Merkle Acquires Leading US Digital Agency Axis41

Merkle (merkleinc.com), a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, announced its acquisition of Salt Lake City based Axis41 (www.axis41.com), a leading strategic digital agency focused on customer experience. This is Merkle’s first corporate acquisition since joining the Dentsu Aegis Network in August 2016. The move supports Dentsu Aegis Network’s strategy of building within its network a set of full-scale people-based marketing capabilities rooted in data, analytics, and technology. Axis41’s full staff of more than 170 employees, who are experts in marketing communications, strategy, design, technology, and marketing integration, will join the Merkle team.
Merkle’s people-based marketing approach to delivering relevant, personalized customer experiences requires a full breadth of skill sets, encompassing data, analytics, technology, and experience design and creation. The acquisition of Axis41 reinforces this strategy, bringing its top-tier customer experience management services, including brand development, content strategy, persona development, UI/UX, graphic design, web development, content management systems implementation, web marketing, web optimization, and demand generation.
Both Axis41 and Merkle maintain key partnerships with major industry technology platform providers. The acquisition will augment the agency’s Alliance Channel strategy adding more than $25 million in revenue to Merkle’s already broad and deep marketing cloud practice.