Lazada brings on board NTUC Income CMO Marcus Chew as group CMO

Lazada has appointed Marcus Chew as its group CMO. In his new role, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands he will be reporting to the group CEO. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands that Mary Zhou will take on a new role internally with Chew now helming the regional group CMO title.

Chew is a veteran in the marketing industry. He has been holding the CMO role at NTUC Income for over six years. In his role, he supported the growth of all business lines through data integration, manage and maximised the effectiveness of marketing investments, and developed cut-through communications in line with business direction, according to his LinkedIn. Prior to his role as CMO at NTUC Income, Chew was senior VP, head of strategic marketing and communications - a role he held for over a year.

Under Chew’s leadership last year, NTUC Income took home the gold award for Excellence in Personalisation Marketing at the Marketing Excellence Awards 2020. Chew told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE in an interview then that over the course of 2020, Income, like many other brands, had to reassess, adapt and pivot its marketing strategies to cater to immediate needs to consumers during the period of uncertainty that COVID-19 brought upon. The pandemic also gave the brand a chance to reflect on its brand strategy to assess how it can be more customer-centric with its offerings. Acknowledging that personalisation has become a big part of consumers' journey and experience, Income set out to identify specific needs and solutions that each of its consumers has.

Chew also shared that in his view, great marketing has to go beyond just awareness, recall and engagement. "Great marketing should ultimately enable customers to discover or understand something about themselves, and for them to then be able to act on it in the most efficient way possible," he said.

"Ideas and content are still king, but how they are being leveraged and distributed is what sets the great apart from the good. When utilised correctly, it can help ensure that messages are impactful and highly relatable when conveyed to the customer. That is why personalisation and customization are also playing a bigger role in marketing to consumers - It’s no longer one-size-fits-all,” he said.

Before his time with NTUC Income, Chew worked in adidas as brand marketing director in China for two years. There, he managed and directed the sports performance brand marketing working budget according to divisional priorities, and led the development of communication plans and detailed budgets, including PR, digital marketing and brand communications.  At adidas, he was also head of brand marketing and PR, Southeast Asia for markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam. Across his career, Chew has also worked with the likes of Unilever and Sime Darby. 

Lazada Group has also been ramping up its operations making a slew of new hires to its regional creative team, bringing on board Shawnn Lai as SVP, regional creative lead and Cheng Shu, Michael Tai, and Chan Hwee Chong each as VP, regional creative respectively. Daniel Foo also recently joined the team as VP, regional creative. The regional creative team sits under regional marketing and Lai will report to the group CMO role. In turn, Cheng, Tai, Chan, and Foo will report to Lai and are based in Singapore. In June, Lazada also appointed its former senior vice president of organisational culture, Claire Tan as its new senior vice president of group communications. Prior to her role in Lazada, Tan was the branding and communications consultant at SPRG Consulting. Before stepping into SPRG, Tan was principle branding consultant at Socium Consultancy.

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