Lifetime following marketing with Geoff Tan
When Geoff Tan at last closed his chapter at Singapore Push Holdings (SPH) very last year, he ended 34 decades of reminiscences with the broadcasting enterprise. During his time there, he helmed a selection of portfolios, from head of content promoting and MD, luxury and customized publishing to VP of advertisement product sales and ad director. Tan explained to Marketing and advertising-INTERACTIVE beforehand that he had an absolute blast and appreciated just about every moment of his time at SPH. A few months later, Tan joined B2B house management platform Actually Singapore as its main suggestions officer, having with him a long time worth of working experience in internet marketing, promotion and advert profits.

When Tan could possibly have expended a major sum of his career in media, it was not the initial marketplace he begun out in. In reality, he was to start with an ad male, moving into the earth of promoting as an account govt with Meridian Advertising and marketing. In the newest podcast episode of Life Following Promotion, Tan said his entry into the adland was an accidental a single. Obtain out what the happy accident was and his feelings on his time at SPH.

Pay attention to the entire episode in this article.

Promoting-INTERACTIVE: Why did you pick out to be part of Actually Singapore?

Tan: I remaining SPH immediately after a 34-yr tenure throughout several portfolios. July past year was a time of reflection as to be what I could be carrying out article-SPH. In that interval of a handful of months, I was approached by 3 organizations to take into consideration using up a marriage with them. But I felt that two out of the three have been seeking to consider from me in terms of both the activities that I have gone by way of or the partners that I am familiar with when it arrived to business enterprise enhancement and opening up new enterprise associations for them.

There was only a person organization – Really Singapore – that made available me a proposition the place I could basically give and also get, in a way. Give as in primarily based on my activities, and take and learn from Seriously Singapore the actuality that it was also in the area that I was not as acquainted with, these kinds of as AI and wise tech. I felt this was an space that I could profit from in terms of learnings after my profession in the media publishing enterprise.

Advertising and marketing-INTERACTIVE: Why did you decide on to enter the serious estate field as an alternative of, say, the experience-hailing or eCommerce marketplace for case in point?

Tan: I have normally been the champion of the adage: “Never just assume out of the box, burn the damned box”. For the really explanation remaining, if you believe out of the box and the box is continue to in perspective and you strike some roadblocks, this sort of as management selections and cumbersome infrastructures, you can look driving and assume that if this point is not heading via, after a several of this knockbacks, I can quietly climb back again into the box and just exist in SPH, and nonetheless get compensated for what you do without the need of ever reinventing nearly anything new at any time yet again.

So my system of sharing this with my team and enthusing myself with this adage is the simple fact that if I adopt the mentality of taking that chance and burning that box and leaving that powering me, without having the safety blanket to climb again into, then even if we hit the roadblock and points don’t go properly, you just have to look for new alternatives and not go back again to the previous algorithm.

When I was approached with this proposition, firstly I knew it was advertising property technological innovation and I understood this was the way it was structured, but I never ever considered that this could generally continue being as it is. Due to the fact startups are often augmenting on their own, and there is no stopping them in viewing chances in other regions or getting some insights down the highway somewhere and pivoting to these insights need to those people insights be in a position to great-tune the way the product is being propositioned.

I learnt that for the duration of my stint at SPH when I was mentoring the startup corporations in the SPH’s Plug and Enjoy accelerator programme, which we worked with the builders at Silicon Valley and the authorities in this article in Singapore. When I was mentoring, I experienced a whole lot of chances to be able to sit with the begin-up entrepreneurs on their own about at 1-North, becoming able to see how they iterate and transform their propositions possibly by exploration or other kinds of insights they obtained from the floor.

I have taken that in my learnings as very well into this new firm, and I also know that the propositions of this new company will never generally be the identical. We are on the lookout at iterations on a day-to-day basis in phrases of tweaking the formulation that we apply, to be ready to provider the need from the sector.

Internet marketing-INTERACTIVE: You stated you joined marketing by accident. What was the satisfied incident that landed you in the ad entire world?

Tan: When I graduated, my first want was to be part of a marketplace study organization. At that issue in time, I really desired to get into qualitative and quantitative investigate. I experienced utilized to a business termed Study Study Singapore, and when I bought in my initial interview with it, the 1st issue the company requested me was whether or not I could do qualitative interviews in Chinese. And due to the fact I experienced been away for the longest time, my Mandarin was not the best, I was not specified the chance mainly because that certain purpose that they experienced available was more a qualitative researcher. I was intended to have executed target groups in Mandarin, and simply because I missing out, the future best situation I could find was an account government place in Meridian Advertising and marketing, which was where I started my vocation.

Advertising-INTERACTIVE: Will you ever return to advertising and marketing?

Tan: I you should not assume I am at any time out of advertising. At Truly Singapore, we have digital screens positioned at condominium tasks throughout Singapore. We’ve generally tied up a partnership amongst Xaxis and GroupM to champion the price of these screens. COVID-19 has accelerated the targeted traffic throughout viewability of these screens for the reason that folks are doing the job a lot more from their houses fairly than from the offices, that the condos with all those electronic screens are able to also consider in the advertising and marketing propositions that are together with the monitor.


Promoting has constantly been in my blood and I do not imagine it will ever depart.


At present, even in this proposition wherever it can be more program-based, I am even now searching into how connectivity with customers of selection can be improved. and very before long, when we introduce our application that allows apartment people guide their services and converse between themselves, that individual cellular display will turn into another opportunity of media and at some level in time promotion. At the conclude of the working day, I feel, an advert gentleman is always an advert gentleman at heart.

Relevant posts:
SPH veteran Geoff Tan usually takes chief tips officer position in property sector
Geoff Tan exits SPH soon after 34 a long time
Advertising podcast: Existence right after promotion with Lynette Ang
Advertising podcast: Daily life following advertising and marketing with 1880 founder Marc Nicholson
Advertising and marketing podcast: Lifetime immediately after promoting with Adrie Basuki
Advertising and marketing podcast: Existence soon after advertising and marketing with Anne Ridwan
Marketing podcast: Lifestyle right after promoting with Carolyn Kan
Advertising podcast: Lifetime soon after marketing with Jeffrey Seah
Marketing podcast: Existence immediately after promotion with Matthew Godfrey
Promoting podcast: Lifestyle right after promotion with Linda Locke

