Merkle promotes solutions chief to lead strategy team

Dentsu-owned agency Merkle has created the new role of practice lead of its UK strategy team to drive client progress and transformation, and handed the post to vice-president of its solutions operation Niyi Duro-Emanuel.

He joined Merkle in 2015, when the agency acquired Periscopix – now Merkle’s performance media practice – and has been part of the business for over 11 years.

Duro-Emanuel had initially joined Periscopix in the PPC team, helping to scale the practice to one of the largest in the UK.

Prior to joining the solutions team 18 months ago, he led the client services team across Merkle’s media and CX practice. He has also held a number of senior client leadership roles, spearheading the development of Merkle’s approach across large integrated clients within media and analytics.

In the new role, Duro-Emanuel is responsible for leading Merkle’s team of 40 strategists in the UK, providing strategic consultancy to clients across Merkle’s customer experience management and transformation offering.

Duro-Emanuel said: “The team and I are focused on developing an outcomes-first proposition for clients, to transform their customer experience capabilities through adopting technology to truly achieve their desired business outcomes. I’m thrilled to be leading such a talented team and helping our clients deliver a total customer experience across every interaction they have with their brand.”

The UK strategy team was previously led by Richard Lees in a dual role which also spanned the EMEA region. He was appointed chief strategy officer for Merkle and Dentsu’s CXM Service Line across EMEA in December 2020.

Lees and Duro-Emanuel will continue to collaborate on the adoption, alignment, and evolution of the EMEA-wide proposition.

Merkle UK chief executive Anne Stagg, who is also boss of Dentsu UK & Ireland’s CXM division, said: “Niyi’s experience in client leadership and in his most recent role, providing strategic consultancy to help clients navigate their customer experience transformation journeys, makes him the perfect candidate to lead our first class team of strategists.”

Since launching in the UK nearly six years ago, Merkle has expanded from 20 to 940 people across six offices, working across media, analytics, data, technology, commerce and B2B.