• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 21, 2023

Merkle and Google Cloud have expanded a long-time partnership in the United Kingdom to forge what the agency calls the UK’s largest Google Technology Practice.

The creation of the practice required Merkle to integrate Google Marketing Platform and Google Cloud Platform teams across the Dentsu Group companies, addressing the integration of capabilities in digital analytics, ad technology, data engineering, AI, and data strategy.

El Kanagavel, MD Performance Technology at dentsu UK, and Neil Collins, head of experience, analytics and ad tech at Merkle, will co-manage as directors of the practice.

Kanagavel believes the newly integrated teams are a “natural step forward” as marketers seek stronger performance with AI integrated into marketing and advertising. 

The Google Tech space has been an active market in the U.K. for more than 12 years, but recently Merkle expanded its partnership with the tech giant to support capabilities in AI.

The partnership adds Google Cloud integrated services into Merkle’s AI capability as well as Google Analytics and Google Marketing Platform.

The new practice also includes the launch of Accelerator, a new technology built natively in the Google environment. It is a cloud-based data-management solution that allows for analysis, insights, and visualization of data.

Merkle built the technology for Google platforms to give clients what the company calls “accelerated time-to-value” by automating configuration, deployment and activation of advanced marketing analytics solutions.

This suite enables businesses to leverage Google Analytics, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Cloud Platform.

Merkle had already supported cloud products from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In early August, Dentsu announced the integration of Merkle GenCX’s generative AI (GAI) solution with Google’s Vertex AI and Duet AI, giving brands the ability to drive connected customer experiences through GAI, beyond what is available today.

Merkle GenCX leverages large knowledge models (LKMs) and large language models (LLMs) on its clients’ proprietary data assets via neutral networks to find opportunities with vast amounts of enterprise first-party data.

Businesses that use Google Duet AI and Vertex AI can leverage Merkle GenCX to create opportunities for brands that generate actionable insights from data previously left untapped.