Dentsu Singapore inks strong performance with biggest haul at Agency of the Year Awards 2022

• CEO Prakash Kamdar is Agency Leader of the Year
• Dentsu Singapore takes Silver for Agency Team of the year
• Merkle Singapore snags coveted Overall Agency of the Year

Dentsu Singapore is proud to celebrate 10 wins at Marketing Interactive’s Agency of the Year Awards 2022 (AOTY), including the commendation of Prakash Kamdar, CEO, dentsu Singapore and Indonesia, as Agency Leader of the Year (Gold).

Prakash Kamdar, CEO, Dentsu Singapore & Indonesia said, “The achievements that we celebrate today are made possible because our people are earnestly passionate about delivering outstanding craft. The awards that our teams have brought home from AOTY represent excellence in the development of innovative ideas, cutting-edge products and services that help drive the growth for our clients. I am so proud that the industry has recognised our exemplary performance and the potential of our ability to drive more meaningful progress as one network. As we further integrate our offerings and strengthen our eco-system of partnerships in the region, I am confident of an even stronger showing in the coming year. The best is yet to be!”

Taking Gold for Agency Leader of the Year, Prakash has been recognised for successfully driving a strong turnaround strategy and never-before performance for all stakeholders, embedding a culture of joined-up thinking and collaboration at dentsu Singapore, despite the global pandemic. The award is a commendation of Prakash’s stewardship of a strong return to pre-pandemic growth, the most integrated client delivery to-date, vastly improved employee sentiments, and a purpose-led business for dentsu Singapore. Most recently, Prakash was also recognised as Executive of the Year (Advertising) by Singapore Business Review for his “remarkable leadership since 2019”.

Dentsu Singapore was awarded across all its shortlisted categories for the following specialisations: 

• Agency of the Year, Merkle Singapore
• Agency Team of the Year, dentsu Singapore [Silver]
• B2B Agency of the Year, Merkle B2B [Gold]
• Analytics Agency of the Year, Merkle Singapore [Gold]
• Consultant of the Year, Merkle Singapore [Gold]
• CRM & Loyalty Agency of the Year, Merkle Singapore [Gold]
• MarTech Agency of the Year, Merkle Singapore [Silver]
• Programmatic Agency of the Year, Merkle Singapore [Gold]
• Search Agency of the Year, Merkle Singapore [Gold]

Dentsu Singapore’s joined-up model came to life through the integrated delivery across its Creative, CXM and Media teams, for NCS’s “Make Extraordinary Happen” brand launch. Clinching Agency Team of the Year for this seamless world-class experience, the award honours the work across five of dentsu Singapore’s teams. Through the Power of One, an infused, integrated collaborative structure, the network’s joined-up thinking flowed across the stages of brand strategy, brand development, and integrated campaign planning, for One seamless NCS brand launch experience. 

Dentsu Singapore’s CXM Group scored big with Merkle Singapore lauded overall Agency of the Year, after sweeping five golds and one silver across various specialist categories, and Merkle B2B coming up tops as B2B Agency of the Year.

In an ever-changing data and privacy landscape, Merkle Singapore stayed abreast and continues to refine a holistic and precise approach combining data, MarTech and analytics, to support brands in making real-time decisions that deliver personalised customer experiences. In March, Merkle Singapore was rebranded following the completion of integration into dentsu. The integration will see an acceleration of its data-driven transformation offerings into fast-growth strategic industries across APAC. Merkle Singapore is in a strong position to deliver a complete suite of world-class solutions for transformative customer experiences at scale. It will continue to complement dentsu Singapore’s creative and media capabilities in bringing more integrated solutions to the market.

Sanchit Mendiratta, Managing Director, Merkle Singapore, said: “This is a well-deserved recognition for the entire team at Merkle Singapore, a testament to the grit, resilience, hard work and focus that the team exhibited over the last three years against the headwinds of the pandemic; and to the leadership team at dentsu Singapore. We have managed to continue the growth trajectory as an acquired brand thanks to the support that we have from our team members, our clients who continue to trust and value our spectrum of capabilities and expertise to support them in long-term projects and retainers, as well as Merkle and dentsu for creating the atmosphere that nurtured and supported our growth. I am overjoyed that that we have managed to successfully launch and amplify the brand Merkle here in Singapore. This is just the beginning.”

Merkle B2B’s accolade as B2B Agency of the Year (Gold) inks it as a fully-integrated B2B powerhouse providing specialist, cutting-edge solutions to renowned enterprise brands. The Singapore office has been a driving force for business in the region, ramping up B2B marketing solutions ranging from strategy and consulting, through to CRM, analytics and database management.

Rhys Taylor, Managing Director, Merkle B2B Strategy & Creative, commented: “We launched Merkle B2B two years ago because we believed something entirely new was necessary to meet the needs of our clients, across brand, creative, media, and technology. This award reinforces our belief. It recognises the incredible effort all our teams have put in to make this idea a reality — and of course the trust our clients have placed in us to partner with them in their transformation. Something we are very grateful for and look forward to continue doing. We are just getting started!”

The strong showing at the AOTY awards comes on the back of dentsu Singapore’s strong close to 2021, of which it charted a return to pre-pandemic growth as it commits to more purpose-led growth in 2022. Dentsu Singapore’s business rigour and proven formula built on purpose, discipline and trust is expected to fuel further growth as more clients take to these values in it as their trusted partners. 

Marketing Interactive’s Agency of the Year Awards is Singapore’s premier awards program to measure, reward, and recognise the industry’s top-performing agencies.

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For further information, contact:  

Carol Wee | Communications Director, dentsu Singapore

carol.wee@dentsu.com

Lydia Yeo | Communications Manager, dentsu Singapore

lydia.yeo@dentsu.com