Sina Farzaneh is the co-founder of Advocacy, a Shanghai-based social marketing agency that helps identify and activate brand advocates for companies seeking systematic and sustained word-of-mouth. He has a background in anthropology and has worked in Asia since 2005 after having moved to China from Silicon Valley.

Advocacy leverages behavioral psychology and gamification to deliver award-winning marketing solutions across Asia to some of the world’s biggest brands including those from P&G, Reckitt Benckiser, L’Oreal, Fonterra, Unilever, Kimberley Clark, and Philips. The company was founded in 2011 and has offices in Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and Mumbai.

Advocacy’s engagement platform has motivated consumers to submit 30 million online and offline “missions” for brands, resulting in over 2 billion seconds of engagement. This technology helps companies build win-win relationships with their customers that yields a steady stream of consumer generated content, friend-get-friend referrals, online buzz, and more.

Before founding Advocacy in 2011, Sina was the Creative Director for Pitchen Networks and for Wildfire Asia while also serving as professor of integrated marketing communications at Fudan University.

Most relevant quote: “Advertising is the cost of being boring.” (Andy Sernovitz)

Favourite author: Seth Godin