Merkle becomes first Middle East agency to secure partnership with Baidu for regional brands advertising in China

Merkle, a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency, announced today that it has secured a partnership with Baidu in the Middle East, expanding their existing global partnership. This specialization demonstrates Baidu’s recognition of Merkle’s industry-leading capabilities in advertising, as well as its overall status in people-based marketing.

Within the broader global partnership with Baidu, Merkle has been appointed as a core reseller in China, Japan and the US to provide Baidu Paid Ads services for brands. Combined with strong expertise and best practices in China, Merkle will be able to deliver unique value to its clients by achieving the best business results for their marketing strategies.

As the world’s second-largest economy, China continues to be a hot destination that attracts international businesses, particularly from emerging economies. Baidu, the dominating search engine in China, remains a preferred choice for businesses to raise their brand awareness as they look to rapidly reach out to hundreds of millions of potential customers across the country.

“We’re pleased to extend our partnership with Merkle to the Middle East region. Performance marketing in a different digital landscape can be a real challenge when entering a new market.  Merkle is a global leader of search marketing with a strong data heritage and a proven track record of working with many premier brands,” said YangLong, Senior Manager of Baidu Global Business Unit. “We believe our new alliance will bring significant benefits to advertisers by building and maximizing the value of their customer portfolios.”

“Baidu’s platform and product offering is exactly what local and regional brands expanding their footprints in China need” said Rudy Banholzer, VP & Managing Director, Merkle MENA. “With the UAE and Saudi Arabia placing increased importance on the tourism sector, we are pleased to be able to strengthen our collaboration with this key market. China is anticipated to launch its Belt and Road Initiative at Expo 2020 in Dubai and over 2.9 million Chinese tourists are expected to visit the GCC by 2022. We believe our assets and expertise will help create a strong competitive advantage for our clients by winning more mindshare, as well as market share, in the China market.”

Vimal Badiani, VP Performance Media, Merkle MENA added “Reaching your target audience in a foreign country can be very challenging. As brands try to navigate launching platforms in Chinese and a web of unfamiliar advertising channels, specialized resellers like Merkle have the best know-how for the local market. We can help businesses around various issues by leveraging our unique set of capabilities, including multilingual certified personnel, day-to-day follow-ups, and data analytics to ensure optimized digital marketing and maximized ROI.”