Wendy Hogan is the CX & Marketing Strategy Director for APAC Customer Experience at Oracle Corporation. In this role, Wendy engages with executives across Asia’s growth economies, exploring how to transform their business model, people and processes underpinned by adapting to rising customer expectations in an increasingly digital environment. This involves showcasing how connecting data, intelligence and experiences enabled by personalisation, cross-channel orchestration and advanced segmentation can reduce acquisition costs, improve customer engagement and drive revenue growth.
To do this, Wendy applies her knowledge gained from almost twenty years of management and leadership experience gained while building digital media, mobile and technology businesses in APAC. Based in Singapore since 2010, Wendy previously worked in media and advertising for the likes of CBS Interactive, ExchangeWire.com and mig.me. To keep abreast of change, Wendy actively engages in the broader industry, serving as a board member of The Marketing Society SEA, a member of the I-Com Singapore Advisory Board, and as founder of SWIMMA, an invitation-only learning network for senior women in marketing, media and advertising. Wendy also leads the conversation on marketing trends and business transformation at events across the region.
What are the top three traits that a Futurist Digital Marketer must have?
i. A willingness to test and experiment, try things that haven’t been done before, don’t settle for the status quo. Look to be a part of and/or build a culture where failure and learning from failure is okay.
ii. A recognition that the talent itself is you, and it is very important to invest in upskilling yourself and your team. Given the pace of change and competition for talent, it’s unrealistic to continuously look to hire people with previous experience with different tools or tactics. Always learn, always be curious and gain practical experience from doing.
iii. The ability to translate marketing activity to business outcomes. Recognise you’re not only the voice of the customer but also the engine of growth for your business. Breakdown the silos and champion a connected customer experience across the business; showcase outcomes, not vanity metrics; deliver impact.
What according to you is one trend that is defining the digital landscape in the APAC region?
The rise of the super-app and the ambition to leverage an install base at scale to deliver a broad array of services to consumers, creating competition in verticals not immediately associated with that utility. E.g. Ride sharing applications which move beyond to payments, logistics, services and entertainment all within the one ecosystem.
With access to too much data what do you think is the biggest challenge that digital marketers are facing today?
The challenge is not too much data, it’s understanding which data is relevant and connecting that to other data sources within the business to give it context and meaning. It’s then about making that insight dynamically available in the moments that matter to deliver a seamless customer experience. The challenge is breaking down silos to connect the data, building a data set that’s actionable and available, and connecting those data sets into the right tools to engage where appropriate.
As a jury for Digi 100 APAC, what is your advice to people applying to be on the list?
Be succinct about what you’ve achieved and the impact it had on the business KPI(s), whether that relates to growth or delivering cost efficiencies. Be brave and share both the wins and the challenges as everybody needs inspiration and insight into the reality of what it takes to deliver success.
