Expert Up Close: Shahid Nizami, ActiveCampaign’s regional VP for APAC
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].
With every challenge arises the opportunity to reimagine the status quo, and the pandemic has given everyone more than just a back seat, but a great view–high up the balcony–to take stock of what everyone has been long accustomed to, of what has been the ‘norm’ and looked to as ‘perfectly working’ for so long.
Greater dependence on information and the increased opportunity for indoor engagements have breathed new life and meaning to the role of digital content – and this is where MARKETECH APAC comes in.
MARKETECH APAC was borne at the height of the pandemic, and the strange times from which it came to fruition enabled it to transcend itself, to become more than just a source of marketing and advertising news, but an advocate for creativity and innovation, a connector of people and brands, and also, a source of employment for many people left upset by company downsizing.
On May 16, 2020, exactly a year ago, the very first news story was published on the MARKETECH APAC platform. Just like most, the pioneering team that launched it reeled in from the blow of retrenchments, and with this, the ambitious and promising content platform in front of you has also now become a space for talented and determined people to launch their fresh ideas and become a pioneer not just of themselves, but to be at the forefront of developing a platform that would bring all creative and brilliant brands and organizations together in one regional, APAC-centered space.
In the next first months of our inaugural year, MARKETECH APAC would be launching unique live features that haven’t been seen before with other players in the industry. In July of 2020, we launched the first-ever round-up of the top 5 stories in marketech-apac.com, giving recognition to the top-read and -viewed stories, which we call MARKETECH APAC Reports.
The very first feature we released, MARKETECH APAC Reports, aims to dig deeper into the fast stories that topped readership rankings for the month.
Then in August, we turbocharged multimedia content, with the release of another live feature – this time, a salute and tribute to some of the most inspirational marketing leaders in the industry, and likewise an effort to bridge the old with the new: to inspire the new generation of marketers. Taking a quirky spin to it, it was titled MARKETECH Mondays.
In MARKETECH Mondays, we feature veterans and experts in the industry to inspire the new generation of marketers.
As we wrap up the year 2020, we made sure to mark it with a bang. Come December, we rolled out the pilot episode of our third multimedia brand – MARKETECH Expert Up Close – our deep dive on the founders, marketing leaders, and companies behind the most sought-after brands and organizations.
For the latest episode of MARKETECH Expert Up Close, we sat down with the founder of proudly Filipino-made esports platform, KALARO.
Our biggest commitment to making marketing for all–including SMEs as a content pillar
MARKETECH APAC was realized at a peculiar period, and this has pushed us, even more, to live out this DNA of rising above the norm; which is to serve industry needs and going even beyond that. We established our four content pillars which we believe represent best the marketing and advertising industry – MARKETING, TECHNOLOGY, and PLATFORMS – and then our most unique offering and biggest commitment to our vision of “making marketing for all”– our SMEs content.
What MARKETECH APAC sees as a loophole in the delivery of news in the industry is the standard by which one is measured as newsworthy. It is no question that the giants and the big-budgeted companies and brands are more empowered to deliver wide-reaching and impactful campaigns, but what about the equally ingenious, but new players in the industry? In developing MARKETECH APAC, we made sure the brave and innovative SMEs also have a space to be seen and heard.
MARKETECH APAC’s 2021 offerings As we ushered in the year 2021 and were nearing our one-year mark, we have launched a slew of new MARKETECH APAC features and production units.
In February 2021, we hit the ground running for MARKETECH APAC’s webinar production unit, Inside Innovation. In this, we partner with companies to bring a wellspring of informative and insightful full-length discussions, presentations, and webinars on the most pressing and relevant issues in the industry.
Then coming into March of the year, we released MARKETECH Spotlight. MARKETECH Spotlight is our live feature that gives the spotlight and the seat to organizations that have acquired a one-of-a-kind achievement in the industry, and those that have released a never-before-seen product, campaign, initiative, or service.
MARKETECH Spotlight differs from our other features as it puts the focus on industry trends and studies through the perspective of model organizations.
Regional Editor Shaina Teope and also one of the pioneer team members of MARKETECH APAC shared that the company is more than just a promise of “making marketing for all,” but a carrier of a mission, the fulfillment of becoming a bastion of innovation and creativity by which both the behemoths and SMEs can connect and nurture their growth.
“When I first became part of the MARKETECH APAC team, I knew right off that I am endeavoring into something that is more than just reporting news and bringing forth content to readers, but that I am already on board a ship that seeks to brave uncharted waters and to steer the wheel in bringing a more connected and democratized industry of marketing and advertising,” Teope said.
“As we mark our first year in operations, our hearts are brimming with pride and joy looking back at the multimedia brands that we have successfully launched. They are all to trailblaze spaces for dialogue and conversations that have never been brought to the surface before. We are more than excited and are already gearing up as we enter our second year with fresh and unique initiatives in store for both brands and readers,” added Teope.
Brand new logo
With every ending comes a new beginning, and as MARKETECH APAC moves to a new chapter, we are unveiling a refreshed brand identity – a dynamic and modernized new logo.
From a simple titular logo, we are now an interconnected ‘M’, with trapezoids of different colors linked together. Find out what it means.
Replacing the simple pilot titular logo, MARKETECH APAC will now be represented by a multi-hued symbol of connecting trapezoids showcasing a letter M. The four shapes represent the platform’s four main content pillars–MARKETING, TECHNOLOGY, PLATFORMS, and SME. From just a combination of red and black, the new logo will now be donning four different colors seen from the four different shapes. This time, the colors represent the four regions under APAC – Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and ANZ– and that through MARKETECH APAC, they become connected as one.
Teope says, ”As we bolster our offerings, it is important for us that our identity – our logo – is perfectly representative of what we aim to continue doing as a platform as well as the fresh initiatives and programs we plan to bring forward. We have always been built to bring closer the marketing and advertising ecosystem in APAC and we are proud the new MARKETECH APAC is able to perfectly communicate this.”
In the years ahead
As we close off a great inaugural year and welcome the next, we want to thank our partners and clients who gave their trust to a new but hungry digital publication in the arena of marketing and advertising content. Without your support, we wouldn’t be strongly grounded as we are today to keep serving the industry with delightful and helpful content and to keep working blood and sweat to provide fresh multimedia brands and features within the mother MARKETECH APAC brand.
As we begin our second year, we are upping the game of our engagement to readers and brands in every region in the Asia Pacific. As of date, our regular newsletter has already reached audiences in ANZ, Southeast Asia, and the greater APAC region, and we are more than excited as we finally launch the newsletter campaign to our readers in East Asia and South Asia.
Presently, MARKETECH APAC is also speaking with investors who could help us realize our missions in providing quality content and industry events in Asia-Pacific.
A big thank you to our content partners
Last but not the least, we would like to express our utmost gratitude to our partners and clients who put their trust in us in producing content and webinars. You have made our first year of operations profitable, and we are even more charged and motivated to forming the best collaborations to craft and deliver the most engaging and unique content to our audience.
We would also like to give a big and sincere thank you to those who have shared and trusted their stories and insights to us through our growing and hardworking editorial team.
Truly, as we embark on the next stage, you can expect that we are always welcoming of content and webinar collaborations. We are excited and interested to hear about how we can partner and work together to further enrich the industry. You may reach us at [email protected]
Malaysia – Every business needs a trusted marketing and advertising agency, to well, help them with the creative side of the business, but have you seen one that is as invested and as determined as its client firm?
In the pilot episode of MARKETECH EXPERT UP CLOSE – our deep dive into creative geniuses – we featured Yens. Yenkai Chong, founder of integrated creative solutions DreamsKingdoms in Malaysia who has an ambitious mission: to groom small to medium enterprises (SMEs) into the next world-changers – the multinational corporations (MNCs). But the bold mission doesn’t stop at that; to make it even more official, Yenkai put a number to it – not just one SME or a handful, but 100 SMEs –championing them into becoming the next big thing.
We all know that SMEs are the backbone of an economy, but seldom do we hear a leader from a creative background talk so much about it – and that is how serious Yens and his DreamsKingdoms are about the underdogs of the business sector.
“In all countries, SMEs or SMBs, [they form] more than 90% of the industry. And then if you talk about MNCs, it might be only about 10% of the [industry]. So SMEs are supposed to be the pillars of [a] [country’s economy],” said Yens in the MARKETECH EXPERT UP CLOSE interview.
So why SMEs? Most agencies would be driven by their passion to make brands and businesses a cut above the rest, and of course profit; but believe it or not, the focus on SMEs by Yens and his DreamsKingdoms is motivated by something else – responsibility.
The responsibility – from a similar SME’s standpoint – to impart knowledge for brands to fully reach their potential; and the responsibility to make them do so for something larger than every SME sets out for itself – the country’s economic growth.
“We are looking to groom at least 100 SMEs into an international brand that truly and proudly represents the Malaysia brand to the world, and also through these brands, to contribute to the country’s [economic] growth,” said Yens.
Back in 2006 when the agency started, its clients were mostly SMEs and Yens and his team found that while most of them start their business with so much idealism, some don’t come with a concrete plan to build a brand. As they observed, start-ups’ business models are merely towards trading services – buy a product or service at a lower price and resell it at a higher rate to earn the profit margin.
“That’s why many SMEs [are] not be able to survive in the long run as there are always stronger challenges, [such as competitors] who can provide a much cheaper price on the same products [they] are selling,” he said.
And with this, Yens was spurred to set out a mission to propel these brands forward and reroute entrepreneurs’ mindsets.
“I feel that it’s a responsibility for professional industry practitioners or leaders to share or direct a way to change the perceptions of businessmen’s mindset, that trading without a brand is hard to survive especially when crises hit. It’s not saying that you have a brand and your business can thrive through [a crisis], but if you have a brand, you [will] have a culture, and that culture will pull you through difficulties and give you strength [on] why you exist.”
It takes a similar successful SME to “build” one
We already know that Yens’ passion for SMEs did not just come out of thin air – it was based on experience – from an SME itself that built its business from the ground up and is continuously thriving.
Yens’ beginnings in putting up DreamsKingdoms are as humble as they can get – a one-man team with only a computer as capital.
Being a founder of a company was far from the original plan. Just like any aspiring creatives, the first north star is the big-shot marketing and advertising agencies such as global firm McCann.
Before Yens started DreamsKingdoms, he was an art director at Malaysia Design Innovation Centre (MDIC), the professional arm of Malaysia university, Limkokwing University College of Creative Technology, that provides design services.
And just like all other start-ups, he’s been through the worst – no leads or client base and no money to spend on it.
Yens shared that with difficulty in getting projects, before having built the business, he racked up debts and was three months away from being stripped down of his finances – with no cash to pay for rental and daily living expenses.
“Back then, [I] was at the age of early 20s and with a very young teenager look. Getting people to buy into my ideas and design was tough.”
Through good ol’ hard work and determination, Yens and his “dreamteam” landed and pleased the client that would start it all.
“[The] very first official client that worked with us was one of the largest sushi chains in Malaysia. Back then, we do quite a number of cold- calling, only to those companies or clients we wish to have. Then we will send in [an] email and hope to get connected with the right [key leader],” he said.
He added, “It was a great experience with our very first client and it elevated and [strengthened] our profile and [had] slowly [taken] the path [of] our agency to greater height[s]. And from then on, we get [bigger and bigger] clients which include international logistic company, luxury car, hotels, banks, and insurances.”
DreamsKingdoms walks the talk
For a team that has its eyes on delivering exceptional branding for companies – DreamsKingdoms surely walks the talk.
By just visiting its website, one immediately gets the sense of a digital identity that’s off the charts – clients are brought to another space where dreaming big is welcome.
Yens believes that branding, which he equates to culture, is a crucial element that would stand as a bastion to keep companies into a firm hold – and DreamsKingdoms is the model firm for it.
DreamsKingdoms walks both existing and prospective clients through to a full suite of its philosophy and even a jolt of renewed inspiration for themselves.
On its website, one is immediately met with a group of legends including Neil Armstrong, Mother Teresa, and Bruce Lee – and in big, gilded letters, display the words “THE BELIEVER.”
It calls its team members “warriors,” and its mission is far from its bleak acronym – ABCDE – which is to Attract Attention, Bold Branding, Consumer Connection, Design Desire, and Extraordinary Experience.
DreamsKingdoms wasn’t kidding when it said it wanted to help enterprises “become the next Tesla, Apple, Huawei, Coca-Cola, and become the one-of-a-kind brand in peoples’ hearts.”
So back on SMEs, how will DreamsKingdoms do it?
Of course, with DreamsKingdoms declaring the big goal of a hundred exceptional SMEs, comes the concrete plan – and there are two things: Trustnology and D.E.S.I.G.N.S. strategy.
Throughout the interview, Yens talks about how vital it is for brands to build trust, and by that, he actually refers to “Trustnology” or DreamsKingdoms’ principle of trust and technology.
“To me, one of the most important strategies every business must have in order to build a brand is actually trust itself. So in DreamsKingdoms, we call it as ‘Trustnology’,” he said.
He added, “If your brand is good quality, or you have good services, but you don’t have [the] reputation of trust, I don’t think consumers will buy from you, so the [easiest] thing you can start is to build trust itself. So that’s why in this technology, trustnology is quite important.”
Meanwhile, its D.E.S.I.G.N.S. strategy for brands stands for the following:
D – Discover x Differentiate
E – Execution x Effectiveness
S – Service x Simplify
I – Ideation x Innovation
G – Growth x Globalisation
N – Next Big Thing x Next Compelling Story
S – Shareable x Stickiness
Yens said, “As a branding and marketing practitioner, as well as an entrepreneur, I don’t believe in singularity. No single great branding story can make a business great, and no amount of marketing campaigns can build a great brand.”
“So, [more than marketing], I really believe [SMEs should] [have] quality products or services and a great team behind a business. Marketing can help to build or increase the sales of the business, but [with that alone], it won’t be sustainable in the long run.
With a mapped out game plan in hand, the real work begins, and Yens said, that starts with changing SMEs’ mindset.
“The first thing for SMEs should be the switch of mindsets. We should open up our SMEs’ mindsets to become an MNCs’ mindset. If we always stick with a mindset that we are SMEs, we will never grow and have the confidence to become an international brand.”
Yens strongly believes in not just striving for good branding, but a branding that creates credibility and connection with consumers.
He said, “Everyone is talking about digital transformation. It has become a trend for all businesses from micro to big, a change that everyone must look into, but for every transformation, the value of trust should be embedded in whatever we do. No matter how good you build your brand in this digital era, trustnology should be one of the must-have core brand values.”
Having an innate passion for martial arts, Yens ultimately stated what would spell success for SMEs.
“For a business to be great and become a brand, everything needs to synergize as an ecosystem. Just like a fighter, a strong KO punch comes with the right footwork, a strong hip twist, and also very focused eyesight.”
Watch our live interview with Yens on MARKETECH APAC’s YouTube channel.
If you are a marketing or tech leader, founder or an agency head and you have a good story or insights to share, we want to hear from you. Please send us an email at [email protected].
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