who's hector?
After realisation set in that he would not make it as a pro rugby player or rock musician (he wasn’t even close), Hector decided that his talents would be better served in marketing, creative writing and strategy.
Hector's inquisitive nature saw him wearing different hats across diverse industries
- Working in the casino as a Croupier.
- Founding a startup selling durians (yes, the world's smelliest fruit).
- Being a copywriter, media planner, analyst and buyer at advertising agencies.
- Handling digital marketing and UX projects.
- Selling wines.
- Freelance Singaporean copywriter, video producer, events management and emcee for over 8 years.
A huge people-person who's inspired by opportunities to produce great work with brilliant minds, Hector thrives in uncertainty and punishing deadlines, and growing, innovative organisations. Apart from working as a freelance Singaporean copywriter, Hector enjoys pushing boundaries and believes that teamwork and a well thought-out strategy are fundamentals that win the day.
In his free time, Hector will be off exploring the earth with his backpack, or making things up in the form of fiction, random scribbles, poetry, or just flexing his creative juices as a freelance Singaporean copywriter. Other than that, you can find him volunteering as a tuition teacher and kitchen helper for charities.
Huge fan of Neil Gaiman, little creatures, rock and house music, in that order.
Keep scrolling to see the work Hector has done....
Unilever Lifebuoy Help a Child Reach Five
Role: Market Engagment Executive at PHD
Unilever's Lifebuoy's CSR mission to help every child in India reach the age of 5 years old. In India, a child's chances of survival to adulthood in India is greatly increased once he or she passes the five-year-old mark.
The key challenge for media was to drive reach of the long-format film while ensuring view quality (high video-completion rates).
Through a combination of social media, ground activation and mainstream advertising, I helped planned and execute the communications and channel strategy for Unilever Lifebuoy Gondappa Help a Child Reach Five campaign on a global scale. Objective was to achieve as many views and subscribers on Lifebuoy's YouTube channel. We raised awareness and engaged millions of people around the world with the story of how healthy hand-washing habits impact the lives of children across the world. People loved the film, the cause and the message.
The Help a Child Reach Five campaign ensured participation by encouraging people to 'pledge to save a life'. This saw over 16 million pledges worldwide.
Achieved 19M YouTube views and 22K channel subscribers within a span of 9 months as a result of deep insights into social media and channel strategy.
Campaign became a leading case study for Marketing-CSR initiatives. Help a Child Reach 5 campaign was awarded the Silver Prize for Social Strategy by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) in 2013 and 2014. It was also recognised as the Best CSR Campaign at the Singapore Media Awards 2013.
YouTube video and channel (link)
Lifebuoy Gondappa website (link)
STJobs
Role: Content Editor for STJobs
STJobs is Singapore's top job recruitment portal in terms of website traffic and online presence. Managed the day-to-day content lineup of the portal, curating performance-driven content together with using Facebook Business Manager to engage online community and drive online conversions.
Contrary to what many people think, job recruitment portals serve a purpose beyond just linking companies with job hunters. At the end of the day, people see job hunting as a personal quest to pursue their dreams. i.e. STJobs is a platform that gives job hunters the means to find work they are passionate in.
My role is to ensure that social media, UX, and website marketing have to be aligned in order to create relationships and meaningful conversations with users.
STJobs portal (link)
STJobs Facebook page (link)
Singapore Press Holdings' Personalised Print
Role: Product Innovation and Pricing Manager at SPH
I conceptualised and proposed a new product targeted at a market segment that is often deprioritised by publishers – newspaper readers. This new product is called Personalised Print, whereby readers can customise flagship titles such as The Straits Times, Business Times, Lianhe Zaobao and The New Paper with photos and messages of their own, for any publication date in advance. These made-to-order copies serve as novelty gifts for people to commerate life milestones and special occasions, such as Valentine's Day, Christmas, Chinese New Year, wedding anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, congratulatory messages and many more.
This product is part of a series of innovative initiatives that bring it new revenue for the company apart from the usual corporate and business advertisements in the newspapers.
More information on this initiative:
Press releases
- SPH launches all-new Personalised Print product (link)
- Heartwarming moments with SPH's Personalised Print (link)
- Personalised newspaper wedding favours with The New Paper (link)
Websites
China Tourism Board
Role: Content Writer and Assistant Communications Manager at SPH
Produced a series of editorials to market China's Yunnan region as an alternative holiday destination apart from its usual metropolitan cities - in particular, the city of Pu'er. Objective is to increase tourist receipts to Pu'er and revive the region a a premier location for the ancient arts and tea culture. Campaign resulted in many travellers enquiring about Yunnan, leading to local airlines reintroducing direct flights to the region.
Stories
1) A love affair with Lijiang (link)
2) Jewels of Yunnan (link)
3) Old-world charm (link)
4) When in Pu'er, drink tea (link)
5) Yunnan delights (link)
Unilever (Personal Care)
Role: Market Engagement Executive at PHD
Managed the campaign operations and media execution of Unilever (Personal Care) brands - LUX, Clear, TRESemme, Ponds. Duties include digital ad trafficking and reporting on Unilever's media return-on-investment (ROI) in markets Russia, Brazil, Middle East, Singapore, Indonesia, Turkey, South Africa, Malaysia, India.
McDonald's Singapore
Role: Media Planner & Buyer at OMD
Handled the media planning of McDonald's Singapore campaigns. The goal was to help the brand improve and keep up with it's positive image in light of multiple publicity attacks during that period. I doubled up as campaign specialist that managed digital ad trafficking for digital ads, as well as copywriter for McDonald's adverts on an ad hoc basis.
Campaigns
So Shiok Burger (link)
Sunrise Get Up and Go (link)
Properity Burger (link)
McDonald's Angry Birds - Unleash the Super Red (link)
Extra Value Meal
The Spicy Challenge
Wholegrain Breakfast
sgCarmart.com
Role: Account Manager at Conversion Hub
I raised the website visitor traffic to sgCarmart.com by 160%, from 1M to 2.6M, within a span of nine months (Alexa 2012). I proposed and implemented the concept of UX into the architecture of sgCarmart.com. The portal is Singapore's no. 1 platform for selling and buying new and pre-owned cars. Other site improvements include an overhaul to SEO and SEM strategies, followed by having robusts UX tests and market research done before a relaunch into the market.
sgCarmart.com Website (link)
Hewlett-Packard
Role: Market Engagement Executive at PHD
Managed the media planning and buying of Hewlett-Packard's local and regional campaign in Asia. Key products being marketed were business laptops and Printers - HP Spectre, HP Elitebook, HP's Multifunction Printer, HP's LaserJet Printer. Also handled number crunching for regular media expenditure and optimisation reports for HP across APAC.
Pan Stanford Publishing
Role: Account Manager at Conversion Hub
Project executive that led the website revamp of Pan Stanford Publishing, an independent international publisher of science, technology and medicine. Managed the conceptualisation, wireframing, development, UX, as well as execution of entire digital platform.
National Environment Agency
Role: Account Manager at Conversion Hub
Objective was to revamp the National Environment Agency's website to make it user-friendly for the public. Key KPIs were to incorporate real-time weather, PSI and dengue updates in light of the regular haze outbreaks and mosquito infestation around Singapore. Other KPIs include restructuring the platform to make it intuitive for business owners and general public to access latest news and policy announcements.
Managed the entire overhaul of the NEA platform, overseeing market resaerch, focus groups, UX tests, as well as front and backend development.
NUS Business School
Role: Account Manager at Conversion Hub
The National University of Singapore's goal was to rebrand itself and improve its online platform. I participated in the website revamp in the capacity of leading focus group discussons, running UX tests, fine tuning wireframes and eventually implementing the optimised landing page layout that has been in used since 2011.
