Mark Opao Archives - MARKETECH APAC

Building a career in a foreign land is a feat that’s not easy to achieve. Along the way, hurdles, failures, and hardships are to be expected, but with hard work and determination, valuable lessons and achievements will surely come with the challenges.

For the inaugural piece of MARKETECH APAC’s Milestones Series, we talked with Mark Opao, communications planning partner for APAC and META at Kaspersky, to share one of his greatest milestones — having a successful career in Singapore and China for the past 12 years and counting. In this narrative, Opao bares some of the challenges, the achievements, and career lessons that he gained through these years.

Taking the leap

Having a steady career in the Philippines, Opao didn’t have plans to move out of the country in his early days. This was until a couple of opportunities were presented to him in Singapore. Taking a leap of faith, he decided to give it a try without any high expectations — which led him to where he is today.

“I already moved several times in my career so far (from the Philippines to Singapore to China and back to Singapore), and I would say the defining moments of these moves were the exciting opportunities that it presented. I get exhilarated when I explore unfamiliar territories and the chance to meet new people of different backgrounds and perspectives,” Opao said.

Overcoming challenges

One of the most difficult challenges Opao had to face working in a foreign country was the difference in culture. To this, he admitted that it became hard for him to work with people with different working cultures. But through time, he learned how to manage his relationships with his colleagues, whilst still maintaining boundaries.

“When you move to another country, you’re the one who should adjust and not the other way around. That includes having an open mind and learning to appreciate (or even practice) their way of life and working styles, the customs and traditions, as well as the nuances in the way they engage with people,” he said.

Another thing was working in a fast-paced and high-pressure advertising market. He even mentioned that in Singapore and China, there is a need to increase resilience, especially in thriving against tough and stressful situations.

“In my job where I need to hit the ground running from Day 1, the way I managed to overcome challenges is EMBRACING IT. When I move markets or join a new team/company, I always like to start by observing everything- from the meeting dynamics, to looking at previous reports and presentations, and even interactions during lunch. From there I take down notes, highlight key pointers, and from there I make my “attack”!”

Better than gold: His most valuable career lessons

For Opao, the past 12 years were a tough road, but it was also when he picked up some of the most valuable lessons that he still treasures to this day, one being the true meaning of humility. According to him, he thought at first that being humble is to avoid being in the limelight, immediately putting down any form of praise or recognition from others, and shying away from leading bigger responsibilities.

“Now I believe that true humility is recognizing that you are blessed with certain gifts/talents/strengths and you should use that to reach out and help as many people as possible. Personal branding and promoting yourself well are very important. But you must use it with the right intention. Don’t remain quiet and allow yourself to just be put on the side whereas you know that you have more to give and more to share,” he said.

As he climbed the corporate ladder, Opao also eventually realised that skills, intelligence or plain hard work alone will not take someone upward, seeing different people use different ways, both good and bad, to get to the top — thus, he learned never to lose his values.

“It can be easily tempting to join the bandwagon. But in a world where you are as good as your last show, when the moment comes where everything has been stripped down from you- power, prestige, title- that’s where you’ll realize what truly matters. Work should be treated as a means and not an end. So don’t lose your values until the moment you’ve realised that you are already losing yourself,” he added.

Another career lesson he wished he learned earlier was to avoid aiming for fame but for longevity. To him, career sustainability and slow yet steady progress are more valuable rather than trying to compare himself to others and constantly trying to surpass them.

“I have to admit that I was on “team fame” early on in my career because I had a toxic habit of comparing myself to others. But as I journey on in my career I learned to develop my self-esteem and started to believe more in myself.”

Moving forward

Opao has achieved great feats as a communications and media professional throughout his career, but for him, there’s more for him to do to fulfill his purpose. One of these is to channel all of his learnings to the younger generation aiming to achieve greater heights in the industry.

To this, he said, “After accumulating years of experience in media advertising (and counting), I like to progressively channel those learnings to younger folks who wish to be in the industry and to companies who need advice in capitalizing digital media to grow their businesses-either as a corporate mentor, a consultant, or in the academe.”

“No regrets!” Twelve years later, this is what Opao can say looking back on his first overseas move to Singapore in 2011 to today, which, according to him, was the best decision he had ever made.

This piece is published under MARKETECH APAC’s content series ‘Milestones’, which celebrates the different milestones and achievements of industry leaders across the Asia-Pacific region. Please reach out to [email protected] for more information.

Gaining more customers is an everyday challenge not only for salespeople but for marketers as well — but what if there are more ways than one to take on this challenge?

In MARKETECH APAC’s recently conducted conference, ‘What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific’, marketing leaders Anna Henwood, CEO of insights platform Stickybeak, and Nancy Almasco, marketing director of retail company FlowerStore.ph enumerated some of the strategies marketers can take to create a 360º-journey in growing their customers this 2023 and beyond.

The panel discussion was moderated by Kaspersky’s Communications Planning Partner for APAC and META, Mark Opao, which provided the audience with insights on how to boost brands’ knowledge of their target markets for regional expansion in 2023. The speakers also discussed how to leverage consumer data in marketing strategies and how to future-proof one’s brand amidst the competitive industry.

Watch the panel discussion of FlowerStore.ph’s Nancy Almasco, Stickybeak’s Anna Henwood, and Kaspersky’s Mark Opao here.

Ready: Where to start when making a 360-degree consumer journey

“For you to commit to that 360 consumer journey, you have to make sure that everyone is onboarded,” said Almasco on defining what a 360-degree consumer journey is. According to her, the ideal 360º-journey is not only a marketing effort but a company-wide one — including the sales, customer support, operations, and business development teams, amongst others.

Meanwhile, Henwood highlighted that a 360-degree journey must always start with the customer. She also added that customers will tend to have different journeys, so marketers should first gather everything they have, including data, focus groups, and research, in order to understand where the gaps are.

However, Henwood advised to not let the pile of data paralyse their brand. She furthered, “As soon as you can, start visualising the information that you’ve got… Just start getting up what you know, so you can see where you’ve got information and where you haven’t.”

Set: How to set up your brand for expansion

In the next segment, Almasco and Henwood also shared their views on brand expansion. To this, Almasco emphasised that companies should first set their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to know if there is a need for recalibrating the brand’s strategies. On making a ‘stop’ when analysing data, however, Almasco highlighted that it should be a continuous effort.

“It’s a continuous effort. Week on week, month on month, you do an analysis, you review your data, you review performance, you measure your success or the numbers that you have versus the KPIs,” she explained.

On the other hand, Henwood stressed the importance of being clear about your hypotheses and objectives. She said, “What I would really encourage you to look at is ways that you can get a more agile or modern research that helps you quickly test that hypothesis that you’ve got. There’s plenty of tools and digital platforms out there that can help you do that.”

Moreover, she also said that before brands should start thinking about expansion, they should first really understand their core brand strategy and messaging. “Having a really good understanding of your core brand strategy and your pillars, and understanding how you can tailor that to each market, I think is really important when you’re setting up brand expansion,” she explained.

Go: Ways to future-proof your brand

Finally, Henwood said that while consumer data can be quite overwhelming, brands should be clear on the answers they are looking for. “Don’t go in there just looking at your data to try and find something out. Go in there with a question… You’ll be there forever, and you’ll never get out,” she concluded.

On dealing with competitors, Almasco also highlighted that brands should go above and beyond them by understanding all their strategies and making them better whilst still keeping their brand identity. “But you have to ensure that in terms of brand identity, you keep it. Because you cannot promise on something that you cannot deliver,” said Almasco.

Opao concluded the conversation by rounding up the speakers’ points: don’t let overwhelming consumer data paralyse your brand and always know what you can deliver whilst also going beyond to stand out in the market.

‘What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific’ is MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural two-day hybrid conference, which tackled various topics in the marketing space targeted at future-proofing the industry, including growth marketing, influencer marketing, and retail media, amongst others. The conference was attended by over 200 in-person attendees and more than 100 virtual participants from various brands and industries in and out of the country.

Stickybeak, one of the panellists in the discussion, is a proud Silver Sponsor of What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific. Stickybeak is a testing and insights platform that delivers fast, cost-effective, and valuable customer insights through social media-powered targeting.

In conventional business knowledge, we’ve been taught that Sales and Marketing should go hand in hand in driving company profits and can define a brand’s success and sustainability. Traditionally, it is even considered a unified department in most companies, and employees belonging to these teams tend to handle both functions. However, in the digital age, Sales and Marketing have been more fragmented than ever.

With the rise of many specialist digital domains – e-commerce, user experience (UX) design, digital media, content marketing, search engine optimization, and the like; nowadays, salespeople and brand managers tend to clash, if not work in siloes. This is probably because of the lack of specialist knowledge and/or limited opportunities to sit in one room and collaborate as much as possible—this then results into teams with siloed objectives and different measures of success.

“We need awareness to drive sales,” says the Brand Manager

“We need to hit our sales quota now!” says the Sales Manager

“Where’s my revenue?” asks the CEO

..and now there’s: “Our campaign is successful because our latest post received 10,000 likes!” as happily boasted by the Social Media team.

Can Brand Building and Sales Promotion really work hand-in-hand? This article isn’t meant to disrupt existing knowledge as plenty of evidence has already proven that they SHOULD work together. Instead, this article aims to flesh out some other underlying ‘realities’ of why building brands and driving sales is still hard to marry.

A Perennial Question in the Boardroom

Having experienced both agency and client sides, I’ve seen these questions pop out in meetings most of the time, especially during the Annual Planning season. But unfortunately, there has been no clear and conclusive answer up to now.

As companies (both big and start-up companies alike) are further squeezing in marketing investments, top management and procurement teams are pressuring teams more than ever to do more with less. So these boardroom conversations tend to skew favourably toward reporting immediate numbers in measuring success. In short, it’s all about the bottom line. This then creates a culture of (over) performance-oriented mindset in most organisations which can paralyze strategic growth opportunities in the long run, usually achieved through strategic brand building.

Sales-Driven versus Brand-Driven Culture

Whilst most companies have Sales and Marketing teams, not all are created and understood in the same manner in the sense that one tends to take the leading role over the other. Some organisations do put greater value on the importance of long-term brand building – i.e. usually amongst large consumer goods and other fast-moving industries. In this case, Brand Managers ought to be the captain of the ship.

On the other hand, industries like technology and those in the Business to Business (B2B) sector tend to believe that ‘Sales is king’ all the time. Hence activity is skewed toward campaigns generating an immediate return on investment (ROI) either in the form of acquisition revenue or qualified leads.

There’s no right or wrong here. But knowing the dominant culture internally helps in providing a better perspective of why it can be a challenge to sync these functions harmoniously.

Confusing the Role of Advertising

Another ‘blurry’ understanding for some companies is the role of Advertising. As a core component of the Marketing Mix, Advertising works in 2 ways to drive business growth – 1) Building strong brands and 2) Driving revenue via direct response sales promotions. Sustainable business growth can only be achieved through the right mix of these 2 important elements working together towards a single overarching objective. However, in reality, not everyone does understand it from this perspective.

If you talk to a hard core salesperson or a start-up owner, he or she would usually argue that every advertising dollar MUST sell or else it is just a waste of money. This then creates a mismatch between the (real) campaign objectives and (perceived) KPIs – Awareness campaigns are sometimes thought to be measured by sales, whilst Sales Promotions are thought to drive Top of Mind Awareness and increase Market Share for the brand.

So how?

Modern Marketing states that the right balance of Brand Building and Sales Promotion activities is the key to unlock sustained brand salience and profitability. But as we already know, it is easier said than done. Below are just 3 tips that marketers can consider as an initial head start in this journey:

Start with the 60-40 Premise. Renowned marketing experts Les Binet and Peter Field studied several brands and they find that the ‘optimum’ split to drive business growth is 60-40 in favour of brand building. While brand building takes a longer route, brand building investment (through consistent communications and repeated exposure) tends to compound in the long run. It must then be complemented by sales promotion activities that produce immediate trigger to purchase.

Yes, this is not THE sole rule as all companies are different. But we need to start somewhere right? And I think the 60-40 split is already a sweet spot and more feasible to take action without greatly sacrificing one over the other.
Ensure Mental, Physical (and Digital) Availability. In the best-selling book series ‘How Brands Grow’, authors Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk provided a lot of thought-provoking wisdom even to experienced Marketing and Sales professionals. Along with sufficient investment in brand building and sales promotion, one of the learnings from their study is the importance of Mental and Physical availability.

Mental Availability emphasises the need for distinctiveness in communications that’s memorable and easy to recall (versus just riding with any fad or too much differentiation). With Physical and Digital Availability, it is about ensuring that the brand is present in as many channels of consumption as possible- physical retail, own online store, online marketplaces, affiliate networks, etc. The buzzword we hear nowadays in Marketing is OMNICHANNEL. Hence both Marketing and Sales teams need to develop a consistent and convenient consumer experience TOGETHER.
Break the Silo by Establishing Multi-Functional Teams. One effective way to break the silo is establishing so-called ‘Multi-Functional’ Teams – a task force consisting of different sales and marketing disciplines dedicated to discussing and aligning plans and strategies on a regular basis.

In some companies, this would even include product development, corporate communications, and finance –- any team that plays an essential role in the execution and amplification of the campaign or innovation project. Depending on company size, these multi-functional teams can be created by product category (mostly for consumer goods) or segment (B2C and B2B). Meeting together is 1 thing. The more crucial matter however is what comes out of these meetings.

Based on experience, what works best is a meeting that would have these components:

Discussing 1-2 max main topics in the meeting agenda (i.e. campaign planning, post-campaign / promotion review, etc).
One meeting lead and a highly selected group of attendees – not necessarily senior people, but those who can really contribute significantly based on his/her domain of expertise. Based on experience, the meeting can be chaired by the Brand Lead / Sales and Marketing Lead.
Arriving at a key decision by the end of the meeting. This is one part that is missed many times in meetings like these. It is crucial that the meeting ends with a decision or direction agreed upon by ALL parties in the room. It can be a decision on KPIs, strategic communication direction, and/or key target audiences.
Post-meeting follow-through. Lastly, action points must be checked diligently and accomplished by all parties.

Sales and Marketing are indeed one of the key elements in a company’s success. A brand’s business growth requires a synergy of long-term strategic planning and consistency in communication across Paid, Owned, and Earned channels combining emotional priming and persuasive campaign tactics.

I’d like to compare them to a marriage. They each play an important role, and hence one must not overpower the other. It may sound so cheesy but if you think about it, both teams can work out harmoniously if 1) They can both address perennial yet critical questions; 2) Understand the perspective of one another and make compromises if needed; and 3) Take any action, no matter how small, in addressing challenges. As with any successful married couple, it takes 2 to tango to live happily ever after!

This article is written by Mark Opao, Communications Planning Partner of Kaspersky for APAC.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023. What’s NEXT 2023 is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share on upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to be part of the series.

On February 24, Russia declared war against Ukraine, immediately awakening unimaginable threat amongst entities around the world–but what would come after is a horrifying realisation of events beyond the war itself – the exodus of companies from Russia.

Global behemoths and MNCs across industries – from finance, professional services, and consumer goods, to food, retail, and tech – all were in unison to withdraw operations in Russia as a form of condemnation even if massive consequences to business are afloat.

But what if the tables are turned, as in a Russian-origin brand continuing to play in the global market? While Russian consumer goods do not necessarily have strong positions in the international market, there is one brand that stands as an exception in the current geopolitical tensions – Kaspersky, the leading cybersecurity solutions company founded in Russia that currently holds a global presence.

Global brands that operated in Russia found themselves tested against moral and business judgement. The pressure to pull out from the market loomed over companies at the beginning of the war, and the undertaking had been far from seamless as it blew companies’ finances such as Shell whose exit from the market would cost it $4b to $5b.

Meanwhile, those that decided to stay, mostly citing humanitarian reasons such as their products being a necessity, endured the risk of backlash and boycott, such as Japanese apparel Uniqlo which previously wanted to keep its Russian stores to continue providing clothing to Russians.

Without a doubt, it hadn’t been easy at all for brands with Russian ties, but on the flip side, how does it pan out for someone with Russian origins playing against the global market?

The Russian-founded global brand

For Kaspersky, the cybersecurity and anti-virus solutions provider whose roots find itself in Russia, there definitely had been a marketing challenge amidst the current geopolitical tensions, although the brand admits it wasn’t until the war that people found of its origins.

Mark Opao, the communications planning partner of the brand for APAC, Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, spoke to MARKETECH APAC and said that Kaspersky had always been positioned not as a Russian brand but as a global cybersecurity brand and that it had been a surprising learning that not all of its consumers in APAC are knowledgeable of its heritage.

Nonetheless, the brand was not freed of the risk of boycotts, where several companies decided to part ways with some of its long-standing vendors and partners in the business.

“To a certain extent, [we experienced boycott]…unfortunately the reasons for these actions were mainly driven by the geopolitical tensions in general,” said Opao.

Regaining the trust of consumers

As the collateral damage to brands continues to unfold, Opao said that the biggest challenge for the software brand right now is regaining the trust of its consumers and enterprise partners.

Despite Kaspersky being a British registered company, and each local office being a legal entity, Opao said they are “unfortunately stuck in the middle of a geopolitical clash that undermines brand trust and business.”

For other Russian-origin brands, the case is quite different. Most of the Russian firms with renowned cross-border presence are those tied to the state such as energy giant Gazprom and its national air carrier Aeroflot who simply cut ties with several countries allegedly as a retaliation for the global sanctions placed upon them, and reportedly due to business challenges amidst the war. Kasperksy is one of the several companies of its nature that continued to market to general and business consumers.

In the wake of these unprecedented marketing challenges, Opao believes that a product’s quality and value will outstand whatever disruptions a brand may find itself battling.

“I always believe that a good product doesn’t even need to be advertised,” he said.

For Kasperksy, it is confident of the quality and expertise it has proven globally throughout the years but said that teams continue to keep their guard up, working closer than ever in responding to the developments of the geopolitical conflict in terms of re-prioritizing its markets, its marketing channels as well as its communication messages.

“Our transversal approach to managing this current crisis – from product marketing, e-commerce, and digital media to CXO, PR, and brand communication teams – provides agility and flexibility in adjusting our marketing efforts holistically,” said Opao.

Going back to the core of marketing – the consumer

As the communications planning partner of the brand, Opao currently manages Kaspersky’s growth regions. He said that during this time when external political and macroeconomic factors continue to push pressure on brands, it is important for marketers to always look back at the core of any marketing activity- the consumer.

Opao said that the key is to have a level-headed mindset and keep acting and thinking in accordance with what would benefit or possibly hurt a company in the long run.

“Let me start by saying that there’s always an end to every crisis. During these types of uncertain [and] unprecedented challenges, the key is to not panic and make hasty short-term decisions,” he said.

“Amidst the external political and macroeconomic factors affecting us as a company, we need to focus first on what our consumers and enterprise customers need in a cybersecurity solution and use that as a springboard to develop solutions and communications that are relevant to them,” adds Opao.

Ultimately, he said that no matter the struggles, the “backbone must remain strong,” but that this would require teams to tackle the challenges together rather than working in silos.

This story is published under ‘The Inner State’, MARKETECH APAC’s dedicated industry deep-dive.