About Our Founder, Akvile DeFazio
As someone who lives for connecting people, bringing together consumers and brands is what Akvile DeFazio does best. Born in Lithuania, she later emigrated to Toronto to escape the Cold War, grew up in the land of the original chicken wing in upstate New York, lived in a few other amazing cities along the way such as Providence, Seattle, San Francisco, and in the last decade, planted roots with her family in Los Angeles county.
Akvile founded AKvertise in 2014 as the culmination of her passions for social media, advertising, and helping businesses reach their goals by means of online marketing. In the past eight years, AKvertise has earned multiple accolades, including winning the best small agency award from the annual U.S. Social Media Awards in 2020 and being short-listed for three others. We take a personal approach to each brand we work with and integrate as an extension of their team. When our clients are successful, as are we.
Akvile’s favorite part of being an entrepreneur and an intentionally small advertising agency owner is the people and brands that she has the opportunity to connect with and assist. She particularly enjoys developing creative and innovative strategies to reach the right prospective customers through audience research and development as well as providing creative direction when collaborating with designers and photo/videographers for visual assets.
Working with a variety of brands and across verticals – from small businesses to publicly traded companies, non-profits that support important causes, and celebrities such as Grammy nominated singer/songwriter, Jewel, Akvile thrives in this line of work as it is far from stagnant and has no bounds for creativity and success. She has worked with and collaborated with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Lizzo, Kevin Costner, Bob Vila and This Old House, Brad Paisley, Frankie Grande, Burger King, Chipotle, Jack In The Box, The Real Housewives television series, and NFL athletes on a variety of social media advertising campaigns.
When it comes to our abilities and results, she likes to say, “we may be small, but certainly are mighty.”
Prior to launching AKvertise, she spent more than a decade working in-house at a variety of companies, ranging from outdoor gear and apparel ecommerce at evo, to pet health insurance at Trupanion, for online publications, Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, and MarTech, and global events at Search Marketing Expo (SMX) and MarTech, overseeing all paid search, paid social, and organic social media marketing efforts. As a conversion-driven marketer, Akvile is passionate about helping businesses expand their online visibility and reaching their goals.
Say hello! Connect with her on Twitter at @AkvileDeFazio and @AKvertise or on LinkedIn.
Speaking Engagements and Events
Below, see where we’ve spoken and come see us at an upcoming event, virtually or in a city near you.
If you are hosting an upcoming event and are in search of speakers to present on social media advertising, please reach out using our contact form. If we aren’t the right fit, we are happy to connect with you with a variety of other talented speakers and seasoned marketers in our network.
Upcoming Appearances
Past Conferences
Events we participated in as presenters or sponsors.
In the Press
Publications we were referenced or quoted.
Publications
Articles we composed for external blogs, news sites, and more.
