· The acquisition will help strengthen Dentsu Aegis Network’s people-based market offering in Asia-Pacific
· Happy Marketer’s India offerings will be integrated with Merkle Asia Pacific and help widen the base for the brand in the country
Dentsu Aegis Network SEA announced the acquisition of the Happy Marketer Group, Southeast Asia’s leading data-driven digital marketing agency headquartered in Singapore. Post-acquisition, it will be rebranded as Happy Marketer, a Merkle Company. Established in 2009, Happy Marketer has digital marketing delivery centers in Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Mumbai in India withover 40 employees. Some of Happy Marketer’s leading clients in India include Practo, Urban Ladder, Standard Chartered Bank, and Amity University.
Happy Marketer provides data, analytics, CRM, performance marketing, and marketing technology to power data-driven customer experience solutions for its clients, extending Merkle’s full breadth of services across Southeast Asia. It will enable the agency to deliver people-based marketing at scale across the region.
Happy Marketer is also Google’s go-to provider for Google Analytics in the region and of advanced analytics services to many leading organizations across Southeast Asia. It also has strong marketing technology capability, with significant experience across leading marketing technology platforms such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud and HubSpot, among others.
Phil Teeman, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Southeast Asia and Singapore, said: “Southeast Asia is a critical growth driver for Merkle’s expansion.With this acquisition, the delivery and management of data analytics and customer experience marketing, which are Happy Marketer’s key competencies, will take the front seat, helping Dentsu Aegis Network reinforce itself as a key player. This also translates into greater opportunities to penetrate new and existing clients’ ecosystems in the Indian subcontinent.”
Zhengda Shen, President, Merkle Asia Pacific, said: “Bringing Happy Marketer into the Merkle family is critical to our Asia-Pacific expansion strategy. The acquisition will significantly accelerate Merkle’s ability to bring its full suite of services to the Southeast Asian market. Happy Marketer has positive brand recognition and a strong reputation. Its data-driven and customer experience enablement approach, strong core service offerings, and dynamic culture align closely with Merkle.”
Joining the leadership team from India are Happy Marketer Managing Partner, Prantik Mazumdar, and Founder and CEO Rachit Dayal, who will report to Ted Bray, Managing Director and Chief Growth Officer of Merkle Asia Pacific.
Rachit Dayal, Founder and CEO at Happy Marketer, and Prantik Mazumdar, Managing Partner of Happy Marketer said: “Our business has rapidly scaled in the last 10 years, and it’s been an absolute blast forming a #HappyTribe of clients and employees who look forward to mastering the next disruption. And as we look on to the next 10 years, we are excited to partner with Merkle and Dentsu Aegis Network to help more businesses drive into the future. We intend to work closely to create a winning playbook to capture market share through our data-driven, technology-led, people-based marketing solutions.
“Merkle’s incredible story of passion for technology, and Dentsu Aegis’s global presence with Asian values are a huge source of inspiration for us. We feel an instant cultural fit and look forward to be part of their transformation journey. This is one of the best gifts we could have imagined as part of our 10-year celebration,” they added.