Inside Merkury: Africa’s unrivalled identity-driven marketing platform

Merkury is redefining how brands connect with consumers across Africa, now operating at scale in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. In South Africa, the platform has over 20 million verified identities, and in Nigeria alone, it provides access to over twenty-eight million verified consumers, spanning forty-eight touchpoints, giving brands unmatched reach, precision, and insight across some of the continent’s most complex markets.

Issued by Dentsu

7 Oct 2025

Inside Merkury: Africa’s unrivalled identity-driven marketing platform

Industry recognition

Merkury’s impact is already being recognised, most recently as a finalist at The Loeries in the Innovation in Media category, a testament to the platform’s role in reshaping how marketing works across the continent.

Solving Africa’s marketing challenge

Marketers in Africa face a fragmented landscape: multiple devices, varied channels, and limited visibility into the consumer journey. Traditional tools often fall short, delivering incomplete insights and suboptimal return on investment. dentsu Africa recognised this gap and developed Merkury; an identity platform built to unify consumer data, empower marketers with actionable intelligence, and enable hyper-personalised campaigns across markets.
Innovating for Impact

From its South African launch with over twenty million verified identities, Merkury has grown to provide African brands with the data and tools needed to:

Target and personalise campaigns with precision

Improve media efficiency and performance

Deepen understanding of customer behaviour to inform strategy

While many claim to offer identity solutions at scale, Merkury is Africa’s only platform that truly delivers. With verified consumer data, advanced analytics, and integrated tools, Merkury combines proven scale, actionable insight, and market relevance, empowering brands to lead with confidence rather than simply react.

Partnering for success

Merkury works together with clients to turn insights into measurable outcomes. By combining local expertise, cutting-edge technology, and an entrepreneurial approach, it solves real business challenges; from media optimisation to audience engagement, whilst maintaining the highest standards of privacy and compliance.

Randal Abrahams, group executive: Digital Solutions, Telkom Group, reflected on the partnership: "As Telkom, we were proud to be the first South African company to participate in the global Merkury project. It wasn’t just about delivering more relevant experiences or improving media performance, it gave us a far richer understanding of our customers and enabled us to deliver truly personalised experiences.

"With Merkury, we didn’t just help Telkom navigate the market; we helped the company lead. This collaboration became South Africa's largest brand, data, and media partnership in history, innovation with real impact.”

Dawn Rowlands, CEO of dentsu Africa, added: "When we launched Merkury, we promised to give Africa a platform that would transform how brands connect with people. Today, it has gone beyond even those ambitions. Our clients have proved beyond a doubt that Merkury delivers; setting the standard for identity-driven marketing and claiming its rightful place as the platform for Africa."

The future of marketing in Africa

Merkury is more than a platform; it is Africa’s benchmark for identity-driven marketing. By turning complex data into clarity, insights into action, and potential into measurable results, Merkury proves that brands can connect with real consumers at scale across the continent. For businesses ready to lead in Africa, there is simply nothing else like it.

Dentsu

Dentsu is the network designed for what's next, helping clients predict and plan for disruptive future opportunities in the sustainable economy. Taking a people-cantered approach to business transformation, dentsu combines Japanese innovation with a diverse, global perspective to drive client growth and to shape society.