AUSTIN and NEW YORK - March 10, 2008 - Avenue A | Razorfish, one of the largest interactive services firms in the world, has appointed Shiv Singh as its director of Strategic Initiatives. Singh will lead the agency's social media efforts, helping industry leaders like Carnival Cruise Lines, Levi Strauss & Co. and L'Oreal's Garnier Fructis use social media tools to build their brands. Singh will help the agency introduce its clients to social influence marketing – or applying social media throughout a client's entire marketing lifecycle to build stronger customer relationships. His role also includes developing strategic partnerships, creating thought leadership and encouraging experimentation with social media across the agency.
“Practically every client project we work on has some social media component,” said Darin Brown, chief strategy officer, Avenue A | Razorfish. “Shiv understands social media instinctively having participated, consulted and researched in the social space for several years. Naturally, he is the perfect choice to lead our efforts in social media and to help our clients better understand consumer needs, desires and behavioral patterns.”
Avenue A | Razorfish has long been a part of the social media phenomenon, having helped Carnival Cruise Lines introduce the travel industry’s first social media site CarnivalConnections.com, in 2006. Recent social media experiences include the recently concluded Levi’s® Project 501® Design Challenge, a unique marketing campaign that enabled consumers to submit their own clothing designs to a community of their peers to judge – and have the winning idea produced by Levi Strauss & Co. The agency also recently helped L’Oreal’s Garnier Fructis Style brand launch The Harry Situation Blog campaign for its men’s ‘Bold It’ line disguised as 1980s popular television series.
“We’re only just beginning to understand how consumers are influencing each others’ purchasing decisions online and what role brands should play in this,” commented Singh. “The web has finally caught up with human behavior. It’s not about connecting people to information or to products anymore. It’s about connecting people to each other and enabling them to interact with brands and products online where they want to and how they want to. It’s not the destination that matters, it’s the conversation.”
Singh added that the Avenue A | Razorfish international network also possesses wide-ranging client experiences around the world and that employees will use Avenue A | Razorfish social media platforms, like the agency’s own wiki, to become stronger global social media practitioners of social influence marketing. “We believe that using social media to build a stronger relationship with consumers will evolve beyond experimenting with a Facebook application or a MySpace page,” said Singh. “Successful marketers will embrace social influence marketing, and Avenue A | Razorfish intends to help them do that.”
Singh’s work history has given him a unique perspective and insight into the consumer wants and needs that continue to fuel the growth of social media. He also maintains a blog called Going Social Now , which covers all aspects of social media from the businesses and the applications to the users, behavioral patterns and cultural effects. He has been a speaker at conferences such as SXSW, the Direct Marketing Association’s Leader’s Forum and on the Social Computing Panel at the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, CA. He has also published several articles and academic papers on social influence marketing, online community development, social media and collaboration; most recently, “Social Influence Marketing: Strategies & Tactics to Win Customers” and “Think Social Influence Marketing in 2008,” published in the agency’s 2008 Digital Outlook Report.
Previously Singh worked for nine years in the Boston, New York, San Francisco and London Avenue A | Razorfish offices. In 2005, he founded and led the agency’s Enterprise Solutions practice, which helps organizations empower their employees and partners with the information they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. He returned to Avenue A | Razorfish full time last fall, after having completed graduate research in social networks at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
About Avenue A | Razorfish
Avenue A | Razorfish is one of the largest interactive marketing and technology services agencies in the world. The company helps industry leaders such as Starwood Hotels, Kraft, Ford Motor Company and Carnival Cruise Lines use digital channels to acquire and service customers. Avenue A | Razorfish's full suite of digital offerings includes online advertising, Web site design and development, email and search engine marketing, emerging media strategies, and enterprise portal development. Its award-winning client teams have a great understanding of customer needs and provide solutions through distinct business disciplines, which include: analytics, strategy, technology, media, creative design and user experience. Avenue A | Razorfish has offices in markets across the United States, and global operations in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.