Interview: Creativity vital in digital world, says Kingston Hotel Group's Siddesh Gawde judging at Marketing Excellence Awards TH

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE is proud to present our first ever Marketing Excellence Awards in Thailand. Designed to recognise outstanding work in Thailand’s marketing industry, there are 35 enterable categories offered to reflect many diverse disciplines.

Siddesh Gawde, head of marketing for Kingston Hotels Group will be joining as judge for the event. Gawde has a keen interest on building marketing journey's with digital insights, and applying relevant practices for direct brand conversions within the hotel industry - an industry he has been a part of for over 10 years. His current role sees him looking over the marketing aspect for Kingston Hotels Group across both digital and traditional marketing.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Gawde shared that for Thailand, great marketing should not break the language barrier, but at the same time, it should also be relatable to the local audience. Marketers need to know what makes consumers tick and dig deeper into the targeted audience. They need to understand the influences that shape a consumers' life. 

Gawde says that in order to reach the right audience in the Thai market, brands need to have visibility on social channels. When it comes to the younger generation, majority of them are now on social channels such as Instagram, Facebook, and if brands haven’t made inroads in these platforms, they are definitely missing a big chunk of the market. Commenting on Kingston Hotels Group's own marketing tactics, he added that "with technology advancing, the company is making it a point to use minimal print marketing", digitising all promotional materials with QR code access and the likes.

"We are also investing more in digital media and technologies to reach different customers worldwide, making it easier for them to convert directly to the brand websites. Social media marketing is also key for us to reach both domestic and international markets," Gawde shared.

While the world has undoubtedly skewed towards, Gawde remains a firm believer that creativity is definitely important even in "digital transformation" as it drives better marketing campaigns. Especially on digital channels, content needs to be "eye-ball worthy first", in order to grab users' attention. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What are some trends in marketing you are keeping a watch out for in 2023? 

Personalisation and conversational marketing. With the fast pace life of everyone this day, digitally your brand has just a few seconds to grab one’s attention. Once you have the attention consumers want more information until they decide to purchase or convert. 

Consumers want to chat with someone from the brand for this information and to tell you the truth its not the bots that they want to talk to, as it gets annoying. They want a real person and this person can then upsell, discount and make the conversion easily. In terms of personalisation as well people want to be noticed or be felt that the offer is exclusive for them so marketing messages with personalisation can get more of an attention versus mass marketing.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE:  What will you be looking out for in your judging? 

 In my judging, I would look at creativity as well as engagement in a particular campaign.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE:  If you had to give an advice to our entrants for this year, what would it be? 

Be creative and explore the digital avenues of marketing. 

If you’d like to be part of the MARKETING EXCELLENCE AWARDS in Thailand and have your team’s outstanding work recognised. Check out more details on our event page. We look forward to showcasing your achievements on a regional level.