Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company and part of dentsu, has appointed Dan Wigley to lead its combined UK analytics practice.

In his new role, Wigley is responsible for leading and driving growth strategies within Merkle’s analytics practice, which in 2019 combined its digital and customer analytics businesses.

The combined practice brings together an unrivalled depth and breadth of experience, matched with sophisticated global delivery capabilities to offer Merkle and dentsu’s clients a full suite of data and analytics services: from data science and engineering to analytics-tech and data strategy consulting.

Wigley joined dentsu over eight years ago, and since then he has successfully scaled a business unit from a standing start to an annual income of £8.2m, covering a range of diverse products including: web analytics, website optimisation (CRO), data engineering, data science, feeds and structure data, dynamic creative and CRM in his role of managing director of data and technology. His extensive experience has driven results spanning multiple industries, having previously worked with the likes of NBrown, PureGym, Barratt Homes and Next.

Merkle’s analytics practice also sees Olly Walker expanding his existing responsibilities to work with Tracie Kambie, the global Merkle analytics lead and Nick McCarthy, Merkle’s EMEA alliances lead, to drive the company’s global partnership strategy for analytics including our Go-to-Market plans with Google. He will dually report to Kambie and Wigley. This is in addition to his existing role as head of commercial and strategy, a recently created role across Merkle Analytics to ensure that data and insights are embedded within all customer engagements, delivering sustainable competitive advantage to clients. Olly is also responsible for leading our analytics consultancy teams, leading a team of specialists supporting clients with assessments and roadmaps across data, digital maturity and advertising consultancy, enabling a greater capability to deliver CXM.

Anne Stagg, UK CEO, Merkle, said: “Dan’s long-standing commitment to dentsu and his exceptional past performance make him the perfect fit to lead the UK team in delivering the next chapter in growth for the analytics practice. Analytics is a core part of Merkle’s capabilities and is an area which will see continued investment so the business can deliver world-class technology services for our clients. This enhanced leadership team is rich with potential, particularly when it comes to complementing the brilliant work that the existing management team is already doing so well.”

Dan Wigley, UK analytics practice lead, Merkle, said: “Analytics plays a fundamental and critical role in the development and assessment of modern marketing functions, creating a virtuous feedback cycle of learnings that helps brands to adapt and improve. Ensuring that analytical functions remain adaptable and integrated into broader brand marketing plans is an essential component of driving businesses’ customer experience transformations and Merkle is committed to staying at the forefront of the industry to help brands to better serve customers.”