Social Mixer 2024 Singapore
marketing interactive Content360 Singapore 2024 Content360 Singapore 2024
marketing interactive

Tech in check: Google Singapore country director Stephanie Davis

share on

As someone who comes from both news publishing and technology sector backgrounds, Stephanie Davis leverages on her blended experience when it comes to understanding the customer journey.Davis first joined Google as head of publisher partnerships, AdSense for print back in 2006, and has since taken up roles such as head of industry, financial services and managing industry director for travel in the US, looking after many of Google’s largest and most complex travel partnerships. She later on took on the role as country director for New Zealand.Today, she is country director for Singapore, responsible for business strategy and operations. She took over the role from Joanna Flint last year, who moved on to lead Google’s APAC Agency and Zoo teams. Prior to Google, Davis was managing director of research and marketing for Knight Ridder Inc, a publisher in the US. Collectively, she has worked in markets such as US, Ireland and New Zealand.Speaking to Marketing on her first year at Google in Singapore, Davis said her experience has been even more fascinating, fun and fast-moving than she had initially imagined.“I love the energy in our Singapore office, Google’s headquarters for Asia Pacific. Also, the business community has been so welcoming.  I learn something everyday, and that’s a big part of why I’m enjoying my role and Singapore so much,” she added.Marketing: What was your first digital role like?This is tougher to answer than one would imagine. I am not sure I’ve ever had a purely digital or non-digital role. Because the customer’s journey is one journey, even if a complex one, I’m thankful for my blended experience.My first digital responsibilities, though, came when I was working at Knight Ridder, the second largest news publisher in the US, and I worked across both our print and digital businesses. I was at our corporate office, but I loved visiting the properties, walking the floor of the printing press late at night, after having sat with the Internet group during the day. These seemingly different teams taught me the importance of bridging offline and online. They were getting the same important news out, just on different platforms.Marketing: What was your biggest tech blunder?My husband would tell you that it’s every time I pick up the remote control. My team would tell you it was last month when I spent 15 minutes trying to scan a WeChat barcode into WhatsApp. (Should I stop sharing while I’m ahead? Or too late?)Marketing: How did you overcome it and what did you learn from it?The above highlights that my blunders are frequent, but I surround myself with smart people who help ensure the impact is minimised (I work with amazing people!). I have also learned to acknowledge what I don’t know and to also do my very best to learn from what I get wrong.Marketing: What are some of the common challenges you face with digital today?Mobile has been around for a long time, but I think we’re all still figuring out how to make the most of it. What’s clear is that consumers now expect more, because they’re now used to getting things done quickly or being entertained whenever they like — that means it’s much harder for businesses to meet expectations.Also, a consumer moving between devices and screens, and then buying at a local store makes measurement harder. I’m confident AI will help solve for this and help businesses realise the potential of mobile for everyone.Marketing: Any digital trends which excite you or that you are wary of? All the work that’s going into AI is really exciting. It’s AI that is powering Google Assistant, which has people and technology engaging in more seamless, natural conversation. For example, instead of having to search for the weather forecast, Google Assistant can tell us if we should bring an umbrella with us, what’s good to eat nearby, recommending restaurants based on food we’ve enjoyed before.AI also makes it easier for businesses to build more immersive experiences for customers. With virtual and augmented reality, a company can remove boundaries between its customers and products. The mobile phone becomes a portal into an immersive experience.For example, we worked with the ArtScience Museum to transform its space into a virtual rainforest last year, allowing visitors to experience augmented reality using a phone. The experience also had real-life benefits: for every tree planted in the virtual forest, a real one was planted in Indonesia.AI will dramatically improve our lives and help people achieve more than we could do alone, but we need to be prepared with the skills to make the most of it. Last year, we announced $1 billion in Google.org grants over the next five years to non-profit organisations that teach those skills. In Singapore, we’ve trained hundreds of people on Cloud AI through our Cloud on Air webinars, and we’ve hosted workshops with developers and start-ups focused on TensorFlow, our open source platform for machine learning.So I’m really excited about AI and the positive impact it’s going to have, but I’m aware that a lot of training and education will be needed in the process.Marketing: Top tips for marketers and brands embracing digital?While the tools, technology and platforms may change, the customer being at the centre of what we do as marketers doesn’t change. That includes digital too, of course; our customers are online and how we deploy digital to reach and engage them should be rooted in a clear understanding of customer expectations. It’s also a key principle we believe in at Google: “Focus on the user and all else will follow”.There are so many exciting ways to delight consumers online; we’d love to partner with marketers in Singapore to get results and to also experiment and have some fun working things out!Marketing: Any takeaways about the Singapore market that you will carry with you?This is an incredibly important place for Google – it’s home to many top agencies, multinationals and an impressive array of small and medium sized businesses with entrepreneurial spirit.  I am so lucky to get to work with many of these companies and be a small part of their willingness to take creative risks and also leverage digital solutions successfully.For example, using YouTube Director Mix technology, we recently partnered with Income and BBH to create over 500 personalised ads to scale to Income’s target audience across the web. The campaign beat industry benchmarks by 50% in brand recall, and brand searches increased by 50%, too!In short, I will carry from Singapore what open and forward-thinking marketing leaders can achieve.

share on

Follow us on our Telegram channel for the latest updates in the marketing and advertising scene.
Follow

Free newsletter

Get the daily lowdown on Asia's top marketing stories.

We break down the big and messy topics of the day so you're updated on the most important developments in Asia's marketing development – for free.

subscribe now open in new window