Shahane Davidson
Creative Director
Marketing
Graphic Designer
Video
Animator
JMK
Hi — it's nice to meet you.
I'm a global marketing executive with 16+ years experience from world-class FAANG and Fortune 25 companies in the US and Asia who has created and grown some of the world’s most iconic digital, consumer, and media brands.
I bring a proven set of tools and frameworks — honed at Google, YouTube, Netflix, and Samsung — to help clients define, develop, and scale brands.
My expertise includes: Brand Strategy (architecture, positioning, value proposition definition, naming, identity), Marketing Strategy (market entry strategy, growth, CRM), Brand Expression (creative agency sourcing + management, global/regional campaigns, social, events, activations), and Insights (segmentation, brand health tracking, user research).
I'm a former advertising creative director and copywriter, current transplanted Midwesterner via New York and Seoul with twin girls and one incredibly supportive wife.
Q
How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends & technologies in your field and how do you incorporate them into your work?
I'm constantly looking at what's happening in the spaces I work in — from marketing and brand strategy to global campaigns — and the industries I'm most focused on: consumer technology, media, payments, AI, security & privacy, automotive, and more. I'm an active member of online and offline communities involved in these areas. I read trade news incessantly, follow thought leaders where they do their thought-leading. And I'm a consumer of culture — the living laboratory in which trends and technologies are so often reimagined, redirected, and made real.
Q
What sort of education or training did you seek out to further evolve your skills as a Marketer? Did this schooling fully prepare you for working as a Marketer?
After starting my career in advertising, I studied marketing while at Columbia Business School. While my MBA laid a solid foundation, my deepest learning has come from doing — from building global brands in the US and abroad and honing a toolkit shaped by world-class marketers at companies like Google, YouTube, Netflix, and Samsung.
Q
How do you see the digitalization of art? Apart from convenience, which important feature does technology add to your artwork? Which are your favorite technologies to use for work?
Digitization is an incredible tool — but it is just a tool. Technology makes it faster and easier to iterate, evolve, and collaborate on ideas. But the underpinnings of creativity — imagination, insight, and hard work — rest squarly on the shoulders of creators. I've always been passionate about technology and use generative AI, collaboration apps, and analytics in my work...but rarely as primary creation tools.
Q
Every Creative has their style but it can be difficult to bring that style to different projects with different clients, all with their own styles. How do you bring the two together?
It comes down to the brief, aligned objectives, and, ultimately, trust. With these things in place, I've found it possible to work through differences in style and approach.
Q
What’s it like being a Creative in the US, in terms of the work, influences, treatment, etc?
US-based brand builders have the luxury of *access* — to infinite influences, world-class collaborators, and a massive range of clients and industries. Drinking from this creative firehose, we also face a risk of becoming isolated and not looking outside of our immediate influences. Doing our best work requires being a citizen of the world, culturally curious, and open to new ways of thinking.
Q
How do you work with clients to ensure their vision is accurately represented in your work?
It comes back to the brief. Having a clear view of objectives and strong alignment from all sides — at the onset of a project — on the behaviors/thoughts/feelings we're trying to shift with the work.
Q
What are some of the golden rules you follow as a surefire method to deliver a compelling project?
Echoing Google's internal marketing mantra:
1. Know the user
2. Know the product
3. Connect the two to find the magic
To which, I'd add:
4. Ask questions
Q
What’s your experience been like working with such varied brands?
Each client or partner has stretched my way of thinking and taught me so much. I've had the privilege of working with the brightest, most innovative minds in marketing and have been lucky to take learnings from each to inform my perspective as a brand builder and marketer myself. A throughline across all brands I've worked with has been companies that shift mass behaviors — from CRT TV to flat-panel IP-enabled TVs, feature phones to smart phones, linear content to limitless on-demand media, physical payments to digital payments, etc. My experiences share a core, common foundation: work fueled by insights, rooted in universal truths and shared experiences.
