Merkle Appoints Azlan Raj to EMEA CMO

Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company and part of Dentsu Aegis Network, has appointed Azlan Raj to the newly created role of chief marketing officer for the EMEA region. This new role has been designed to continually evolve Merkle’s leading digital and data capabilities across the region to drive customer experience transformation for clients.

Azlan, previously Merkle’s SVP for customer experience across EMEA, will be responsible for evolving the company’s market-leading proposition. This will ensure Merkle continues to drive innovation combined with operational excellence for clients by integrating data, analytics, media, CRM and technology to deliver against ever-changing consumer expectations of a total customer experience wherever and whenever they come into contact with a brand.

Michael Komasinski, president, Merkle and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network’s CRM Line of Business across EMEA, said: “Organisations are constantly challenged to evolve with agility and speed to continually meet ever-changing consumer expectations and the technology landscape. Adapting to these challenges and providing leadership for clients amid this constantly shifting landscape is a critical role for agencies and consultancies alike. Azlan’s role in building, leading and integrating our customer experience practice across the EMEA region and his wider understanding of our capabilities makes him perfectly placed to best position our offering to support our clients, whilst truly understanding the challenges that they face.”

The new role spans all Dentsu Aegis Network’s capabilities within its CRM Line of Business, across commerce, data and technology platforms, analytics, media, customer experience, content, and B2B.

Azlan said: “Customer experience transformation now requires that data and analytics are embedded within digital transformation capabilities to take into account the context of each individual consumer interaction at any given moment in time. We’re now past the point of businesses using data just to inform decisions, it needs to be used to directly fuel their customers’ experiences. By bringing together Dentsu Aegis Network’s digital and data transformation capabilities in this way, Merkle is in an unrivalled position to not only provide customer experience management consultancy but also deliver activation through our deep expertise in commerce, data and technology platforms, analytics, media, customer experience, content and B2B.”