Tag: Empowered Women Awards 2023

Joanne Lim, the head of marketing at Virgin Active Singapore, has been named as one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Marketing’ category at MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural recognition initiative for women leaders in the industry, Empowered Women Awards 2023. 

Lim started out at Virgin Active Singapore back in 2013 as the marketing manager for the company in Singapore before being promoted to the role of head of marketing in 2015. She exited the company for the meantime in 2018 to serve as the head of portfolio marketing at Mercatus up until February 2021. She then returned to Virgin Active Singapore, retaining her role as head of marketing.

Championing marketing strategies for the holistic health and wellness scene

As one of the industries that were hugely affected by the pandemic, Lim believed that beyond the economic restraints of the health and wellness industry during a pandemic, working at one’s pace to achieve holistic health and wellness is possible to slowly revive the business.

She helped spearhead the launch of SkyPark Yoga in partnership with Marina Bay Sands in 2021, featuring a series of classes with varying intensities conducted by Virgin Active trainers on the Sands SkyPark.

Lim was also integral in the launch of the ‘BreakAway’ wellness retreat in 2022. This campaign focused on having guests being fully immersed in Virgin Active Singapore’s wide selection of activities. Following the success of the ‘BreakAway’ launch, the company is currently in talks with Sofitel to make it a permanent package in its hotel guest experience.

Lastly, Lim’s ethos to revive the health and wellness scene comes full circle in its ‘Reformer Pilates Programme’. With this initiative, the company aims to reinforce its commitment to providing the highest quality in training, coaching, and class experience across various types of guests, whether they are newcomers or experienced ones.

Strengthening brand partnerships through creative and strategic leadership

For Lim, being a leader is all about knowing where to get creative inspiration from, as well as being on-hand with the initiatives the company is doing. As a leader whose strength relies on brand partnerships, being able to be proactive in work allows her to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the business.

Moreover, her strategic leadership involves looking at the bigger picture of the business in order to come up with strategic ways to work in both the micro and macro environment.

She further adds that while she started out as being prescriptive in terms of how things should be done, she later on adopted a wider approach to leadership. This means delegating, trusting, and nurturing her team members to deliver their personal and business objectives.

Lastly, she also describes her leadership style centred around persuasion through creative means, as well as understanding the individual needs of her employees to steer them to be aligned with the organisation’s goals.

Equal opportunities for everyone: the hallmark of a diverse workforce

According to Lim, she never believed in the concept that the voice of a man or woman should be different. For her, despite being in a male-dominated field, she continues to candidly share her views, as well as taking the time to encourage her team members and circle of influence to express themselves in a professional yet genuine manner.

Interestingly, she also runs her own F&B business outside of the corporate role. She believes that men and women should be empowered to dream, follow their passion and work collaboratively with their partners and stakeholders to deliver that together.

“Dreams, ideas, passions and abilities should have a voice but not a voice differentiation. Being a “man or woman”, should never be the subject matter, rather, the subject should be the one that matters,” she said.

Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.

One of the winners of the marketing category in MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023 is creative leader Heidi Hamester. Hamester is the digital design lead at marketing technology platform TASK. The said recognition initiative inaugurates MARKETECH APAC’s awarding platform for women leaders in the industry. 

Heidi has been with TASK for 8 years. She joined the company in 2015 as a digital designer and soon moved up ranks to become TASK’s digital design lead. 

Moving the needle in business through inspiring visual communication 

To create stunning visuals that impress is one thing, but to craft creatives that encourage meaningful action is another story altogether. Heidi’s vision and prowess as a digital design leader is able to accomplish both – building a brand that looks the part and is the part. 

TASK provides products in enterprise management, managing point of sale, online ordering, and managing loyalty and membership programs. Heidi is responsible for shaping the creative body of the said martech capabilities – and this includes TASK’s main website. 

Heidi allows design thinking approach to direct her decisions and choices in visual creativity and in turn, she’s able to continually build a brand within TASK that empathises and resonates with the consumer. 

This human-first principle in design spearheaded by Heidi enables the company to expand its market reach, grow revenue, and strengthen its customer relationships.

Fostering collaboration and mentorship within a creative team 

Leading a creative team is a challenge in that such department requires the paradoxical combination of both autonomy and collaboration. As a passionate creative leader, Heidi takes on this responsibility gracefully and ensures that she is able to nurture both amongst her constituents. 

Innovation can come from anywhere which is why Heidi is dedicated to empowering and prospering thinking creative minds. She mentors junior designers and encourages them to grow and develop their skills. By cultivating a culture that emphasises growth and learning, she has created an engaged team that isn’t afraid to trail blazes. 

“I believe that women play a significant role in the workplace and the community. Empowering women to achieve their goals and reach their full potential is vital for progress and equality,” said Heidi. 

Being a role model inside and outside the job

Heidi is an inspiring leader that values the importance of recreation outside the workplace. Through this work-life balance, Heidi is able to exemplify that exploring the world outside will only polish and refresh creative professionals with renewed space to explore and juggle dynamic ideas. 

She brings her passion for visual storytelling outside the realm of business. As a photographer, she uses her creativity and artistic skills to capture moments of nature and daily life. When not behind the lens, meanwhile, she flexes quite her athletic streak and rides the waves through surfing. 

Truly, leadership isn’t only about showing how hard you work but also demonstrating how much passion you actually put into the job by keeping a healthy personal life and in turn, becoming the best version of oneself in order to pour from one’s cup. 

Heidi shows she is an empowered woman by being a role model both inside and outside of work. 

Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.

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.

Ayaan Mohamud, the Regional Vice President for Marketing at Asia-Pacific at impact.com, has been named as one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Marketing’ category at MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural recognition initiative for women leaders in the industry, Empowered Women Awards 2023. 

Prior to joining impact.com, Mohamud was previously with online advertising company Sizmek before it was acquired by Amazon. During her stint at her previous company, she was able to establish the company’s APAC marketing function from scratch, spanning employees across SEA, China, Japan, and Australia.

Leading regional awareness of the partnership economy

Mohamud has been instrumental in expanding impact.com’s presence in the region through the implementation of agile and innovative marketing strategies and programs. Some of these strategies include hosting multiple industry events across APAC, securing customer testimonials and written case studies, as well as scoring dynamic collaborations with e-commerce brands and media agencies.

It is also worth noting that under her leadership, impact.com’s marketing drove a large chunk of the company’s revenue for 2022.

Blending visionary leadership with strategic thinking

Effective and results-driven: these are two of the key characteristics of Mohamud’s leadership since she joined the company in 2019. Aside from being involved in the critical role of hiring new marketing team members in the region, she has also strengthened her partnerships with industry bodies and shared her diverse thought leadership insights across various trade publications. 

Mohamud has helped strengthen the company’s relationship with industry bodies and led industry standards as part of the IAB Affiliate & Partnership Council. She was also involved in several of impact.com’s marketing initiatives during the lockdown. With these milestones in mind, she was then elevated to the current role of regional vice president of marketing for Asia-Pacific in 2022.

Her leadership, therefore, can be echoed by the phrase “getting great work done”, evident in her rapid role expansion and milestones in under 4 years.

Extending expertise to the wider industry and to aspiring women leaders

Outside of her larger leadership role, she is greatly involved in sharing awareness on performance marketing to wider industry circles, as well as showing her staunch support for social impact charity works. Moreover, she has also donned the mentorship hat and helped empower students to identify the skills they need to become future leaders and map out their future career paths.

She constantly upskills herself and has racked up multiple licenses and certifications in affiliate marketing and the partnerships industry, as well as being actively involved in being an industry voice for martech-related events.

Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.

Danielle Eleazar-Ocampo, head of marketing for new verticals at foodpanda Philippines, is named as one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Marketing’ category at MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural recognition initiative for women leaders in the industry, Empowered Women 2023 Awards. 

Danielle joined the PH leg of foodpanda in April 2022. Prior to this, she’s been at the helm of the marketing business of top FMCG companies in the market such as Del Monte Philippines and Republic Biscuit Corporation.

Spearheading campaigns beyond the groceries value proposition

As the head of marketing for new verticals at the pink panda-led platform, Danielle is responsible for managing and strengthening the growth of the marketing business of its offerings — other than the flagship on-demand food delivery. However, due to Danielle’s dedication and foresight, marketing campaigns under her leadership inevitably created ripples of growth that benefitted the whole platform. 

Needless to say, when it comes to her main remit in boosting the business of the grocery service, Danielle helped the platform achieve huge success that effectively communicated foodpanda as more than just for food delivery but also an excellent option for grocery shopping.

Embodying the principles of servant leadership 

At the heart of Danielle’s leadership approach is servant leadership where the needs of her team members take precedence – their interests and well-being always put as top priority. 

She combines this principle with an attitude that has a ‘bias for action’ and one that carries a growth mindset – all of which have been proven instrumental in driving the team’s success. 

Danielle honours the value of embodying an entrepreneurial outlook where she does not sit back and await things to transpire but has been consistently on the lookout for new opportunities to grow the business and improve the team’s performance. 

With this, she puts forth strides that will direct the team on continuous growth. Ultimately, she believes that personal development is just as important as business development because it’s the former that would propel an idea and strategy into concrete business solutions.

Preparing marketing leaders of Tomorrow 

When Danielle isn’t activating her creative and strategic juices to meet Filipinos’ needs for on-demand delivery, she puts her academe hat and stands in front of young marketing aspirants as a marketing lecturer to lend her knowledge and expertise and build the leaders of tomorrow. 

She teaches at one of the top universities in the country, Ateneo de Manila University, where she imparts her know-how in the field of marketing with the aim to mould students into multifaceted individuals that will be ready to weather the challenges of the competitive marketing industry. 

As an empowered woman leader herself, it is through this role that she helps lift aspiring marketers up and strengthen their confidence, particularly women, to pursue their passions and not let any limitations keep them from reaching new heights. 

“I have learned that servant leadership, through the simple act of listening to different voices, opinions, and perspectives, give back tenfold to the business” shared Danielle. “I strive to continue this and to keep learning from everyone around me where, while I am lucky to be surrounded by equally strong women, I want to cultivate a culture of inclusivity and support where all team members, regardless of gender, feel empowered to contribute their best work.”

Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.