Merkle opens Shanghai office

CRM agency Merkle has opened its first international office in Shanghai, China, the company announced September 14.

The firm's goal is to provide technology and analytics operations and improve company offerings for clients in the Asia-Pacific region. The office opened last month.

“Our multinational clients are asking us to provide global support in their local market, so we will actually be providing local resources to support their Asia-Pacific operations,” said Zhengda Shen, EVP and COO of Merkle. “Our client base is going more global, and the solutions they are asking for are more global.”

Seventy-five employees are working at the Shanghai office, with expectations that it will expand as the company grows. Raymond Wu, senior director of quantitative solutions at Merkle, is leading the office. Merkle is also considering creating offices in Europe in coming years.

Shen said the increasing digitization of business has made it easier to run the firm on an international level. To ensure the company can respond to the local demands of its clients, the 30-plus Merkle employees originally from China are helping with recruitment and management.

He added that the company has worked to ensure its culture stays intact. Managers are building the overseas team, and the same designers that set up Merkle's Columbia, Md., headquarters are designing the office.

“I tell my team, ‘The only difference I want to see in the Shanghai office is the time zone,'” Shen said.