Welcome Ranvir Singhsachakul, Director of Marketing & Business Development, MessageSpring sharing his insights on Marketing, Emerging Technologies & Automation, as part of the MarTech Thoughts series.

How do you describe your job to a 5-year-old?

Everyone speaks different languages and likes to talk in different ways, right? I help my friends talk to their friends in a way that makes it easy to understand each other.

What is the one marketing platform/app/solution you can’t live without? Why?

LinkedIn – it’s the best place to build your personal and company brand and do marketing and lead generation for B2B oriented businesses.

At your organisation, what tasks in marketing are good to automate and what tasks still need a human touch?

We write some of our content, particularly for our website blogs, using AI, and the same goes for some of our LinkedIn posts. We also automate a lot of our workflows internally, as that saves time and promotes operational efficiency. However, before we share anything, we definitely put the human touch in place, as AI-generated content is still not yet 100% reliable or SEO compatible.

I’m currently looking at awareness because MessageSpring is currently in its growth stage – this is our year to scale. It’s important that our digital marketing efforts are targeted at awareness, which drives inbounds. From there, my team and I generate further interest and drive conversions.

How do you see the skillsets needed for the marketing profession changing?

In a post-COVID world, a lot of the new generation has developed amazing skills with digital marketing but forget to focus on the non-digital or personal aspects of marketing as well. I see us having to train the post-COVID generation on the basics of networking in person, learning how to drive awareness when conversing with people in real life, and the fundamentals of PR.

Please share with us one of the best campaigns you have seen recently or your all-time favourite campaign, and tell us why.

My all-time favourite campaign has to be the KLM Airlines Swan advertisement. In this ad, KLM has mastered the art of creating a campaign that reflects the elegance, grace, and beauty of flying their airline.

This example highlights the three most important things that any successful video ad should aim to achieve:

????Emotion – you go through a range of emotions watching this ad, starting with confusion before shifting to a sense of wonder and amazement by the end.

????Creative – using the swan as a metaphor for elegance, grace, and effortlessness reflects positively on the experience KLM will provide its customers.

????Visuals – the ad is beautifully shot, and alongside the background sound, it captivates the viewer’s attention from start to finish.

What will be the next evolution in marketing technology that we can expect in the coming years?

I see the use of customer data platforms (CDPs) playing a big part in the way that we do our marketing in the coming years. This means that our marketing endeavours will become more data-driven, quantitative, and possibly even intelligently model-driven.

With the advancement of AR & VR, how do you see these being utilised in Digital Storytelling?

AR and VR revolutionize storytelling by immersing audiences in narratives, transforming passive consumption into active engagement. AR overlays digital elements onto the real world, enhancing storytelling environments, while VR creates entirely new virtual worlds where audiences become active participants in the story. This enhances the customer experience by immersing them in the world and the story you’ve built, making them feel connected to your product or service and truly experiencing it.

Regarding specific examples of AR and VR in digital storytelling, consider the following:

VR: Historical recreations are among the most informative uses. For instance, when visiting sites around the world that were once thriving in ancient times, such as the Coliseum or Persepolis, VR headsets allow visitors to place themselves in the heart of the scene. They are transported to a time when these places were in their glory days, seeing how these sites truly looked. It’s a great learning and immersive experience for all viewers.

AR: Pokémon Go brings characters from the game into the real world, making it a highly realistic and interactive experience for all players. As you may remember, Pokémon Go was a craze that took over the entire planet for a long time, as it was revolutionary in the AR space.

What is the most effective use of technology you’ve seen in navigating today’s rapidly changing and diverse world?

With travel now at an all-time high, I like the way airports are using technology to reduce the time and tension for passengers traveling through. I think that technological advancements in aviation are exciting to see and will be a big focus for the world going forward.

For example:

• At Changi International Airport in Singapore, automation means that you’re through immigration and security within 5 minutes.
• At Hong Kong International Airport, you don’t need your passport to board the plane as the facial recognition technology is intelligent enough to recognize your identity.

How do you connect, engage and build a persistent relationship with your customers? Is the omnichannel experience consistent?

The omnichannel approach is reimagining the way we communicate with others, whether it’s businesses engaging with their audiences or towns and cities connecting with their residents.

We strive to provide customers with the “white-glove service” – this means regular interactions and making them feel like they’re our only customers. We go above and beyond in helping our customers drive user adoption and work with them to suggest feature and UI updates that make it easier for them and other prospective customers to use the platform and app.

MessageSpring enables businesses and organizations to communicate with residents on the platform of their choice, and recipients will receive the messages in the language of their choice, including in audio form. With platforms such as ours, communication between parties becomes seamless, and the results of seamless communication are quick to see – be it driving engagement, driving revenue, or simply engaging more clearly with others.

What’s the best advice someone has ever given you?

The first impression is always the lasting one, so put effort into presenting yourself in the best possible light both online and in person.

A big thank you to Ranvir Singhsachakul, Director of Marketing & Business Development, MessageSpring sharing his insights on Marketing, Emerging Technologies & Automation. If you want to connect with Ranvir, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn!

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Last updated: August 2024