Upon meeting Jacqueline Cheong, it is easy to forget that the Asia-Pacific marketing chief of DHL Express is an 18-year veteran of her profession. A ready laugh and bubbly personality belie a reputation for being “no-nonsense, tough and direct” - says a manager at an agency she uses - in how she applies herself to her trade.
Cheong’s abilities, however, become apparent when she begins the conversation. The photography session prior to the interview had been a ploy to unnerve her, she suggests. Ten minutes later, the boxer-like manner in which she has dodged tough questions illuminates a woman who is clearly no pushover.
She’s quick to admit that the description is fair. But she insists that she is more than just a professional marketer: “I am also a harried mum who do crazy mum things. I chauffeur my kids to their weekend classes and beg them to study.”
Cheong counts “window-shopping” and travel as things she enjoys to do. She adds that she is a “multi-faceted human being” who enjoys something she calls “human dynamics.”
Her love for “human dynamics” was what prompted her to join the industry in the early 90s; the “craziness” of the advertising industry lured her in, she reminisces. Her experience and understanding of adfolk is one reason why, she says, DHL enjoys such solid relationships with its agencies, Ogilvy & Mather and MEC.
“As clichéd as it sounds, the relationship between the client and her agency is like a marriage,” she notes. “We weather the bad times and celebrate the good. We are like a big extended family.”
A family, perhaps, under some strain. Observers point out that DHL has been losing ground to competitors such as FedEx and UPS in the advertising stakes. The company distinctively branded in red and yellow has not produced especially memorable advertising since its ‘Nobody understands Asia Pacific like we do’ campaign in 2005. Instead, what audiences in the region have been getting are global campaigns with gentle local touches.
Cheong acknowledges that it is not rare for a multinational company such as DHL to localise global campaigns. But she insists these ads are not merely “watered down” versions of work produced by faraway agencies.
“There will always be a fine balance between regional, global and local campaigns,” she says. “But beyond advertising, we have moved into other initiatives such as sponsoring the Special Olympics. This was an idea born in Asia.”
She explains how DHL’s sponsorship of such events not only ensures visibility for the brand, but does no harm to the German courier’s corporate social responsibility credentials. Sponsorship, she adds, has a happy knack of activating the brand across all elements of the media mix.
“For example, there will be TV spots made, websites designed, and events that encourage our customers’ to get involved with our brand. Such events will bring people into our shops and create an emotional bond.”
Perhaps showing a touch of her German employer’s conservatism, she is cautious on the benefits of new media such as social networking. Yes, she has her own profile page on Facebook, but Cheong is circumspect on whether DHL would do be wise to move into such an unpredictable place.
“We have ventured onto the web, but are things like blogging and social networking really the next best thing for our brand? Our verdict is: we don’t know just yet. Will we be brave enough to dip our toe into the water to test its temperature? Only when we know more about it.”
The German courier company is not known to be the most adventurous of brands. The decision to sponsor Singapore’s first helium balloon ride last year was one of the wackier ideas to emerge from DHL’s marketing department. But Cheong is proud of her balloon. It is now a tourist attraction in its own right, which has won the company friends in local Government.
“There is so much traditional media out there, but do passers-by remember all those ads and billboards? As marketers, we need to constantly ask ourselves what we can do to make our brand stand out,” she stresses.
“The balloon targets consumers in a sophisticated manner. It stops being advertising and becomes, instead, the environment.”
