Dentsu Aegis Network Accelerates People-based Marketing Offering in Asia Pacific Through Acquisition of Happy Marketer

Dentsu Aegis Network today announced that it has acquired Happy Marketer Group, Southeast Asia’s leading data-driven digital marketing agency. Post-acquisition, it will be rebranded as Happy Marketer, a Merkle Company – the acquisition will provide a strategic foundation for Merkle’s data, analytics, and CRM solutions, further enabling the agency to deliver people-based marketing at scale across the region.

Established in 2009, Happy Marketer is headquartered in Singapore, with a digital marketing delivery center in Bangalore, India. Today the agency has 55 employees providing data, analytics, CRM, performance marketing, and marketing technology to power data-driven customer experience solutions for its clients, extending Merkle’s full breadth of services across Southeast Asia. 

Happy Marketer is Google’s go-to provider in the region for Google Analytics training, and provides advanced analytics services to many of the top companies across Southeast Asia. The agency has strong marketing technology capability – with significant experience across leading marketing technology platforms, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot, Oracle Marketing Cloud, and Adobe Experience Cloud.

Phil Teeman, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Southeast Asia and Singapore, said: “Southeast Asia is a critical growth driver for Merkle’s expansion, and Singapore is a hub for that growth. With Singapore’s drive to become The Smart City, the delivery and management of data analytics and customer experience marketing, which are Happy Marketer’s key competencies, will take the front seat, helping Dentsu Aegis Network reinforce itself as a key player. Bringing Happy Marketer into the network also means greater opportunities to penetrate new and existing clients’ ecosystems with its full suite of offerings.” 

Zhengda Shen, President, Merkle Asia Pacific, said: “Bringing Happy Marketer into the Merkle family is critical to our Asia Pacific expansion strategy. The acquisition will significantly accelerate Merkle’s ability to bring our full suite of services to Singapore and to the Southeast Asian market. It will also provide a strategic leadership and geographic link with our existing Asia Pacific footprint in China, India, and Australia. Happy Marketer has positive brand recognition and a strong reputation. More importantly, its data-driven and customer experience enablement approach, strong core service offerings, and dynamic culture align closely with Merkle.” 

Joining the leadership team from Happy Marketer is Managing Partner, Rachit Dayal, who will report to Ted Bray, Managing Director and Chief Growth Officer of Merkle Asia Pacific. 

Rachit Dayal, Founder and CEO at Happy Marketer, and Prantik Mazumdar, Managing Partner of Happy Marketer said: “Our business has rapidly scaled in the last 10 years, and it’s been an absolute blast forming a #HappyTribe of clients and employees who look forward to mastering the next disruption. And as we look on to the next 10 years, we are excited to partner with Merkle and Dentsu Aegis Network to help more businesses drive into the future. We intend to work closely to create a winning playbook to capture market share through our data-driven, technology-led, people-based marketing solutions. 

“Merkle’s incredible story of passion for technology, and Dentsu Aegis’s global presence with Asian values are a huge source of inspiration for us. We feel an instant cultural fit and look forward to be part of their transformation journey. This is one of the best gifts we could have imagined as part of our 10-year celebration,” they added. 

The agency has won numerous marketing awards at Marketing’s Agency of the Year, MARKies, as well as Asian Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy Conference, including Agency of the Year for Best Digital Agency, Best Search Agency, Best B2B Agency, Best Specialist Agency, Best Content Agency, Best CRM Agency, Best Programmatic, Best Market Research Agency, and Best Social Agency.

 -ENDS-