Tag: Joven Barceñas

In a close interview with MARKETECH APAC Founder Joven Barceñas, Shahid Nizami, the new regional vice president for Asia-Pacific of US-based SaaS unicorn ActiveCampaign, shares the career journey he’s had in the marketing tech space, and bares with us his professional stand on current issues in marketing as well as the biggest learnings he’s gained through his longevity in the industry. 

Nizami, who is a Google, Oracle, and Hubspot alum, boasts more than 17 years of experience in the marketing tech space. 

Of what makes him stay, he shares, “All [these] years, the love for marketing has only grown, especially having been at Google, and [seeing] how marketing can really change the world and [seeing] the impact of that.” 

He continues, “Over these years, the MarTech world has changed a lot. Every single year that graph only grows bigger and bigger. This means that there are more complex problems which need to be solved.”

During the conversation with Nizami, we also didn’t let the opportunity slip to ask his opinion on the recent OCBC catastrophe in Singapore – the phishing scam that had nearly 500 customers losing their money amounting to at least S$8.5m. This drove financial bodies in the country to order the removal of all clickable links in emails and SMSes sent to retail customers – an action that has now become an important matter of customer experience. 

“As a marketer, you might think at the first go that – what does it mean for us? But I believe, and I strongly believe that anything that improves the end customer experience is actually a good thing,” said Nizami. 

“And it’s about how do you convert this opportunity where customers are losing trust in their banks? It is a problem into an opportunity where now the banks are like, how can we earn their trust back?” he added. 

Listen to the full conversation between Barceñas and Nizami over at Spotify, where Nizami shares further on what has been his biggest challenge as a marketer in the past 2 decades and whether he, in the future, also plans to join others who have decided to establish their own companies.

If you are a marketing or tech leader who wants to share your industry journey and insights, email us at [email protected]. 

Manila, Philippines – MARKETECH APAC, the digital media for the marketing and advertising industry in the APAC region, has recently inked a partnership with the Communication and Media program of Centro Escolar University (CEU), one of the highly respectable universities in the Philippines, to officially groom media and communications majors for the professional world through a special internship program. 

Joven Barceñas, the founder of MARKETECH APAC, and who is in fact, a proud alumnus of the university, has officially signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the university on 2 February, to onboard media and communications students into the company and have them foray into their professional experience. 

Present in the virtual signing are Ricky Rosales, program head for Communication and Media at CEU Manila; Marietta Alvarez, the program head for Communication and Media at CEU Malolos; and most especially, Dr. Maria Rita D. Lucas, the dean of the School of Education, Liberal Arts, Music and Social Work at CEU; and Dr. Ma. Cristina D. Padolina, CEU’s university president and chief academic officer.

Lucas said in the virtual event that the university is always glad to witness students come in full circle – from graduating to the university, establishing their own endeavours, and then coming back to their roots to give back the school that moulded them; just like what Barceñas has presently done.

“And then finally helping us with the goal that we have of forming and moulding our students to be quality and ethical communication practitioners,” said Lucas. 

Barceñas, who founded MARKETECH APAC in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, shared, “When I launched MARKETECH APAC in 2020, there were so many aspirations and dreams that I thought of and planned. And one of them is to reach out to my alma mater, Centro Escolar University and offer internship opportunities to Escolarians and be instrumental in their professional development as they prepare to embark on a new and exciting chapter of their lives.” 

“Today is an exciting moment for me as the founder of MARKETECH APAC as this partnership allows me to contribute to the skills development of the new generation of communication and media professionals in the country,” added Barceñas. 

Padolina, CEU’s university president, shared how she has seen the internship experience becoming a substantial credential in undergraduates’ curriculum vitae and therefore expects the new partnership with MARKETECH APAC to be more than just an academic requirement, but a genuine source of professional development for students. 

Padolina comments, “It’s very good to partner with somebody who is from CEU because we know that you know the philosophy of CEU, [and] you know the values that we want to cultivate. So we’re very confident that you would be able to give a very good experience to our students so that it’s not [just] something [that is] a line in their CV, but it really is a strong contribution to their entire experience and to what they bring to their profession.” 

Rosales, meanwhile, shared how timely the partnership is, especially since during this period, classes are still implemented virtually in the Philippines, which makes it much more challenging to deploy students for their internship program. 

“[We were asking] where will we partner during this time that we will have a virtual OJT (on-the-job training). We don’t want to you know, compromise our students with other companies that [don’t] have [a] purely online [setting] during this time,” said Rosales.

Manila, Philippines – Business development veteran Joven Barceñas has recently joined international-wide UX and digital development agency Adaptis as its head of growth.

Prior to Adaptis, Barceñas was most notably the regional head of advertising and sponsorship sales at Lighthouse Independent Media in 2018, the publisher of Singapore-based Marketing Magazine. 

For his new role at Adaptis, Barceñas will be responsible for the firm’s business growth through business development and marketing, and also to improve processes within the function. Adaptis is a collective of digital development studios strategically located in Europe and Southeast Asia, providing experience-led technical capabilities to global clients. 

On his appointment, Barceñas said, “With almost a decade of exposure to media, marketing, and technology, I always wanted to discover what I can do and learn more in the tech space. I am very excited to be a frontrunner in humanizing technology through the apps and websites we create.”

Barceñas also shared to MARKETECH APAC that while the role charges him to focus on the company’s Australia, Singapore, and Thailand markets, his role “has no boundaries,” and that whenever opportunities strike within Adaptis’ other markets, he is more than ready to grab them.

Since its inception, Adaptis has grown through word of mouth – a testament to excellent client satisfaction. [My] priorities [for the role] are looking into the process and communications improvements from every aspect of client journeys with us – from prospecting to onboarding to project deployment. Part of the role is to create marketing initiatives to boost brand awareness for Adaptis. While I am doing these, business development activities are in place concurrently

Joven Barceñas, Head of Growth, Adaptis

Meanwhile, on his personal insights on the changes in the business development landscape amid the pandemic, Barceñas commented, “The most positive thing with virtual selling is that you can do 2 to 3 business meetings in 2 hours as it saves you time to travel from one place to another.”

He continued, “This means the business developers should have been more productive during these times. I think the main challenge is to effectively use the first meeting as an opportunity to build a better foundation of trust and relationship with new clients.”

Adam Eastburn, CEO, and founder of Adaptis, shared that prior to Barceñas’ appointment, the role was open to reach out to more companies to partner with them and to guide firms through their adaptation to changing human behavior and technology trends. 

While the company has been successfully acquiring new businesses since its inception in 2013, it believes that it could contribute more to the industry by educating new clients on user experience and providing excellent work that users would love. 

“The direction is always finding opportunities wherever and whenever. With Joven’s extensive regional business development experience, I trust that he will contribute to Adaptis’ growth, either opening up new markets or growing existing ones for us,” he said.

Adaptis has a presence in Europe and the Asia Pacific. They have offices in Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Their global clients include Kempinski Hotels, Toyota, Johnnie Walker, and more.