Building bridges with TIA marketers Benita and Yessi

Tech in Asia’s mission since day one has been to build and serve Asia’s tech and startup community. This comes in the form of hosting engaging events and creating quality content, but all the hard work would be for naught if no one knew about these efforts.

Enter Benita Vania and Yessi Nurita Labas.

(L to R) Benita and Yessi. Apparently knowing how to do a cool pose is part of being a marketing professional. / Photo credit: Benita Vania and Yessi Nurita Labas

“It’s not only about the content but also where we’re meeting our readers with it,” Tech in Asia marketing director Benita says. “We’re building bridges for consumers to access this information, whether that’s in channels like social media or about presenting complex news in more digestible formats.”

Connecting pathways

Based in Indonesia, Benita and Yessi work on both international and local projects, a fact that shows how the company has been increasingly collaborating across its two offices.

Their work helps promote the efforts of Tech in Asia’s in-house agency, Studios – from large flagship events and intimate dinners, to year-long content marketing campaigns and one-off partnership articles.

In truth, Benita and Yessi connect Tech in Asia’s various teams as much as they connect the company with the public.

“I find joy in crafting narratives and getting to know our audience so that we can create and offer them content that makes a difference,” digital marketer Yessi says.

As much as they enjoy their current roles, it took a while for them to find it.

Benita’s first job out of university was at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she worked as a research associate. It wasn’t long before she found that the environment and job didn’t suit her. Armed with an interest in events and a desire to do something more creative, she found a Tech in Asia job posting for a B2C strategist.

“At the time, Tech in Asia was looking to boost its revenue from event ticket sales,” she says. “Over time – and especially when the pandemic hit – my role has grown to also include marketing partnership content.”

Benita also occasionally gets on the stage to moderate panel discussions. / Photo credit: Benita Vania

This gave Benita another avenue to connect with readers, an aspect that Yessi also appreciated in her first job as a strategic marketing planner at national newspaper Harian Kompas.

“I’m actually very introverted, and when I began my career I didn’t want to do anything that required meeting people,” she recalls with a laugh. However, at Harian Kompas, Yessi saw how the team created a storytelling plan, building a narrative long before a key investigative story was published.

“That really grew my love for storytelling and gave me an appreciation for leaving an impact on readers with good content.”

Vibes and processes

Marketing for media and events is built on a foundation of established procedures, say Benita and Yessi. Think terms like “objective setting,” “A/B testing,” and “iteration.”

And yet, in describing the idea generation process, Yessi quotes filmmaker David Lynch:

For me a lot of times, a final script is made up of many fragments of ideas that came at different times. Part seven of the puzzle came first, but part one didn’t come for a long time. You see what I mean? Then you get all the puzzle parts together enough to say the puzzle is complete. In the process of realizing that, new ideas can come, one way or another. Through a happy accident, they just come to you.

For Yessi, she gets ideas “from just about anything I read, watch, or otherwise experience, even if I don’t know that it’ll help me with my work at the time.”

Ultimately, the key to effective marketing lies in creating content that can strike a chord with readers. Yessi points to her social media content for demand generation. Meanwhile, Benita brings up the “holidayzation” series of newsletter ads as examples of creative ideas that speak to the audience not just as a target market or potential clients but also as human beings.

An example of a “holidayzation” ad. / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

“You can’t just throw an event invite directly to them, you need to get to know them and make sure it’s a relationship that continues throughout the months and years,” Yessi says.

It’s a mindset that has grown stronger over the years at Tech in Asia. For example, Studios’ various teams reach out to users to find out their needs and adapt their solutions to meet those requests.

Benita adds that the Indonesia team now puts more time and resources into nurturing the tech and business community in the archipelago – such as through more community events – to create deeper connections.

Personal growth

In getting to know users, Benita and Yessi have also learned about themselves.

“Things move very quickly here, but working in this environment has also taught me how to take things slower, weird as that might sound,” Yessi says. “It’s helped me to recognize when I need to take a break and when I need to push. I’m much better at managing my time and energy now.”

There’s always time for a selfie though. / Photo credit: Yessi Nurita Labas

As for Benita, the entrepreneurial environment has affected her in a more specific way: It encouraged her to found a music box company called Reminisce.

Between creating music boxes and conducting workshops to teach people how to do the same, she has also appeared on Indonesian news television to talk about her experiences.

“At Tech in Asia, we’re always encouraged to pursue new ideas, and this extends to outside of our core work responsibilities,” Benita explains. “Everyone, including top leadership, is very supportive of us pursuing our own passion projects and side hustles, and it’s that energy I tapped into to build Reminisce.”

The next milestone

Truly understanding our audience and users is a never-ending process, so the coming months will be business as usual for Benita and Yessi. That said, there are fresh initiatives afoot, especially after the company partnered with The Business Times.

“Besides building deeper relationships with our traditional tech and startup audiences, we’re finding ways to reach out to the general business community, both in Indonesia and internationally,” Benita says.

For her part, Yessi describes her tenure at Tech in Asia in three ways: “Exciting, life-changing, and always something new.”

“I’m looking forward to more exciting projects and more surprises.”

We value your feedback!

Dear readers, we want to build bridges with you too. Your thoughts and opinions on these case studies and profiles are essential in helping us improve our content and meet your expectations.

Please answer a few quick questions below about your experience with this article – it will take no more than two minutes to complete. Thank you for helping us grow and serve you better!