Merkle, [x+1] Partner to Drive True Customer-Centric Marketing

April 7, 2010 - PRLog -- Columbia, Md. and New York – Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), the nation’s largest and fastest-growing independent customer relationship marketing agency, and [x+1] (www.xplusone.com), the online targeting platform leader, today announced a strategic partnership that will allow marketers to bring the performance of integrated customer-centric campaigns to a new level.

In the initial phase of the partnership, [x+1]’s powerful audience targeting platform will be integrated with Merkle’s proprietary data, technology and analytics capabilities to enable Digital Media Optimization™, which will allow marketers to effectively capture, utilize and integrate insights from online display advertising. As it progresses in scope and functionality, the combined offering will enable a new level of marketing effectiveness by integrating functions across the enterprise, while delivering increased customer lifetime value and profitability.

The combined strength of Merkle and [x+1] will allow marketers to transform what was often incomplete and unusable data into a powerful business intelligence tool for optimizing online channels like any other direct response media. Together, the two companies will provide marketers with a truly integrated, analytics-based multichannel approach to customer acquisition.

“We’re extremely pleased to join with Merkle to help major organizations experience true performance marketing,” said Stephano Kim, President and COO of [x+1]. “Together, we will allow marketers to identify and target high-quality prospects and profitable customers. This high-precision audience segmenting process will make their multi-channel campaigns more efficient and effective than ever.”

“Marketers need data-driven insights across all of their programs that will allow them to optimize their marketing spend,” said Craig Dempster, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Merkle. “Under the first step of our partnership with [x+1], marketers will have a solution that ratchets up display advertising’s effectiveness by identifying the most profitable, likely-to-buy customers. Merkle’s data, technology and analytical strengths, combined with [x+1]’s leading audience targeting capabilities, will guarantee the delivery of highly personalized, optimized messaging at a price that will ensure optimal cost per acquisition (CPA) rates.”

About Merkle Inc.
Merkle is the nation’s largest and fastest growing independent customer relationship marketing agency. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. By combining a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines, Merkle works with clients to design, execute and evaluate Integrated Customer Marketing™ programs. With more than 1,000 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered near Baltimore in Columbia, Maryland with additional offices in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Little Rock, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Hagerstown, Md. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.

About [x+1]
[x+1], the digital audience targeting platform leader, maximizes the return on marketing investment (ROI) of websites and digital media using its patented targeting technology. Providing the first end-to-end digital solution for advertisers and agencies, it optimizes engagement rates and lift conversion in both media and on websites. Its predictive marketing solutions enable automated, real-time decision making and personalization so the right advertisement and content is delivered to the right person at the right time. Top companies in financial services, telecommunications, online services and travel have significantly increased the performance of their digital marketing using the services of [x+1]. The company is headquartered in New York City. For more information, please visit www.xplusone.com. Follow us on Twitter @xplusone.

Contact: Wendy Marx, Marx Communications (203-445-2850 or wmarx@marxcommunications.com)

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[x+1] maximizes marketing the ROI of websites and digital media with its patented predictive targeting technology. It optimizes engagement rates and lift conversion in media and on websites, delivering the right ad to the right person at the right time.