Europe and APAC. In 2016, the agency joined the Dentsu Aegis Network. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.