Hong Kong – Global insurance company Sun Life has recently appointed Philip Chau as its regional director of marketing performance and operations for Asia. In his new role, Chau will drive Sun Life’s marketing strategy and performance excellence across all Asia markets, as well as maximize marketing return on investment.
“It will be looking at the holistic end to end customer funnel from brand awareness, to lead generation, to lead nurturing, all the way to conversion,” Chau told MARKETECH APAC when asked about his specific strategies for Sun Life in his new role.
Prior to joining Sun Life, Chau was most recently the vice president and group head of marketing at Regal Hotels International, and oversaw a team of up to 30 members owning the end to end overall marketing strategy of the company both at group level and of all 17 hotels across Hong Kong and China. In that previous role, he managed all key marketing functions for the hotel brand across PR, communications, branding, partnership, digital marketing, CRM, loyalty program, creative, design, customer insights and analytics.
He had also previously held other marketing roles throughout the years including with Great Eagle Holdings, Blue HK, and Aviva.
When asked what learnings from these previous leadership experiences–more specifically from Regal Hotels and Great Eagle Holdings–Chau told MARKETECH APAC, “Both of these experiences provided me with valuable insights and strategies in introducing and delivering marketing innovation within a complex multi-BU organization. The key is to have both the technical know-how (martech and marketing analytics) as well as a strategic approach (change management and education).”
Speaking on his opinion regarding performance marketing this year, Chau told MARKETECH APAC that with the tightening of budgets, marketing ROI will be a key challenge.
“More than ever, marketers will be challenged to show immediate ROI, even in branding campaigns. These is also an opportunity for marketers to rethink and upgrade their marketing performance frameworks, to better track, optimize, and maximize the return of their marketing efforts,” he said.
He also added, “In my view, it will be establishing a truly holistic marketing performance measurement framework across all channels, all content, and all campaigns. It is about understand the true drives and levers that allows you to create real impact and real ROI.”
Chau’s appointment comes recently off the appointment of Mahima Tankha Marwah as Sun Life’s new chief client experience and marketing officer for Asia. In that role, she will lead Sun Life Asia’s marketing strategy, brand development, philanthropy activities, client listening and measurement and the development of new solutions to enhance client propositions.
