London, April 28th, 2021

UNIT9 is a global production partner with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin and Lodz. The studio is a breeding ground of disciplines with a common vision to achieve groundbreaking marketing experiences & create new audiences.

Their talent roster includes designers, engineers, gaming experts, creatives, art directors, producers and film directors.

Rosh Singh is currently the Managing Director EMEA at UNIT9, a position he has held since 2018. In an interview with TIA, Singh described his personal journey and listed the elements that make UNIT9 stand out from the rest.

He highlighted the importance of cultural diversity and gave tips on how to keep up to date with the latest trends.

To kick things off, please can you describe to us a little bit about your city and why it is a great place to work?

I live and work in London, a constant source of amusement, frustration and inspiration. For such a small city we have been at the epicenter of so many important global milestones, musically, culturally and economically.

London has consistently punched above its weight, attracting some of the best talent from around the world. There is a definite intangible feeling of energy here, a spirit of defiance that fuels great work.

Tell us about your personal journey. How did you find yourself working as Group Managing Director at UNIT9?

My journey with UNIT9 started with admiration, running a smaller digital studio back in 2011 we used to look at the work being created by UNIT9 as the benchmark for excellence, innovation and craft coming together to incredible result.

Fast forward a few years to a chance meeting with UNIT9 founders Piero and Tom at SXSW and as the cliché goes… the rest is history.

The one thing that hasn’t changed is the admiration – I am in constant awe of the jaw-dropping work the team here are able to achieve.

What are the greatest opportunities and challenges for your team in the EMEA region at the moment?

It would be easy to say COVID is the biggest challenge right now, but really the imminent challenge is the evergreen challenge: how do we create incredible experiences across a multitude of ever evolving platforms.

The evolution of how audiences engage with sports, entertainment and advertising has created a whole new subset of challenges to solve and we now sit at the precipice of an exciting new era of experience, through virtual events, hybrid physical/digital experiences, a shifting retail landscape and increased adoption of immersive technologies.

Working with the right agency can be a valuable partnership. What attributes do you want people to associate your UNIT9 with?

We pride ourselves in understanding how to create jaw-dropping customer experiences across emerging and established platforms. We have been at the bleeding edge of the industry for 24 years and we have an unabated hunger to keep learning, testing and making our way into the future.

At our core we are makers, designers, innovators and collaborators with a shared vision to create the best work in the world.

In your opinion, what’s the most important factor that leads companies to create successful overseas experiences and to engage at a global scale?

Remove obstacles to excellence, strip away ego, restrictive processes and hierarchies and focus everything towards the work. Excellent work will prevail.

With shopper behaviour changing, what impact do you believe machine learning and big data will have on the world of creative production?

It is hard to put a pin on the exact and specific influence of something as nebulous and far reaching as AI and Machine learning. Whilst performance-based marketing has its benefits and its uses, it is not what we are about.

We are all about big, bold, fame-driving activations and for us AI is used as a creative tool either for predictive analysis (eg using AI to predict how many likes a photo would get on Insta) or computational creativity (eg. Using AI to compose a piece of music based on the northern lights).

One interesting area we are increasingly utilizing is deepfakes – the ability to spend minutes capturing superstar talent and influencers and using AI and deepfake to turn that one shoot into an almost unlimited amount of content is pretty mind-blowing.

You are a truly international agency, how do you manage different cultural diversity at UNIT9?

Cultural diversity is not managed, it is encouraged and harnessed, it is what makes us great.

We operate as one big global team across time zones and continents as a harmonious melting pot of diverse talent. Monocultures within agencies stifle diversity and kill innovation

Please name some steps that you have put in place over the years to encourage innovation at the workplace

We are incredibly fortunate in that the work itself is at the very bleeding edge of technology, innovation is the normal to use. To that effect the job is to keep the great briefs coming through the door to keep the team engaged.

Can you outline three of the most crucial skills any creative technologist should possess?

Curiosity, Tenacity & Creativity

How do you keep up-to-date with the latest foreign trends and driving forces?

Read as much as possible from the FT and The Economist to tech blogs and specialist trade press. Being genuinely interested in what you do for a living is a bonus.

As someone who enjoys challenges, is there any lesson you’ve had to learn multiple times?

You can be right, and still lose.

Can you name a fun-fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

I’ve seen Prince in concert 17 times.

Thanks Rosh!

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