Sina Farzaneh

I was referred to THNK by Amelia Hurlbut.

I am a word-of-mouth marketer from the Silicon Valley who has lived in Shanghai since 2005. I am a former professor of integrated marketing communications at Fudan University, and currently the co-founder of Advocacy, a digital marketing agency focusing on building sustained partnerships between companies and consumers.

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, L’Oreal, Fonterra, Unilever, and Philips. The company was founded in 2011 and has offices in Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and Mumbai.

During this time I built a "hyper CRM" engagement platform that 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 sustainable win-win relationships with their consumers - and will eventually be used to educate and inspire those at the bottom of the pyramid.

I grew up in Palo Alto after being born in Paris to Persian parents fleeing the Iranian Revolution. I studied cultural anthropology and philosophy at UC Santa Barbara and believe that the cup is half full.