How would you describe your current role and the biggest challenges you face?

In my current role, my team and I are responsible for driving marketing influenced pipeline across APJ through various marketing channels including digital and events. The biggest challenges we face is driving demand in such a fragmented market - with so many countries, cultural nuances and levels of maturity there is no one size fits all. What works in one country may not work in another, but coming up with a tailored go-to-market plan for every country is not scalable when you have a small team. So balancing that is a challenge, but at the same time, is what makes marketing so exciting in the region!

Another challenge has been around implementing an ABM programme. I've tried implementing various versions of an ABM programme but it's been tough to get momentum and full buy-in from the sales team.

What is a common misconception about the work you do?

Marketing exists just to bring in leads for the sales team.

How did you get started in your marketing career?

During my university days I did several internships in marketing and knew it was something I wanted to continue to pursue after graduating. I started off at a consumer goods company in Malaysia, focused on B2C offline channel marketing (before online shopping became a huge thing). Ever since then, I had a chance to do marketing at a fintech startup and then finally ended up in the B2B space when I joined Contentsquare 5 years ago.

Describe the most impactful marketing campaign/project you've personally worked on.

The marketing database. Would I call this the most fun project? Probably not, but impactful, yes. I led a project with a goal of having a clean view of our database - that meant working with sales on their target account lists, auditing the current state and working with a team to enrich our database. While it took a lot of painstaking work, this has been hugely beneficial because you simply cannot do any (impactful) marketing activity without a good database. We saw amazing results in our marketing activities after this project: better quality leads (both on digital and at events), better quality of meetings being booked and, more importantly, better quality pipeline.

What is one marketing trend or change you're not convinced will work for SEA tech brands?

AI. We still need humans to do good marketing and I don't believe AI can ever fully replace that. I think AI can help improve efficiencies, but creativity, personalisation and effective marketing will still be human first.

What is one marketing trend or change that you hope to see more of at SEA tech brands? And, why?

More 'human' marketing with compelling copy - we get bombarded with a lot of ads and messaging across so many different channels, which start to sound all the same. There are some brands doing this well globally, but I don't see enough of an emphasis on copywriting and 'human' marketing in SEA - which I would love to see more of

What is your favourite marketing resource that you would recommend to this community? And, why?

Exit Five - it's super specific to my area of work (B2B marketing), easily digestable content and pure value!

Lastly, where are you based, and where would you take friends visiting your city for the first time?

Singapore, Marina Bay Sands!