Dentsu Launches Its New Merkury for Media Platform

Note: This story is part of an ongoing series covering agencies’ audience management platforms. Previously, Adweek reported on Omnicom’s Omni, Horizon Media’s blu. Havas’ Converged, Publicis’ Epsilon PeopleCloud, PMG's Alli, Gale's Alchemy.Ai and DEPT's Ada. Dentsu Media's new Merkury for Media data and identity platform is debuting now in U.S. markets. Previously known as M1, the Merkury technology harnesses Merkle's data assets and technology chops to help Dentsu Media's staff across its three media agencies—Carat, iProspect and Dentsu X—activate media on behalf of their clients. The tool is available now in the U.S. market, and the group's leaders are planning its eventual progression into other regions. Aspects of the Merkury platform are still in development, but all told, it will address three aspects of the media buying process: enterprise, or data and identity; media, or media performance and channel allocations; and creative, which combines identity and media intelligence to inform creative execution. Dentsu is making significant structural investments in its data and technology infrastructure and scaling those across its agencies. The Merkury platform offers a high degree of flexibility to planners, who can take advantage of various input options and manual configurations to create customized segments, media plans and activations for their clients. In January, the media group named Sean Reardon, a programmatic media expert who formerly led the programmatic firm MiQ, its CEO in the Americas. Last summer, Michael Komasinski stepped up to lead Dentsu Americas, rising from his previous role as Merkle's CEO. "Your ability to leverage identity and data is the skeleton key to open all the doors," Reardon told ADWEEK. "What we have with Merkury for Media is setting us on the fringe of unrivaled with our global identity, data and insights." Built-in flexibility and manual options Now rolling out Merkury, the group is retiring its M1 brand. MI, "was all about audiences—building them, understanding them and then syndicating them," said Akash Jairath, Dentsu Media's chief product officer. Merkury offers that and more. In the new platform, Dentsu can streamline audience intelligence and media activation by syndicating audiences and buying inventory using its proprietary Merkury ID, a privacy solution that anonymizes and consolidates audience data, and that buying partners like DSPs are integrated with. "The level of customization and transparency is just unparalleled, and where that excites me is it gives us an ability to curate application of the platform on a client-by-client level," Reardon said. Planners view inventory on the platform, allowing them to create bespoke plans for clients and leverage the group's partnerships to take advantage of pre-negotiated deals. They may also compare Merkury data with the available inventory at the point of activation, where the platform applies machine learning and AI models that can optimize the media mix allocation. "With that fidelity and with that identity comes precision and control," said Jairath. "Whether it's managing reach and frequency [or] managing budgets, it will see [those] at a personal level, so there's minimal waste, and you have more media dollars working towards the client's objectives." A media planning system Merkury is part of the holding company's broader operating system, called Dentsu Connect. There, planners can access various apps, including the Marketing Intelligence Platform. The intelligence platform operates using the group's Merkury ID, allowing planners to upload first-party data and then model it, analyzing similar audiences within the platform, like lookalike audiences. "The Merkury ID is a persistent ID that we are using to syndicate across the ecosystem as a replacement for cookies," said Matt Naeger, global chief strategy and marketing officer at Merkle. Once planners find their audiences and segments, the next step is to optimize the channel mix with the platform's help. "That's kind of the 'easy' button," said Jairath. "It's where a lot of teams will start." That "easy" button creates a media mix of suggested channels and investments based on the budget and demographic targets, taking into account reach and frequency, and suggesting the most appropriate channel allocation across digital, video, social and TV. Planners can input costs, pre-negotiated prices or other constraints. They can get granular with customizations—choosing whether to focus on ROI, maximizing reach, or hitting a target percentage. Then, the tool runs a media mix optimization in real-time. "It underscores the fact that we've done the technology integrations with the supply-side platforms as direct as possible. We are not making assumptions about the inventory, or the buy," said Naeger, adding that this more transparent model gives its media team the flexibility to negotiate deals directly with publishers. In 2023, the group focused on planning and activation and is now expanding its emphasis to Merkury's audience intelligence and measurement components—something it already covered with M1, the previous rendition of the platform. Activation and integrations Dentsu designed the interface to fit into an existing planner's workflow, given that its programmatic buyers are the ones using it. Merkury also allows them to account for verification, data or technology fees and track those along with campaign spending. "We're not holding anything back here much like our fees, and targeting controls. Everything is brought to the fore that we could enable and control," said Naeger. The reporting portion of the platform is not in its final form yet, but will eventually depict a reach and frequency report against a single identity, allowing planners to close the loop and optimize their campaigns against a particular Merkury ID. "It's the identity that connects all these pieces which means everything is a feedback loop at every step," Jairath said. Dentsu Americas Names New Media, Strategy and Client Executives