Dentsu Aegis Acquires Media Storm to Strengthen Merkle's Multichannel Performance Media Services

Dentsu Aegis Network, performance marketing agency Merkle's parent company, has acquired Media Storm, an audience planning and targeting agency. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Media Storm will provide Merkle with expanded capabilities across key verticals, especially the media, entertainment, travel, and retail segments. Media Storm has a long history of helping companies in those sectors grow ratings, subscriptions, box office, and brand awareness.

With this acquisition, Merkle further enhances its multichannel performance media capabilities in several areas, including tune-in and over-the-top (OTT) media services. Media Storm's use of audience decision science to drive planning and optimization complements Merkle's people-based marketing approach.

Additionally, the acquisition merges Media Storm's specialized hyper-local, multichannel retail approach with Merkle's digital performance media and CRM capabilities.

"There are very few companies that make perfect sense to unite with, and Merkle is that agency. The power of our combined agencies is unmatched in the industry," said Craig Woerz, managing partner and co-founder of Media Storm, in a statement. "We both do what we say and deliver on our promises to clients. I couldn't be more inspired to elevate data-led innovation in accountable media as a part of the Merkle family."

"The acquisition of Media Storm supports Merkle's long-term strategic plan to use first-party data to inform and drive marketing across all media channels," said Craig Dempster, president of Merkle Americas, in a statement. "With their audience-first approach, Media Storm helps to extend our existing capabilities to multichannel performance media and enables us to connect to a broader execution of media programs."

This transaction marks Merkle's third acquisition so far in 2020. The most recent was 4Cite Marketing, which was acquired at the end of January.

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