Introduction: What are the Best Strategies for B2B Growth Marketing in APAC?

The Asia-Pacific region is not a single market; it’s a constellation of diverse cultures, languages and market maturities. For global B2B organizations, achieving consistent growth across this landscape demands commitment, localization and a deep strategic alignment between sales and marketing. In Episode 4 of the Asia AIM Podcast, AIM B2B CEO Robert Heldt sits down with Vivien Dao, Growth Marketing Lead for Asia Pacific and Japan at a Leader Cybersecurity Global company, to unpack what it truly takes to drive effective growth marketing in the region.

How Should Global Companies Approach Marketing in APAC?

Global campaigns must be supported by total organizational commitment and hyper-localization; a half-hearted approach guarantees failure in the APAC region.

Vivien Dao emphasizes that Japan is constantly shifting and very diverse. Her guiding philosophy is “If you want to play in the APAC market you have to go all in.” While global campaigns provide a necessary framework, genuine success depends on adapting global marketing strategies to APAC markets with localization that goes beyond simple translation. The conversation crucially highlights that fluency in local languages—from meeting Japanese language requirements to navigating the varied English proficiency levels across the APAC region—is essential for establishing brand trust and driving pipeline generation. 

How Can Marketing and Sales Align for Better APAC Growth?

Marketing must operate as a growth engine directly tied to sales outcomes which eventually translates regional insights into high-impact and localized global campaigns.

Vivien Dao’s role—situated at the vital intersection of marketing, strategy and sales alignment—exemplifies this modern B2B Marketing approach. Her team focuses on turning regional nuances into global impact for the cybersecurity industry. Key takeaways from this segment for driving a successful regional engine include:

• Sales Alignment: Achieve true alignment by involving sales early in the marketing strategy process, ensuring all marketing output (content and leads) directly addresses the sales team’s needs in diverse countries.
• Brand Awareness vs. Demand Generation: Successfully balances the need for long-term brand awareness—crucial in new or developing APAC countries—with the immediate pressure of demand generation targets.
• Customer-Centric Content: The necessity of developing highly localized customer case studies and success stories that genuinely resonate with specific regional buyers, making your solution relevant in their context.

FAQ

What is the Best Career Advice for B2B Marketers in APAC?

While the regional challenges are vast, they are best overcome by combining an ambitious vision with disciplined, localized execution.

Vivien Dao provides powerful advice for B2B marketers looking to advance their impact, “Dream big, but start small. Have the drive and the ambition.”

Effective growth marketing in diverse APAC countries requires both the grand vision to see the opportunity and the humility to start with localized tactics that prove Return of Investment (ROI) and build organizational buy-in.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Ready to implement the all-in approach to drive consistent revenue? This episode delivers essential strategic and tactical advice for mastering the APAC marketing landscape. The core takeaway is clear: success hinges on total commitment and meticulous localization.

Listen to the full Episode 4 of the Asia AIM Podcast now to hear all of Vivien Dao’s insights on APAC marketing, cybersecurity strategy, sales alignment and why she spends her free time wild food foraging!

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Transcript:

Vivien Dao: [00:00:00] I think if you try to apply a one size fits all strategy to all of Asia Pacific, you, you just end up wasting your money. Um. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I’m of the true belief that if you wanna play in the APAC market, uh, it’s a constantly shifting [00:00:15] region. Very diverse. If you wanna play in it, you have to go all in.

You can’t do it halfway. Um, and hope that, you know, your US based marketing messages or strategy are going to just magically resonate. Um. Yeah, you’ll just end up wasting your money.[00:00:30] 

Robert Heldt: Hello and welcome back to Asia Aim, the show where we decode marketing across Japan and the Asia Pacific and shine a light on the people sharing business ideas and innovation in this incredibly [00:00:45] diverse region. I’m your host Robert eld, and today we are diving into one of the biggest misconceptions in APAC marketing.

The idea that one strategy can fit every country. Anyone who’s worked in markets like [00:01:00] Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or India, knows that couldn’t be further from the truth. To help us unpack this, I’m joined by Vivian Dao, growth Marketing Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at a leading [00:01:15] US based tech company.

Vivian sits at the. Right at the intersection of marketing strategy and go to market execution. She has hands-on experience rolling out global campaigns while tailoring them for [00:01:30] local audiences. Truly bridging the gap between global vision and regional realities. In our conversation, we’ll talk about why a blanket approach rarely works.

How to strike a balance between [00:01:45] consistency and local nuance and practical ways to adapt strategies so they truly resonate from country to country. Vivian, it’s such a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to the podcast. 

Vivien Dao: Hi, Robert. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for [00:02:00] having me. 

Robert Heldt: Thank you. So you’ve been leading growth marketing across such different markets.

From your perspective, what makes APAC such a unique and sometimes challenging region compared to places like Europe [00:02:15] or North America? 

Vivien Dao: Yeah, for sure. Um, look, I don’t have a benchmark for Europe, but I think in many ways it could actually be quite similar to the Asia Pacific and Japan region in terms of the multi-language and multicultural approach.[00:02:30] 

But I think, um, you know, that’s what makes. The APAC region unique, exciting, and challenging all at the same time. It’s a rapidly growing region with different levels of maturity. Um, with regards to the industry I work in, that’s [00:02:45] cybersecurity, uh, maturity from a B2B space. And so, you know, it’s, it’s really interesting to see that level of maturity vary across the whole region, across different countries.

And it’s always exciting, I guess from an economic point of view as well, right? Like I feel a [00:03:00] personal affinity and connection to the region being an Australian born Vietnamese person. So it’s really nice to see the economy grow in this region, the rapid growth, um, the investments that. Um, you know, foreign companies are making in this region, and I [00:03:15] just really wanna see it thrive.

Um, I also think the, you know, the, the intersection of cybersecurity and geopolitics has been a really interesting point for me. It makes it very interesting to navigate and impacts everything from, you know, the tough of content that we put [00:03:30] out through to the way I have to manage my budgets, which is all in USD, right?

So the fluctuations that come with that. Um, so yeah, everything happening here and, uh, a very, very exciting region. Yeah, 

Robert Heldt: indeed. Right. It’s, it’s, it’s such a exciting [00:03:45] region from many perspectives and I think this whole globalization as well as, you know, the digital transformation shift in countries like Japan and, you know, that I’ve been very analog is, is definitely kind of pushing this, uh, growth as well.

So exciting time to be in the market for sure. [00:04:00] Definitely. Um, yeah. And what are some of the common pitfalls you’ve seen when companies try to roll out one single strategy across this, this APAC region? 

Vivien Dao: Uh, it’s, it’s really funny. There’s a, something that one of my colleagues says. [00:04:15] Um, it’s kind of like an uphill battle to show.

Uh, headquarters sometimes that it’s not a singular country. You know, APAC is a very diverse region. You know, there’s lots of countries in it. And so for all the reasons that I mentioned prior with [00:04:30] regards to the diversity, the language, the multiculturalism, it just, uh, a singular approach just won’t work.

Um, I think at a high level for global campaigns. Sure. But then you also need to factor, you know, where do the campaigns meet the audience? Does the, the, the market [00:04:45] maturity exist there? Are people aware of like the concept that you’re trying to sell or the solution, do they know of their own pain points even?

And like the, the persona that you are selling to, you know, um, the, the messages you put out to appeal to that persona, does it even [00:05:00] exist in that particular country? Right. Um. Again, for MySpace, which is cybersecurity, uh, in some countries, in some sectors within those countries as well, you know, have different varying levels of maturity.

But, you know, for some companies, uh, the ciso, [00:05:15] uh, chief Information Security Officer doesn’t even know, um, or, you know, have, you know, need to have oversight over the tools that their team are using every single day. Whereas in other companies, in other countries, you have CISOs who are on the tools every single [00:05:30] day.

Um, so it’s just like that, that varying level of maturity or, or just differences across, um, all the different countries. And I think if you. Try to apply a one size fits all strategy to all of Asia Pacific. You, you just end up [00:05:45] wasting your money. Um. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I’m of the true belief that if you wanna play in the APAC market, uh, it’s a constantly shifting region.

Very diverse. If you wanna play in it, you have to go all in. You can’t do it halfway. Um, and hope that, you know, your [00:06:00] US based marketing messages or strategy are going to just magically resonate. Um, yeah, you’ll just end up wasting your money. 

Robert Heldt: Yeah, it’s really wise words. And it sounds like there’s a lot of education you need to do based on the country, based on [00:06:15] the, you know, a maturity level.

Right. Because, you know, um, it’s, it’s, it’s difficult for, you know, some markets that are really playing catch up while some markets are advanced and, you know, have, you know already, uh. Global, you [00:06:30] know, leading, you know, businesses in the market. So the maturity levels are kind of rising with that. But if it’s not there, then you’re really definitely trying to educate from the ground up.

Um, so when, when you take global initiatives and try to bring it to life into apac, [00:06:45] what are the big differences you notice on a regional level and then again on a country level? So. 

Vivien Dao: Yeah, I mean, pretty much exactly what you said before, right? Um, you know, sometimes when you’re entering the Asia Pacific region, [00:07:00] you are entering a new market.

It’s a, it’s a complete new space, so there is still a lot of brand awareness in some countries and, um, market education. Um, I think sometimes at, at global, you know, in this case, like the United States, a lot of the time for companies I’ve worked for, you [00:07:15] know, they’ve been operating in that region for double, triple, triple the amount of time.

Um, so, so a lot of the campaigns that come out from a global perspective are beyond that market education and, and brand awareness. And at this point it’s more about kind of, you know, [00:07:30] value add use cases or, or just trying to compete with a, a lot of different competitors in a lot of ways. Here at apac, it’s, it’s still green spot.

And it’s awesome because you have that blank space to really step up and drive something new. Um, but it also [00:07:45] means you often have to look at the assets your team are pushing out globally and take a step back and think, is this going to resonate with the market here? Not only from, you know, obviously like a language perspective, right?

But also the context. Um, and so, uh, you know, one of the [00:08:00] things that we, um. Have done successfully here is working with, you know, aim B2B or, or custom media over the last year to, to enter Japan, uh, from a digital space. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, some of the key differences have been, uh, at the global [00:08:15] level and, you know, in, in a lot of, I guess like.

Countries like Singapore or Australia here, um, we rely quite heavily on LinkedIn from a B2B perspective. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, it’s great obviously, you know, highly targeted accounts. Um, a a highly targeted platform [00:08:30] for, you know, a target targeted number of accounts, uh, and right down to that. Persona level as well.

But in Japan, it’s nearly entirely not used for our industry. Um, and in a lot of ways it’s kind of like the inverse, right? We don’t really use Facebook from a [00:08:45] B2B setting in other countries, but that’s kind of where it shines in Japan. Um, and then on top of that, it’s the, um. The, the, the English, uh, proficiency, professional proficiency as well.

And that’s how that’s impacted a lot of things that I [00:09:00] didn’t even consider to begin with. Um mm-hmm. So, for example, our website is natively in English, and the way that the UX is designed is for English text. So when you try to translate the whole page, uh, for a Japanese market, [00:09:15] you have issues with like.

Not enough text to give the context. Um, the text kind of cuts off at the wrong place, so the sentence doesn’t make sense ’cause the phrase doesn’t, you know, match. Um, and so that’s something I definitely didn’t factor into my plans or my budgets [00:09:30] originally. And it was definitely a big learning curve for me.

Uh, so marketers beware if you are entering the Japan market. It is really awesome, really dynamic. And from, um. For our, um, industry and cybersecurity. It is very mature as well, but be [00:09:45] prepared for the costs. Um, and yeah, there’s just like all these things you kind of have to consider. Um, you know, when you’re starting in a new market, um, do you kind of have the infrastructure to support all of that [00:10:00] localization and that content?

Robert Heldt: Yeah, that’s, uh, that’s really true. And I think, you know, in a market like Japan, right, um, the, uh, veracity of, uh, content you need to share with your target audience is pretty high. [00:10:15] They, they want to get a lot of information, you know, um, and they demand, uh, in a lot of education as well. So it’s up to, you know, uh, the, the company.

You know, to provide that for you, to create all this content and, you know, provide that [00:10:30] to your target audience, whether they’re existing customers or potential customers. So there’s, that’s definitely a lot of content creation needs and in the local language, right. You know, English doesn’t really cut it.

Um, although it’s, you know, one of the top, uh, you know, [00:10:45] um. Countries globally. Right. Even in all those differences, are there certain playbooks or guiding principles that you found actually work across multiple, you know, APAC markets? 

Vivien Dao: Yeah, for sure. When I started. Uh, in this new [00:11:00] market and I’m entering, uh, a lot of new markets from a digital space in this region.

I kind of came to, uh, figure out there are kind of three core things that you can kind of latch onto and just to kick off the whole process, right? So the first thing is identifying maturity [00:11:15] for each of the, uh, countries. You can’t go and run, you know, a hundred different campaigns, I think, uh, I mean, you probably could if you had a lot of resources, but in my case, definitely not.

Right? So I had to kind of. Find those common threads. Uh, for me, one of the common threads was that [00:11:30] market maturity with regards to where a lot of countries and the sectors and the different types of, uh, companies within those countries are from, um, a cybersecurity perspective or. Particularly threat intelligence.

And so, you know, figuring out, you know, some [00:11:45] countries are a lot more mature in their approach and they’re ready to have those more robust threat intelligence conversations, value added use case conversations. And so we can run a lot of the existing, uh, I guess, global level campaign messages in those countries, of course, like [00:12:00] localizing it to, to, um, meet the language requirements if, if needed.

For example, in Japan, uh, Singapore and Australia is. Also an example of two other countries with high cybersecurity maturity. Um, so that one’s pretty straightforward because it’s um, all [00:12:15] English there. Um, but you know, other countries are still kind of starting out that threat intelligence journey.

There’s still a lot of market education and awareness, and so it’s. Thinking about, you know, some of the previous campaigns that we run at a global level, maybe two to three years ago, and adapting it to [00:12:30] this region. Not saying that, you know, it’s, it’s a laggard thing, but it is certainly still at market awareness and brand awareness for a lot of those countries.

Um, so just having. Different streams that you can lean on with regards to the campaigns that you run, uh, at the APAC level. [00:12:45] Um, the second thing is also, um, just determining where the business priorities are, right? So that’s an easy way to kind of figure out what some of the, um. Some of the priorities need to be, so an easy thing is like revenue split or target, um, target [00:13:00] revenue split.

Um, so where are your big bets? Where do you have the most existing customers? Um, and then where do you want to see the shift for growth towards in one to two years? That’s kind of where then you need to start to really ramp up on that brand awareness in those countries, [00:13:15] but then also ensuring that you have the right conversion points for countries where you are already seeing a lot of traction.

There’s already a lot of movement. The last thing is really ensuring that whatever you do, you have those local customer case studies, right? [00:13:30] So those are the things that need to be quite like highly localized. I think, you know, some of the big US and European brand names are, are helpful, but nothing beats a local case study from a customer.

And those are the things that really bolster your credibility in the region. [00:13:45] So that’s something that I definitely. Seek to prioritize in this region, uh, particularly as we are starting out from a digital perspective here. Um, these are the things that need to be highly localized and you can take the US case studies, but yeah, I don’t think anything beats a [00:14:00] local case study here.

Robert Heldt: Yeah, that’s always a tricky and challenging one we find, you know, working with, with our clients as well. So when you’re starting out, because you don’t have a local case study, right, then you need to really cherry pick the one that’s gonna resonate with the market, really understand your [00:14:15] target audience, and then find out what’s the use case that’s gonna be, you know, relevant to.

You know, the, the target you’re trying to reach here in Japan or in Korea for that matter. And actually you mentioned, you know, uh, Singapore and, and Australia being fairly mature, um, you know, [00:14:30] Japan and Korea, you know, they are very, really different maturity level I would imagine. In, in your industry, have you found, you know, any, anything that you can talk about in these two countries?

How, what’s, what’s your approaches for these two countries specifically? 

Vivien Dao: Yeah, for sure. [00:14:45] Um, so, you know, yes, with regards to cybersecurity maturity, it, it is pretty much on par with Singapore and Australia in some ways, I would probably say slightly more mature, um mm-hmm. With the way that the, the market responds to the messages and how much they resonate with them.

[00:15:00] But yeah, then the tricky thing becomes how do you adapt? Uh, the, the brand voice, the brand consistency for those regions, right? Because it’s not necessarily a one for one translation. Uh, trust me, I know. I learned the hard, um, [00:15:15] and so, you know, um, uh, it’s, it’s really interesting because at the beginning of us starting out this whole process, the one thing I wanted to make sure was.

We had that brand consistency as well, right? Because the maturity was already there, but perhaps the [00:15:30] application wasn’t. And so we had to kind of sit down with our customers, our internal team, our external partners, and just think, okay, uh, what is, what are we gonna say in this region? You know, we, we know what we wanna say and we know what pain points we solve for, but [00:15:45] how do we.

Actually say it because I think sometimes, like, you know, the, the company tagline doesn’t translate directly or, um, even anything down to kind of like the way we describe ourselves and our about us. Right. Um, yeah. Yeah. Mm, 

Robert Heldt: yeah. That’s [00:16:00] really good what you explained there in terms of, you know, how you try to maintain brand voice in a consistent level, you know, globally as well as regionally and, you know, adapting the key messages.

To the local audience is so critical. Uh, and you touched upon teams, right? So [00:16:15] how, how, what’s your approach to kind of empowering teams, working with teams, understanding their markets, uh, doing a fantastic job of that, but how do you, you know, empower them to, you know, execute locally while, you know, keeping the overall brand, uh, messaging aligned [00:16:30] as well as the global strategy because you’re responsible for, for growth and, and delivering, uh, results in these.

Very important markets. 

Vivien Dao: Um, so I think one way to empower, you know, local teams and agencies to execute effectively is one, choose good agencies. [00:16:45] And, you know, we got really lucky, I think with, um, our journey with a B2B and or customer media. Um. You know, for some other regions it is a bit of trial and error to start.

Right. And I won’t lie, the early days are hard. They’re very hands-on as [00:17:00] well. Mm-hmm. Particularly because at the time when we were kick-starting these processes in this region, we were also relaunching our global brand, and so there was a lot of. There was still a lot of gaps. The team was still building it out and we were all learning about how we convey [00:17:15] our messages and, and convey what we do in a new way.

Um, and simultaneously trying to teach our agencies to, to match to the same beat of the drum. Right. So I think, you know, being prepared to do a lot of the brunt work and sitting with your agency and, you [00:17:30] know, filling out all the spreadsheets and answering all the questions, and, you know, getting on the tools yourself in the early days is a really great way to not only kind of like kickstart.

The whole process, but build that trust and relationship with the agency. And I think also being able [00:17:45] to, um, you know, empower your local teams. I mean, I sat down with our customers in Japan and our internal team, and I basically kind of showed them our new brand and all the new taglines and the new messages, and I said.

I ask them, I’m like, you know, [00:18:00] what do they think of the, the brand? What do they think of, you know, this tagline? And when they think of our business, what, um, what do they want to see? Right? What is, what are their expectations? Um, and so, you know, um, we ask, we ask them, [00:18:15] um, what are some of the key things that we need to have stick out in the taglines?

What are the key messages we need to convey? Is it, you know, how do we. Talk about proactivity, for example, in a Japanese context, and then what do our partners also [00:18:30] aspire for us to appear as in the market to help them grow as well? Um, so by kind of connecting with the local teams and understanding what are the key pain points we solve for in that region, what are some of the key customer concerns?

And continuing to test and [00:18:45] test over and over again. Um, putting those new messages, um, in front of the team or, or new processes or concepts in front of them, I think that’s a really great way to empower them to, you know, maintain that alignment, um, with the, the global [00:19:00] strategy, but with the localized flair.

Robert Heldt: Thank you. Thank you for those kind words. I know, yeah. In the early days it’s, it’s definitely a steep learning curve and the onboarding process and you, you did put in a lot of time and effort to help us get, you know, up to speed with, with your industry because [00:19:15] we are not specialists in your industry and specialists in B2B marketing.

Period. Right. So that it, it, it’s a partnership. Right? And that’s something we really, uh, value working with you and thank you for that. Resource allocation must be tough as well, right? How do you [00:19:30] prioritize and divide your resources across so many markets? 

Vivien Dao: Yeah. Um, so I guess going back to the conversation about, you know, using good agencies, um, I think.

A relationship with a good agency is two ways you can learn a lot from the local [00:19:45] agencies that you use from a data perspective and just understanding the cultural nuances of that market. Um, and so, you know, maintaining that relationship and being open to feedback and internal review processes is going to kind of set you up for success [00:20:00] with regards to understanding.

Okay, like where do my resources actually need to go to? Um, you know, local agencies have that. Data and that knowledge around what assets and what channels are going to be most effective in that region. You know, LinkedIn is very expensive and luckily [00:20:15] we haven’t really tapped into it in Japan yet. But then, you know, other, um, channels, uh, is probably where the money is better spent, but can be more expensive.

Um, in the Ian region for example, um, cost per click, uh, is generally a lot lower, [00:20:30] but you know, we need more volume and so it’s just kind of like trying to balance all of that out as well. Um. But I think, you know, it’s to kind of figure out how to allocate the resources across different country markets.

Again, starting just with [00:20:45] the revenue goal split is the easiest way to figure out, okay, where, where do we need to kind of focus and, and put our money there? Mm-hmm. Um, but then also being prepared to make some pretty hefty adjustments along the way. Continuing to test, look at the data, you know, [00:21:00] understand if the messages are resonating here or if the channel is resonating for that particular market.

And, um, you know, be prepared to see that, you know, split really change along the way because again, different markets have different maturity, um, different costs [00:21:15] per click. Um, and, and I think also be prepared to spend a little bit more than you originally anticipated. But yeah, I think net net, um, you know, resource allocation is something that is continuously changing.

[00:21:30] And, you know, as you go along you can see, um, you. You know, as you go along and you test different campaigns in markets, you can kind of start to get a better understanding of, um, where that money is best placed. And it’s not always a one for one correlation [00:21:45] for, you know, the cost of a lead and how much that might cost to, to.

Convert. Um, it’s often some of the smaller, um, more nuanced things like that you don’t originally factor into ad spend. So you know, the cost of, um, [00:22:00] you know, having a hundred pages be localized, for example, because the, the ads are redundant. Otherwise, if they don’t have, you know, a destination to go to, um, or, you know, making sure that, um, you know, all these assets are localized fully because again, you can’t go to market, [00:22:15] uh, you know, in a low English, um, professional.

Proficiency country with, um mm-hmm. An English asset. So those are the things that you kind of also have to take into account. 

Robert Heldt: Yeah, that’s true. You know, you mentioned earlier, you know, you visited Japan and, you know, [00:22:30] did workshops with your team and, and, and your clients, that that is also a lot of time and, and resource heavy.

Right? So do you visit the other regions as well? How often do you try to, to get to the markets that you service and, and, and nothing like listening to what’s, what’s happening on the ground, isn’t it like for [00:22:45] yourself? 

Vivien Dao: Yeah, those water cooler conversations are so important. I think, um, uh, you know, I do try to get that out there as often as I can, but I think also in the age of remote working now, um, that’s definitely been helpful.

I don’t think I could do this job otherwise. [00:23:00] Um, you know. Probably five years ago would’ve been a lot more difficult. And then I also think like in the age of ai, like that has really helped with just, um, being able to quickly adapt things. Um, but yeah, nothing beats, you know, that those face-to-face conversations.

[00:23:15] Um, uh, and I think, um, you know, getting out on the ground, meeting the customers there, meeting the team, or even connecting with the team regularly on a virtual basis is really going to set you up for success. 

Robert Heldt: Yeah, that’s for sure. Um, are there any [00:23:30] tools or platforms that you rely on to help you, you know, manage across these regions?

Anything that you can recommend? 

Vivien Dao: Yeah, for sure. Um, one thing that I just find incredible about this role, and again, um, you know, I think this [00:23:45] time last year, this role would’ve been a lot harder, um, without the use of ai, right? Like, so we use AI in a really interesting way here, uh, because of the. Need to, and just as an example, the need to [00:24:00] really highly localize our assets for the Japanese market.

You know, I don’t speak Japanese, but it is, it is one of our highest growth markets in the region. Um, and so we look to AI and we train our internal enterprise model. Um, so the way that we do, [00:24:15] we set this up is firstly we worked with our agency to create, um, a messaging bible and, um mm-hmm. That was done in conjunction with, you know, inputs from our customers, our internal team, kind of the agency’s understanding of, you know, Japanese.

Um, [00:24:30] uh, language nuance as well. And so that whole messaging Bible has things from a glossary of words, you know, of things that we need to translate, uh, from English, Japanese, and things we must keep in English because it’s a, it’s a product name or it’s a brand name. And everything [00:24:45] through to cultural sensitivities, types of images you can use, colors you can use in which context as well.

Um, and then we also, um, you know. Had all of our taglines translated. So helping our internal English speaking audience understand [00:25:00] why it’s not a one for one translation. Um, so I’ll just give you an example. Like in English, our tagline is Know What Matters. Act first. When we put that in front of our, um.

Japan customer focus group, they kind of just turned their heads and they said, I mean, we don’t really understand that. And [00:25:15] so when we teased it out a little bit and I asked them, you know, when you think about our brand, like what do you think about or what’s really important to you? They said, proactiveness in cybersecurity and being able to see everything.

Um, and so we said, okay, let’s try and put that [00:25:30] into, um. Our LLM and see, you know, what it comes out with. And so we ended up translating in Japanese to say, identify critical threats and take preemptive action. Like that’s the English back translation. Yeah. So [00:25:45] a little bit more context to that. It’s a little bit more direct.

It’s not, um, as conceptual, but like that’s what resonates for that market. And yeah. And um, you know, in addition to that messaging bible that we put together, we feed that into the [00:26:00] LLM. We also feed it past translated assets as well. We also have, um, you know, some of our English assets. We put it into the machine and we say like, please translate this.

Um, and it, you know, comes out with its own translation. We have the internal team review it and then. Put [00:26:15] that reviewed version back into the LLM and say, you know, find all the differences from your translation versus the one that we did with our internal team and save that to your memory. Um, so those are kind of the, the things we use to train it.

And then moving forward, [00:26:30] we give it really specific prompts to say, Hey, like please translate this data sheet, remembering, you know, the glossary that we used and all the learnings from the past data sheets that you’ve translated. And, you know, over time that machine kind of learns the, the language of the business.

And is able to kind [00:26:45] of, you know, spit out these assets a lot more quickly. So AI is definitely one of the, the ways that I, uh, manage, uh, this really diverse market. 

Robert Heldt: Yeah, that’s great to see how, how you’re using AI very productively and in across various regions. Right. And [00:27:00] I think that’s definitely becoming the game changer already.

And I think what we are doing and what we are seeing also with, with, uh, the AI is not just kinda using AI to produce content or, you know, um, improve your productivity, but it’s also being found like how your businesses are found because, you [00:27:15] know. Customers these days are, are going to chat GPT and Gemini and whatnot to look for solutions and services.

So generative engine optimization is something we’ve been, you know, spending a lot of time. Kind of understanding and learning so that we, if we can be found on that as an agency, [00:27:30] but also then help our clients to be found on it. And I know in our team spending a lot of time and how do we create conversational content that engines, uh, can read and understand and bring you up in addition to keeping your SEO going, because SEO is still very relevant, [00:27:45] keywords are very relevant and important.

Especially for advertising campaigns and, and the like. Right. And I, and I liked how you, you know, um, localized your message, you know, uh, for the Japan market, understanding what the, you know, uh, target audience. [00:28:00] Wants to resonate with, rather than just saying, okay, here’s a global message, let’s go with it.

Right. So that’s, that’s really fantastic. The, uh, how you’re, uh, you are spending a lot of effort into localizing your approach and adapting it. Um, you know, if you look [00:28:15] ahead two to three years, you touched upon ai. What other trends, uh, do you think are gonna shape growth marketing in apac? 

Vivien Dao: Yeah, um, it’s really interesting you mentioned GEO because I think that’s definitely going to be, um.

Something that [00:28:30] will continue to just be on the rise quite rapidly. Um, I look forward to seeing a lot more visual content come out of it as a result from brands. Uh, I think, you know, in an age where we can just get information so easily by, um, prompting a, um, you know, an LLM to [00:28:45] find it for us, it’s really those visual, creative content that will set us all apart, um, and set brands apart.

Uh, ’cause yeah, that information from a text. Perspective can be easily found. And so how do you actually engage an audience and, and pull them [00:29:00] in and get them to kind of align with your brand and, and, and, you know, seek for your solutions. Um, I also think, you know, with apac, it’s a very rapidly growing region from an economic perspective.

So I think, you know, we’ll just keep seeing [00:29:15] companies investing more into this region and they should be looking for local APAC marketers to help drive that growth. Um, there is a real. Big opportunity here for companies to grow in this region. And I think that they can only do it when [00:29:30] they have the people on the ground here with the knowledge, the culture, the tool sets, skill sets to be able to understand all of the cultural nuances and be able to service this market.

Robert Heldt: Yeah. Thank you. You, you summed it up very well. Um, let’s wrap up with a quick fire out [00:29:45] of short answers to questions. Um, so if you were to describe each of. Your markets, Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and India in just one word. What, what would they be? 

Vivien Dao: Uh, oh, one word for each or one word in total.

Robert Heldt: Either [00:30:00] way. 

Vivien Dao: Okay, sure. I think for Japan, the word I would use is detailed. Um, uh, a NZ Australia, New Zealand, uh, honest, um, Singapore or the Aian region as a whole [00:30:15] dynamic, uh, India. Big career, uh, paced. Yeah, 

Robert Heldt: yeah. Um, I’m from India, as you know, from Chennai and the southeast coast of India. It’s, it’s definitely a, um, a region in and of [00:30:30] itself, let’s say, with so many local languages.

And, but the one thing I think because English is, uh, predominantly the, the language of business, you know, you can, to certain degree, depending on the industry you’re in, you know, uh, uh, manage the market. Um. Is there a book or a [00:30:45] podcast or a resource that’s had a big influence on your approach to growth marketing?

Vivien Dao: Yeah, I think the, the biggest influence, um, that I’ve had throughout my career as a marketer has, has predominantly been my mentors both on an [00:31:00] unofficial and official capacity. All the way from when I was intern through to, you know, as of right now. Um, but you know, they’re not just brilliant marketers, but it’s also people who are, um, on the ground speaking to our customers and who understand the dynamics of the region.

[00:31:15] So field CISOs, um, customer success managers, those are the people who are the ones keeping up to date with everything happening in the region from, you know, a news perspective or, um, just the dynamics, uh. Politics, the intersection of that with [00:31:30] cybersecurity. So those are the people I really enjoy kind of, um, learning from, getting ideas from and just seeing their perspective as to what will resonate in this market.

Oh yeah. And I think another thing is, um, just, um, keeping up to news with what’s happening in that region. [00:31:45] Um, particularly when you work in a sector like mine where everything kind of like intersects, um, with cybersecurity, it’s. Great and very important to keep up to date with everything that’s happening.

Robert Heldt: Yeah, no, I was just gonna say, it’s great to have good mentors that you [00:32:00] can, you know, rely on and use as a sounding board because there’s so much to keep up with. I mean, you’re managing so many markets, it’s just, you know, uh. Lack of a better word, a nightmare can become a nightmare. So it’s great to have good mentors, right?

Vivien Dao: Yes. [00:32:15] Um, and yeah, you know, it’s, it’s definitely challenging some days, but we love a challenge. Um, yeah. And, you know, uh, why reinvent the wheel? In a lot of cases, these are some brilliant marketers who have tried and tested the region. They know which vendors to work with. [00:32:30] They know what messages will resonate.

So, you know, sometimes it’s not a one for one, but it’s certainly a starting point in a lot of cases. 

Robert Heldt: Yeah. Um, if you could give one piece of advice to a marketer who’s starting out, uh, to manage this [00:32:45] region, what would it be? 

Vivien Dao: I would say. Dream big, but start small. Um, great advice. Yeah. I think, you know, uh, it’s really good to [00:33:00] have the drive and the ambition.

I think, you know, on days when things get really challenging, those big dreams kind of keep you going. Um, and you know. Those dreams are the things that keep you connected to this market and wanting to see its success and economic growth. [00:33:15] Right. Um, you know, from a cybersecurity perspective as well, it’s the desire to kind of make the world a safer place for everybody.

Um, particularly on the digital front. But yeah, I think it is big region and uh, it’s good to have these big ideas, but you’ll [00:33:30] be surprised when you start how much there is to do. So, yes, go easy on yourself. 

Robert Heldt: Yeah. Fantastic advice. Thank you, Vivian. Vivian. So thank you for such an engaging discussion. I’m sure our listeners will walk away with plenty of ideas that they can put into practice [00:33:45] right away.

It’s been such a pleasure having you on the show. 

Vivien Dao: Thank you so much, Robert. Thanks for having me. 

Robert Heldt: That was Vivian Dao sharing some fantastic insights on what it really takes to manage growth marketing across APAC one region, but truly many [00:34:00] markets. If you enjoyed today’s conversations, I’d love for you to follow or subscribe to Asia.

Aim so you don’t miss future episodes, and if you found this discussion valuable. Please share it with a colleague or a friend, or a mentee [00:34:15] who’s working across apac. I’m sure they’ll get as much out of it as you did. Thanks so much for listening or watching. I’m Robert Held. I’ll be back soon with more conversations on how to win in Asia’s dynamic and diverse markets.[00:34:30] 

Voiceover: Thanks for tuning in to the Asia AIM Podcast. If today’s conversation sparked new ideas or insights. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share the show. For more resources, tips on doing business in Asia or to book a meeting with [00:34:45] our team, visit asia AIM podcast.com. Stay curious, stay connected, and we’ll see you in the next episode of Asia.

Aim.