R P Singh quits McCann Erickson Commonwealth to join Sirez Group as CEO

Singh, who has been with several well-known digital agencies, is taking a stake in a new firm which he will head as CEO.

R P Singh, head, digital, APAC and West Asia at McCann Erickson Commonwealth, has put in his papers at the company and will join Sirez Group as CEO. Singh, who was based in Mumbai, will now shift base to New Delhi and assume his new role on March 5.

Confirming this to afaqs!, Singh says that the Sirez Group (SirezGroup.com) consists of four companies, namely Sirez Infosystems, which is a digital marketing agency, Apptology, a mobile app development company, SampleAndTry.com, an online product sampling portal and MRP Digital, a digital marketing consultancy firm.

"The agency is mid-sized and my immediate priority will be to bring new clients on board for digital marketing as well as attract good talent," Singh says.

Singh is a digital marketing specialist with more than 12 years of experience in markets such as India, China and Southeast Asia. Before McCann Erickson Commonwealth, Singh has worked with companies such as GroupM, Starcom, Ogilvy, Trident Group and Smile Interactive.

Through his career, Singh has handled brands from companies such as P&G, General Motors, Amex, Diageo, Qualcomm, Nokia, Lufthansa, PepsiCo, Economist, British Airways, GSK, Tourism New Zealand, HSBC, Ford, Perfetti Van Melle, Akzo Nobel, Apollo Tyres, GE Money and Hero Honda.

According to Singh, the problem with digital marketing in India is that all agencies vye for the same clients and this limits growth. "There are a lot of new segments that want to spend on digital but agencies are not looking at them. A lot of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) know the importance of digital marketing but many agencies do not have specialised solutions for them. This is the kind of expertise the Sirez Group will develop," Singh adds.

Singh started his career in 2001 with King Infotech, a software development company. A year later, he went off to pursue MBA. In 2004, he joined StudioSmile (now Smile Interactive) as a project consultant. He moved to GroupM in March 2005, when Interaction was just being set up.

In 2008, Singh was transferred to Mindshare Interaction China for a year, where he handled clients such as Nike and Ford. In 2010, Singh joined Starcom MediaVest in a digital role in Singapore. In January 2012, he joined Ogilvy & Mather as vice-president and in August that year he moved to McCann.