Oddle names former P&G brand director to newly created CMO role

Cloud-based SaaS online ordering system Oddle has appointed Sylvia Ong (pictured) as CMO. Ong (pictured) joins Oddle from P&G where she held various roles for more than a decade since she joined in 2009, as seen on her Linkedin.

Ong told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that she is tasked with growing the overall Oddle business by deeply understand the needs and unmet needs of restaurant merchants and work with the team to deliver solutions to grow their businesses. She will also help to solidify Oddle's position to be merchants' F&B tech partner of choice, establish OddleEats as the top discovery platform for quality meals delivered island-wide to bring additional sales for merchants, as well as grow the Oddle business regionally.

Ong will work alongside co-founder Jonathan Lim. According to the company, this is a newly created role as the original team was double hatting with marketing. Oddle started primarily as a B2B business that relied more on word-of-mouth, and the pandemic moved Oddle gradually to consumer space. "Lines between Oddle and Oddle Eats were blurred and we figured we needed a strong leader with consumer experience to help better position our offerings to the merchants and consumers," the company said.

In a LinkedIn post, Ong said that she was "sold by Oddle's vision to save the F&B industry with a sustainable business model and always having 'restaurants first' mindset". She added that she was moved by the many stories from the team and merchants themselves on how the delivery platform saved many businesses and jobs. CNA reported that the team has seen an "avalanche of 300 to 400 new restaurants signing up with them, compared to the average of 40 to 50 per month they would get pre-pandemic".

Meanwhile, Lim said: "Ong brings with her deep expertise on consumer understanding and branding. We hope to scale Oddle business vertically and horizontally with her expertise. We are certain that we will be able to value-add much more to our merchants with her expertise to help them acquire, activate and retain their customers. We can't wait to see her magic to bring Oddle to the next level."

According to Ong's LinkedIn profile, she is a "brand builder and business leader with a proven track record with growing and scaling businesses by deeply understanding the landscape and the consumers' needs". She has led businesses across various categories and markets with more than 11 years of experience at P&G, where she was most recently brand director of Pampers Japan. As brand director, she acted as the brand and country CEO and led the development of brand initiatives and master plans, as well as holistic launch plans including digital launch models through targeted consumer journey since 2020. She was also the senior brand manager for various brands under P&G, namely SK-II Global Campaigns, Downy Asia Pacific and Ariel China, among others.

Oddle was founded in 2014 by Lim, Pua Yong Xiang and Alan Goh. It was previously known as food directory FeastBump, which sought to help to provide support in areas such as social media ads and electronic direct mailers, for restaurants that lacked knowledge in growing online sales and only focused marketing efforts on dine-in customers, said a blog post on its website. Oddle has about 90 employees, with six to 10 employees in the marketing team.

"The marketing team is growing rapidly as we aim to better service our merchants with better marketing expertise and roll out more initiatives with Oddle Eats," said Ong, adding that Oddle Eats has "huge room to grow". She also said that her vision is for Oddle's team to be the "best-in-class marketing consultant for the F&B industry", driven by data insights and deep consumer understanding.

For the F&B merchants with Oddle, Oddle currently provides complimentary marketing services and logistics management to them. On how the pandemic and Singapore's Phase 2 Heightened Alert dine-in restrictions have affected its marketing, Oddle said it is focusing on helping merchants pivot online to increase visibility and drive their online sales. Examples include helping merchants to optimise their menu and eShop, as well as running ads and EDM for them. To drive additional sales for its merchants, Oddle is also pushing more visibility of Oddle Eats as a venue where consumers can discover quality meals that deliver island-wide.

According to Oddle, the company's order management system is used by approximately 3,000 brands in more than 10 countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Its food delivery arm Oddle Eats was launched in June 2020 last year. Last September, The Straits Times reported that Oddle's founders were looking to exit the company.

Lim told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that Oddle and the founders are "still very focused and committed on Oddle's growth", adding that the company has been on a strong growth momentum the past year. Lim also said that it will be rolling out several new products such as "Oddle Reserve", a reservation system for dine-in, as well as the "Oddle Dine-In Ordering" ordering system. Valuing long-term partnerships with its merchants, the products will be provided free for Oddle's merchants, said Lim. "This will help them consolidate consumers' data and Oddle can help them engage and retain their customers better," he added.

Related articles:
FMCG sales predicted to recover this Ramadan, food delivery services set to rise
foodpanda names food delivery marketing lead, hunts for marketing director
Grab's net revenue jumped 70% in 2020, food delivery biz expected to breakeven
AirAsia bites into food delivery industry as part of super app dream