Detch Singh, co-founder and CEO of Hypetap with the helping hand of his brother has transformed his agency from a simple brand-influencer connection platform into a comprehensive, tech-driven agency capturing the attention of major brands and marketers alike. Singh a former investment banker got into the influencer game early on in 2013, which has proven a masterstroke, as it is forecasted user generated content ad spend will overtake traditional media spend.
In this edition of the Fast 10, Singh chats to B&T’s Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham about his aspirations of becoming a professional cricket player when he was a young whipper snipper, to what doing business with his brother is like.
1) You’ve had a great career, from being an investment banker to co-founder and CEO of Hypetap. If you had to pick only one, what would be your career highlight so far?
Detch Singh: This is a hard one because there are so many with Hypetap, but I’m going to go with wrapping up our first year in the UK. The sense of validation that we are truly capable of being competitive/leaders on the global stage.
2) You were a founding chair of AIMCO before Influencers were a thing, are you proud of how far the category has evolved?
DS: I think creators were already a thing in 2019 when I was Chair and AiMCO was being formed! Having said that, I couldn’t be prouder of how much the category has evolved since then. Self-regulation, maturity in planning, measurement, being a serious part of the marketing mix. The list goes on! It’s been nice for Hypetap to play a small part in some of those things.
3) What’s the back story to your name, Hypetap?
DS: Slightly embarrassing – Available domain name.
4) As a young boy, what did you want to be when you grew up?
DS: A cricketer, haha! Didn’t cut the mustard clearly.
5) The agency has a blue-chip client base, e.g., Coke, Heinz, Colgate etc. How has this grown?
DS: We’re very proud of the brands we partner with on their influencer programs. We definitely have a list of ‘ideal’ clients who we have worked very hard to win, but sometimes it really is just reputation that brings great clients our way. They hear from others about the work we’ve done for others and want to see it first-hand.
6) As an industry, what’s one thing you would change to make us all better?
DS: I wish we cared as much about what consumers thought as we do about what other marketing professionals think. In the end, that’s who we’re trying to reach and impress.
7) What are the current growth challenges for your clients and how are Hypetap providing innovative solutions?
DS: Proving business impact! Clients are starting to drop big money on this category, and they need to know that it’s helping them make revenue. This is what Hypetap intelligence is focused on. How do we use the data and insights we have from influencer marketing and connect that to business impact in some way. More to come here, watch this space!
8) You and your brother started the business together, did you have a rule no business chat at family gatherings?
DS: A bit sad, but no. We talk a lot of shop. There are times though where one of us will give the other a look and we just know it’s not a day to talk about work.
9) What’s one thing that’s not on your LinkedIn profile?
DS: Love a good whiskey…sometimes even a not-so-good whiskey.
10) Important last question, do your parents know what you do?
DS: They definitely know and they are our biggest supporters. Two very special humans. How much of it they understand in depth is another question…
