Field Notes with Anson Sim, Head of Marketing for APAC at Napier AI

We continue our knowledge-sharing mission through a series of interviews with field marketers from all over the world. We’re thrilled to have Anson Sim with us today. Anson, good to have you here. Could you please give us a quick introduction of yourself, your role, and your company?

Sure. Thanks, Neil, and thanks for having me for today’s session. My name is Anson Sim. I’m the Head of Marketing for Napier AI, a software company that deals with anti-money laundering capabilities. We predominantly work with clients in the banking, payments, wealth and asset management, insurance, and gaming sectors. Clients use our software to monitor and screen transactions and to get to know their customers. Napier is here to make the world a safer place through intelligent compliance. We are a new breed of anti-money laundering and trade compliance software. Our products increase efficiency and minimise risk for our clients by combining big data technologies with AI and machine learning, culminating in the world’s first truly intelligent compliance platform.

A little bit about myself: I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to work in various organisations across B2C, B2B, and government-to-business sectors in both in-house and agency capacities. I first started my career in a global agency, doing business development for the agency and looking after brand portfolios, and I subsequently moved over to the client side of things, doing brand management for Singapore Airlines. From there on, I moved on to work for the UK Government, doing marketing for their Department for International Trade. Afterwards, I then went into the financial services side, doing marketing for the anti-fraud side of things.

Now I’m at Napier, doing anti-money laundering marketing for them. Throughout my entire career, I have led a multitude of both digital and offline campaigns across various channels in the Asia Pacific and European regions. The key skills and knowledge that I’ve utilised cover the areas of marketing strategy, brand project management, stakeholder management, agency management, and partner management. My role at Napier AI is to lead customer marketing globally, and I’m also the regional head for marketing communications and go-to-market activities for the Asia Pacific region.

 

Diving deeper into your role as the Head of Marketing, what would you say is your main current focus?

Field marketing, as a discipline, may sound like just go-to-market strategies, but it actually covers a whole gamut of the marketing function. My main responsibilities are threefold: The first is to expand brand awareness for the organisation and establish us as a thought leader in the fight against financial crime. Secondly, it is to generate quality leads for the sales team through account-based marketing and partnerships that convert into sales opportunities for the go-to-market team. And lastly, it is to engage our existing pool of customers and build strong relationships through our in-house customer marketing program that I’m currently working on and implementing globally.

 

To dig a bit into the campaign side of things, is there anything you can share about a particularly successful marketing campaign that you and the company have executed recently?

One of the global campaigns that we recently ran was in October and November, a period where we launched our inaugural Napier AI AML Index report. It’s the world’s first report that uses data science to look at the impact of money laundering across the world, segmented into three different regions: North and Latin America, the APAC region, and also the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, including the UK and Northern Ireland.  The report also looks at the amount of cost savings that each of these economies could realise if they used AI in their money laundering solution. 

We executed the global launch with regional activations. Each of the regional leads then devised activation activities. For example, here in APAC, we held report launch events in Sydney, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. What we did was host a roundtable setting, inviting key stakeholders to the table to do a deep dive into the report, looking specifically at how each country could potentially use AI and how they could save money by simply layering those extra AI capabilities onto their existing solutions. These led to a few sales opportunities directly from the conversations, and we were actually very happy with the lead-to-opportunity ratio that came out of this particular campaign.

 

That was clearly a successful campaign. Let’s move on to the challenges. What’s your biggest marketing challenge at the moment?

I think there are three big challenges that marketers face in field marketing. Firstly, balancing creativity with performance marketing on a limited budget. It’s about that decision of how much to allocate towards short-term tactical activities to really just generate leads for the team versus long-term brand-building activities that may not show immediate impact on your pipeline but are essential to ensuring that you remain top-of-mind in your target markets.

Secondly, data privacy challenges are global and regional. We know that each country, especially in Europe, has very strong data regulations and data usage rules, versus Asia Pacific, where it might just be a one-click opt-in, but in Europe, it might be a two-click opt-in. Data privacy regulations are probably one of the other key challenges for marketers who work in companies that have a global presence.

Then, my personal biggest marketing challenge at the moment would be choosing the right conference to be in. We are constantly inundated with conferences. Almost every month, there’s an industry conference that appeals to your market within the sector that you operate in, and they want you to sponsor it. But we know that the reality is that we always have a very limited budget. The challenge is choosing the right events to sponsor and be present in, as well as building your brand awareness around those key events that you ultimately choose to sponsor. The other bit is probably what everyone else is also experiencing: balancing the resources between supporting new business and existing customer engagement.

 

I completely agree, both for companies and individuals, that there are numerous things competing for our attention. Time is incredibly valuable, so deciding where to invest your time and then fully committing to it is crucial. I believe that’s another important point – if you’re going to an event, you need to plan it thoroughly to maximise its benefits. The days of simply attending every event because the budget allows, without proper preparation, are over. But how do you ensure you’re selecting the right events? Are there any key indicators that stand out?

I would say it is possible for you to be present at every event if a company has an unlimited budget, which the big players do. But if you really have limited resources to invest in events, I would suggest focusing on one event that you can execute well and thoroughly per quarter. We know that the preparation time typically takes six to eight weeks to ensure that you achieve your marketing objectives when you eventually attend the event. 

Also, it’s not just turning up and then, after a two-day event, wrapping up. The real work begins after that event, where you follow up on the leads generated, qualify them further into SQLs, and eventually sales opportunities, right? It’s those follow-up pieces of work and effort that really take up the bulk of the time. To answer your question on how exactly you choose the right event to invest your time in, firstly, look at who will be attending those events. Will the key target accounts that you are reaching out to, as well as these people or these companies, be at the event? I would say that the shift towards account-based marketing is probably the approach that most field marketers are gravitating or pivoting toward. So, first, it is important to look at the key target accounts. 

Secondly, you have to then look at how much it would cost you to sponsor an event versus reaching out to these key target accounts directly. If you’re going to spend $60,000 on a booth, but only 10% of your key target accounts are going to be there, you then have to make a business case and justify whether it makes sense for you to spend $60,000 to pursue these key accounts. It’s all about that cost-benefit analysis and building a business case for the leaders to eventually say, ‘Yes, I think we will sponsor this event.’

 

With budgets being not as plentiful as they used to be, the account-based marketing model is becoming key for everyone, and being very strategic in how you approach these things is vital. Now, how does your company stay ahead of its competitors in terms of marketing?

Our marketing team engages in segmentation, targeting, and positioning to ensure that we fully understand our target audience and our ideal customer profile across each industry vertical that we serve. This ensures that we can deliver the right message and value for every single engagement they have with us. Every time we reach out to these target profiles and try to engage with them, we first consider the content we’re going to send. Will this be relevant to them? Will this be valuable to them? And will this be beneficial for them to engage with and read? Because time is precious, especially when you’re reaching out to C-suite executives, they likely only have a few minutes when they open your email and scroll through it. How do you then capture their attention within those first two minutes and ensure that they either want to further engage with you or will forward your email to someone else who may be relevant or interested in engaging with your content or your company for further conversations?

 

The right content is very important. You can easily turn people off for good if you use bad content that isn’t relevant, especially as you go up the seniority ladder.

I do have to add that the STP, the segmentation, targeting, and positioning practice, should not be done in isolation within the team itself. You have to collaborate across the organisation with the sales team. If you have a strategy team, involve them as well to ensure that everyone agrees on the ideal customer profile for each of these segments you’re targeting. This is because what you think might be the target audience may not reflect the actual reality that the sales team has been engaging with or is experiencing at the moment. 

 

Yes. I have a lot of experience with that in events where one is sure that one company profile is the right fit, and then another will come in a bit later and say, ‘No, this isn’t the right one.’ So, what do you believe is the biggest opportunity for field marketers today that might not have been available in the past?

I would say data. In the past, you didn’t have data, or rather, the amount of data available for analysis was minimal. You had to rely on guesswork to some extent, hypothesising based on limited data and then testing and learning. But with the vast amount of data we’re collecting now, you can actually slice and dice and use that data for personalisation and targeted efforts in your campaigns and for your company. If you do that right, by extension of using the data correctly, you can then demonstrate marketing’s influence on sales, revenue, and pipeline.

 

In your opinion, what does the future of marketing look like? 

This is a very interesting question. I would say that in the past, or well, probably a few companies still think this way, there’s a perception that marketing is a cost center. So, when economies aren’t doing well and budgets are slashed, marketing is often the first or one of the first departments to be cut. But that thinking is now changing, with many organisations recognising the strategic value and potential of the marketing function to drive revenue, especially when it’s closely aligned with business goals and the activities you carry out are effectively measured to demonstrate impact.

Personally, I think there are three big themes that will be important in shaping the future landscape of marketing. Firstly, the current state of marketing is very technology-driven, and it will continue to hinge on using technology to complement our existing work, streamline internal processes, and deliver more value for the organisation. Secondly, as I mentioned before, data privacy is also a big one. It influences how we communicate with our target audiences, and as regulations around this become stricter, we as marketers will need to engage more effectively with our target audience and provide relevant content to them. Lastly, content is a significant piece that is up-and-coming and emerging in the field of marketing. Content will definitely play a big part as we move away from generic marketing tactics and prioritise account-based marketing. Serving the right piece of content to the right audience at the right point in the customer journey is where we are headed.

 

Now, a hard question for you: What is the role of the field marketer in one word? And why?

Oh, to be very honest, I can’t think of a word that could really effectively encapsulate and capture what the field marketing function is. But if I really had to come up with one word, glue? It’s probably not the right word, but the marketing function, the field marketing function especially, collaborates across the entire organisation. You work with sales, you work with customer success, you work with strategy, and you work with finance to get the budget, so it’s all about the management of objectives across the organisation, aligning these objectives to your marketing strategy, and also managing expectations across different parts of the organisation. I don’t think of a word, to be honest. Do you think there is a word? So let me ask that question back to you: do you think there is a word?

 

I was speaking to someone yesterday, and he used the word conductor because, as you said, there is that influence over multiple teams, and it is all being fed, a lot of the time, into marketing. You have to package it up a bit and then deliver that message to the audience to make it sound nice. You’re controlling the tempo and the sections that are playing and how loud they are. I thought that was quite a good word to describe.

Well, ‘conductor’ actually reminds me of train operators. It’s like you’re moving from one station to another, and you are kind of getting people places along the way. You need to make sure that people are with you, yes? So I think, yes, operators would probably be the word. But if I think of another, better one, I’ll get back to you.

 

I told you it was a hard question. 

It is a hard one. 

 

Nothing is easy to put into one word.

Oh, maybe gardener. Yes, because you have to always nurture relationships, be it internally or externally. And as a gardener, you have to look after every single plant, if you may, within your garden, to make sure that they bloom and blossom.

 

I like that. Also, when you’re growing stuff, you don’t ever get instant gratification. You have to prepare the soil, and you have to sow the seeds.

Then, different plants thrive in different conditions. So you must know which type of soil to use. What are the different fertilisers involved? How well do you look after them? When do you water? Yes.

 

And, in the end, you have to hope that they grow. Yes, often they do, but then sometimes they don’t, and you don’t necessarily know why, but then you can break down the different sectors and probably understand why. I like that.

There we have it.

 

I might be stealing that and referencing you. Now, onto the advice. What’s a piece of traditional leadership advice that you don’t believe applies to modern field marketers?

I would have to say the notion that a leader should always have all the answers. Why? In today’s day and age, it’s okay for a leader to say, “I don’t know. Let’s find out together,” because that’s what modern leadership is all about. It’s about empowering the team to challenge each other’s thinking in a constructive manner, in a safe space, adapting to challenges and changes, and being able to pivot according to the business environment. Today and tomorrow, the business environment may be very different, so you must have the flexibility to pivot accordingly. And lastly, to foster a culture of collaboration and learning within the team, and also, if you’re able to, across the organisation as well.

 

I love that. I watch a lot of interviews, and it’s quite often, like with sports team managers, and how people managed in the 80s and 90s, and they’re like, ‘Oh, we would never have done it like this. It was just one-way direction.’ You shout at people, you tell them what to do, and then it gets done. But now, it’s all about understanding and hearing the voices of the team. Yes, that’s the best way forward. I think that that’s great.

Especially as a leader, people value honesty. If you don’t know something, and if you try to bluff it, people can tell. It’s always best to be honest and say, ‘I don’t know, but I’m willing to find it out together with you.’ That’s the kind of servant leadership that we’re also talking about.

 

And, finally, what’s a bit of career advice that you’d like to share with other marketing leaders?

I’ve been reflecting on this as well. I would say, firstly, understand your marketing basics because whatever you do, regardless of your level in your marketing career, you always go back to your fundamentals: aligning your objectives with your tactics and how you segment, target, and position.

Embrace learning. Things in the marketing industry move at a very fast pace. There are always new things emerging every month, if not every day. Also, AI has been a major buzzword for the last two years. I would advise using AI to supplement your existing work and not to replace it. For example, if you’re writing a piece of content, do not use AI to write the entire piece. Use AI to help you generate ideas and then craft that piece of content yourself because people can tell when a piece of content has been written by AI versus someone who actually took the time and effort to write it.

 

Certainly, I was chatting to someone yesterday, and it was about that: there is a lot of content out there that is not written by the people presenting it, and how, in the future, I feel that it’s going to be very much about wanting to meet people in person or online, because that’s the only way you’re going to actually understand if that person has valuable ideas. There will be a lot of people hiding behind ideas that are AI-driven. It’ll be a difficult place to navigate unless you have those personal relationships. It’s almost a full circle back to that real personal relationship with people.

Correct, and over-reliance on AI can actually be detrimental to the marketing function as well because I know that there’s a shift away from prioritising AI-generated content and actually de-prioritizing content pieces that seem to be written entirely or solely by AI. That impacts your SEO and SEM practices negatively, rather than helping, if you were to solely rely on AI to churn out pieces of content daily.