Merkle wins data analytics challenge at DMA06

SAN FRANCISCO -- Database marketing agency Merkle won first place in the DMA Analytics Challenge held Tuesday at DMA06, the Direct Marketing Association's conference and exhibition taking place here this week.

Merkle is based in Lanham, MD.

The inaugural DMA Analytics Challenge invited organizations on the DMA's Analytics Council to build a response model based on the same dataset and raw variables. Contestants were instructed to transform, combine and analyze the data for an actual client of CAC Group Inc., whose name was not disclosed. The DMA Analytics Council and CAC Group sponsored the contest.

Merkle was named the winner out of a field of more than 30 contestants. The five finalists were invited to present their models at DMA06. Members of the Merkle team include Gurkan Sener, Kristine Van Pelt, Raymond Wu, Shengjun Liu, Xiaofan Zhang, Vijay Jayanti, and Roman Lenzen.

To take top honors, the team created multiple sets of models in order to measure response and profit both separately and in combination. The team then combined these sets of models using a hybrid model approach to capture the best insight from each model.