Vianne Cai, head of Marketing Solutions of LinkedIn China, has bagged an award as one of MARKETECH APAC’s ‘Empowered Women in Marketing’. Empowered Women Awards 2023 is MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural recognition initiative for women leaders in the industry.
Vianne has been heading marketing solutions for LinkedIn China since 2015. Prior to this, the marketing leader held various leadership positions at Hachette Filipacchi MediaHachette and Google. In addition to her corporate roster, she also co-founded and served as the GM of CharmClick for North China.
Building LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions in China from the ground up
The Marketing Solutions business of LinkedIn in China was inaugurated in 2014, and it was the year after that Vianne would join the team. Needless to say, Vianne’s role as head of the marketing solutions drove some of the pioneer initiatives and key developments of the offering of the platform in the market.
Come 2022, LinkedIn would pivot into a strategic realignment which would bolster the company’s aim to grow its overseas business, making it of greater importance to the China market. However, this proved to be a much more significant challenge as such a period was still plagued by economic headwinds brought by the pandemic.
Through Vianne’s help, the marketing solutions business still achieved its 100% growth target for the year. Under her leadership, LinkedIn China has established a dedicated content team to focus on client needs, the first and only such team that LinkedIn has worldwide. Vianne also led her team to create the Content Consulting & Creative Service program, which not only provides strategic consulting and training services to
clients, but also provides SMEs with convenient services and customised advantages through automated tools.
The B2B marketing leader
Being at the helm of LinkedIn’s B2B solutions in marketing, Vianne is an expert in understanding the marketing pain points of B2B companies and turning these into noteworthy solutions. As a former entrepreneur, she truly embodies a growth mindset where she recognises the importance of being consistently on ones’ toes to spot potential lucrative opportunities to help the business be brought to new heights.
She was at the forefront of building a channel ecosystem for LinkedIn China’s Marketing Solutions from scratch, helping the company in the market to establish B2B global digital marketing that is ahead of the curve, enabling continuous growth momentum to the business.
In order to empower, Chinese clients with more targeted insights, Vianne worked with
the Boston Consulting Group to launch the ‘2022 China B2B Going-Global Marketing White Paper’ which provides a systematic summary of the marketing pain points that export-focused Chinese companies face from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The paper integrated LinkedIn China’s R&D resources to promote content creation tools and dashboards suitable for the Chinese market.
Using her leadership influence for the greater good
Through her role and affiliation with LinkedIn, Vianne leverages her platform to impart positive influence not just in hitting business objectives but in promoting and establishing empowerment and inclusivity.
Vianne Cai has long been concerned and worked to help disadvantaged groups. She participated in the ‘Donate your time’ program launched by LinkedIn as a mentor to help college students and newcomers to the workplace to better cope with challenges and start their career journey. She also participates in LinkedIn’s EnableIn program, through which she is able to contribute value by helping people with disabilities to live and work.
As a successful female leader, Vianne believes that true success is not only about achieving oneself, but also using one’s expertise and opportunities to improve and grow others into becoming individuals that are empowered to use their talents and resources to help bring solutions to consumers and alleviate their pain points.
“Take a step forward to achieve a better self, and take a step back to be more accommodating and tolerant,” remarked Vianne.
Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.
