• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 18, 2011

With an eye on social initiatives, digital shop Rokkan Thursday named Sav Banerjee as its new executive strategy director.

At New York-based Rokkan, Banerjee will oversee the strategy team and its work on everything from social media infrastructure to promotional efforts for such clients as Stoli Vodka, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Google, THQ and 2K Games.

"Social media is such an increasingly important part of modern business and we wanted to make sure we had the best resources available for our clients' needs," John Noe, CEO of Rokkan, said in reference to Banerjee.

Noe is also counting on Banerjee to create consumer engagement models with healthy interaction -- particularly in the areas of content creation and distribution, video 2.0, and influencer marketing.

Previously, Banerjee honed his digital and social media expertise at Big Fuel Communications, M80, and most recently at SapientNitro.

Banerjee has recently championed projects like Google's "demoslam" social media promotion, and Smart Water's Jennifer Aniston "Sex Tape" viral video.

Founded in 2000, Rokkan is perhaps best known for its work launching and revamping e-commerce sites for Virgin America, Atlantis and Nintendo.

It also gained notoriety for its work on a social media-supported cross-country race for Ford with the producers of the Amazing Race.

Just this past April, Chipotle tapped Rokkan to handle some upcoming digital marketing and brand awareness initiatives. Specifically, Rokkan said it would help to develop online sales, customer service infrastructure, local store marketing strategy and out-of-store ordering through mobile and Web platforms.