Markle has a presence all over Singapore. In 2021, the company won the Loyalty His Marketing Excellence Award Bronze Award and was a finalist for Excellence in Influencer/KOL Marketing, Excellence in Marketing to Specific Audiences, and Excellence in Search Marketing. .

In this interview, Sanchit Mendiratta (pictured), managing director of Merkle Singapore, shares one of the key changes 2021 has brought to the agency. It’s about how consumers interact with brands and how they expect brands to handle their data and privacy. “Consumers expect more from brands, but they are waiting for none. The market is highly competitive, with all brands fighting for the consumer’s money (and attention). So brands need to meet customers where they are and do what they need to do.Ultimately, we have learned that to get attention you have to pay attention,” he said. .

In 2022, agencies have also focused on rapidly changing aspects of marketing. “Our plan is simple: help brands make the most of the available demand in the market,” he said. This is done by being extremely agile to help clients find creative solutions to make it happen.

1. Platform – AdTech, MarTech, Service Stack
2. People – We Build Capabilities
3. Process – Create an operating model that helps complex organizations work well across departments

This interview was conducted as part of the Marketing Excellence Awards Singapore 2021 MARKETING-INTERACTIVE winners and finalists interview series. Click here for award details.

Borders and markets are now open. How are you taking advantage of this?

Mendiratta: On a personal level, it’s great to meet clients face-to-face for business reviews. A whiteboard is what we were missing. Merkle handles some of the most complex use cases related to customer experience, measurement, and performance marketing. It’s much more efficient to be in the same room to brainstorm solutions to client challenges.

Also, as an organization, face-to-face discussions have helped increase sales effectiveness. Because the ability to be in the room and read faces, the excitement and anxiety certainly contributed to a consulting approach that the client really liked.

What changes in the marketing space have taken you by surprise? How has your team pivoted?

Mendiratta: While we’ve seen some clients cut budgets during the pandemic, we’ve seen some clients double down on their digital marketing and enable them to implement better marketing stacks. For example, clients in the insurance industry have found that they need to dominate their presence digitally when they can’t meet face-to-face with their customers.

The digital marketing space has to change direction quickly, and with so many moving parts, it’s been difficult for any marketer to keep track of everything that’s going on all the time. So I’m here to roll out digital marketing, sales, and service offerings and help organizations bring marketing and sales all together on his one page. Not only has it helped us expand our service repertoire, but it has also improved our approach to non-marketing elements such as sales, service, loyalty and advocacy. Ultimately, the client organization wins with added functionality and new understanding.

Name one exciting trend that you think will continue into the new year.

Mendiratta: The enormous pressure on brands to care about data and privacy is pushing brands to take action on the evolution of privacy. With third-party support for his cookies coming to an end next year, we see a lot of challenges for brands to adapt. But at the same time, we see this as a good time for brands to take a closer look at first-party data and make sure they’re getting accurate reports in the face of privacy regulations and change tracking. Only by working with us to prioritize the use of first-party data and break our zero-party strategy will we be able to deliver a superior customer experience to stay competitive.