• by Tameka Kee , July 30, 2007

Underscore Marketing has named David Singh as the manager of its search practice division at the New York office, part of the integrated media agency's plan to deliver a more robust search marketing and optimization offering.

Singh has a wealth of search experience, managing campaigns for clients such as Gateway, Samsung and MBNA over the course of his career with companies like Did-It Search Marketing and SendTraffic, Inc. Most recently he served as an account director at search agency Kinetic Results.

At Underscore, Singh's primary responsibilities will include campaign management, client education, and search personnel training, as well as developing an integrated search and display media strategy overall.

"We've always had a search capability, but clients have been coming to us with more specialized needs," said Eric Porres, COO and founding partner, Underscore Marketing. "We saw shoring up and developing a practice to suit the ever-evolving nature of search as an important step in our company's evolution."

In the midst of continued digital advertising acquisitions, Underscore's position as an independent media planning and buying company serves as a unique value proposition--but the nature of the industry-at-large begs the question of how long Underscore will keep that privately-owned-and-operated status.

"We're committed to building our business by expanding internally. We're diversifying the skill sets of our existing team, while adding new staff as we bring in new business," said Porres. "But I would be remiss to say that there aren't any conversations going on. When you're an independent agency, you always think from a partner point of view."

The company also announced that effective Sept. 1, it will move its New York headquarters to 163 W. 23 St.