#MarketingEventsAwards spills: Mojito Ventures toasts to its customer-oriented approach

Bagging gold for the "Best content creation for a Virtual Event" category and bronze for the "Best Virtual Event (B2C)" at this year's Marketing Events Awards is Mojito Ventures. Priding itself as a "new age total marketing solutions and customer-oriented service provider", Mojito Ventures was recognised for aiding the Singapore Tourism Board turn its annual Singapore Food Festival virtual this year. Other brands the agency has worked with include Casio, F&N, Nikon and Maybank.

In an exclusive interview, Wesley Han (pictured), executive director, Mojito Ventures said although its consumers' and clients' expectations have changed this year, the agency held its ground by staying true to its mission: to create hassle-free yet holistic solutions. To keep up with the increasing demands of the digital world, Mojito Ventures has increased its technological capabilities to harness the power of visual media, digital channels and content to further captivate and effectively engage its client’s target audiences.

More on the interview below.

This interview is done as part of MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s winners and finalists’ interview series for Marketing Events Awards 2020. To find out more about the awards, click here. 

What are some of the expectations your consumers now have for your brand?

Han: With the changing business climate, coupled with the ever-evolving consumption behaviour in large due to the restrictions in place, we have had to pivot to provide more engaging content and deploy different feasible strategies to enable our clients to reach their consumers more effectively.

In the same vein, brand clients have significantly changed their operational perspectives and focus, thus their expectations of our deliverables. In many ways, going digital first is not a new direction, however it has been pushed to become a critical one.        

Never losing ground as an integrated agency that strives to create hassle-free yet holistic solutions, clients continue to depend on Mojito Ventures for innovative activation for brand experiences while focusing on achieving brand objectives in a safe, viable manner. These immersive experiences have always been the basis of client’s expectations, and with these emerging times, we have proactively been working to present ideas and content online for ease of consumption.  

How has your marketing/your clients marketing plans shifted this year?

Han: The priority of our clients has been always been the activation of top quality brand experiences and content to their respective audiences. This curative process remains with one key change in providing these experiences in a safe yet interactive manner.

While we keep in mind the broader brand objectives and work even more closely with the client in maximising their reach, the need to include multiple channels for seamless engagement has become more prevalent then ever.

Many of our clients are now also taking the direct to consumer route, which has empowered us to built bigger brand awareness activities in multiple channels, leading to call to action, and ultimately consumption with brand loyalty elements tied in.

When cutting out these third party players in their distribution network, many brands have refocused on not just on experiences but also had to rethink their customer acquisition and retention strategies. Tapping into the value of their existing consumers, brand partners tend to seek out to engage them on longer term results and word of mouth recommendations. These sustainable growth techniques both in brand experiences, brand awareness, consumer retention are currently at the forefront of brand partner objectives and will continue to take priority in the next few years.

What are some of the trends you see carrying on post-pandemic, and how are you readying your workforce to be ready with these trends?

Han: We expect the core consumer behaviour to largely remain unchanged in the next year since travel, entertainment and events restrictions may take sometime to stabilise through trials and test events. As time passes, consumer confidence may increase in a positive manner and in preparing for these changes, we have increased our technological capabilities to harness the power of visual media, digital channels and content to further captivate and engage our client’s target audiences.

We also have plans to develop an integrated eco-system that continues to craft unique F&B concepts under one incubated space that will serve the community through a hybrid model.

In developing this model, the team has had to rethink the landscape both from the consumer perspective and from the partner’s perspective while keeping in mind efficiency that will lead to competitive advantages. We strive to build a platform which will showcase both rising and established brands, providing the opportunity to scale and to reach a larger audience all while maintaining cost effectiveness with a lean manpower evolution.

As a company, we see this pandemic not as a disruption but as an opportunity for growth. Besides taking the initial few months to re-evaluate our staff’s strength, roles and skill sets, management immediately identified any gaps that may hinder the growth and change in direction of a new business model and took that opportunity to retrain staff and signed them up for online courses.

The internal talent strategy to develop our staff’s critical, digital and cognitive capabilities alongside their ability to adapt to these changing work conditions and trends is a key focus in laying the foundation for any future disruptions, which cannot be taken for granted.  

The company also focused on building the team’s technical awareness, critical data analysis while taking into account the need to strengthen social and interpersonal communication skills to ensure effective collaboration within members of the team and between team and brand partners.      

What do you think makes for great marketing these days?

Han: It has always been Mojito Venture’s ethos to work closely with brand partners, suppliers and consumers to understand their needs in order to create an energised, innovative and sustainable partnership to bridge the gap between all parties in this value chain.

This key step is vital in creating a successful marketing campaign to ensure brand objectives are met along with the understanding of the developing channels of communication available to achieve the best high impact results.

In times of these ‘new normal’, while businesses are gearing up for upheaval and consumer changes, there is a need for more flexibility and focus in the areas of marketing pertaining to brand goals, how to position these goals, the need for marketing digitalisation and crisis communication. Consumer expectations change alongside the volatile climate at a heightened pace and instead of marketing strategies reacting to these, a proactive stance will prove to be a more successful strategy.

How are you planning for 2021?

Han: 2020 has been a very special transitional year for us, with the team coming together to forge through unexpected hurdles along the way. We are excited to be working on more innovative projects and looking forward to producing many exciting and creative events for our brand partners to come.

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