‘Today’s market is beyond B2B, it's business to humans (B2H),' says AvePoint’s, Dux Raymond Sy

Media 7 | March 3, 2022

Dux Raymond Sy, Chief Brand Officer at AvePoint talks to Media 7 about purpose-driven marketing strategies and his approach towards branding for AvePoint. Read on to know more about creating interactive content and leveraging influencer brand marketing.


When an entire organization evangelizes its brand through social media, it is very powerful.

MEDIA 7: What makes AvePoint the most advanced SaaS and data management platform compared to others?
Dux Raymond Sy:
AvePoint has been pushing boundaries of enterprise digital collaboration with first-to-market technologies for over two decades. AvePoint is built by technologists for technologists, with a massive R&D team and many industry experts, like Microsoft MVPs, for example. We’re a five-time Global Microsoft Partner of the Year, that cut our teeth on the Microsoft stack, but we have since grown to migrate, manage and protect data in the Microsoft cloud, SharePoint, Salesforce, and Google.

Our track record in enterprise, SaaS, and data management space over the last two decades has proven to continuously help organizations migrate legacy content over to new systems, establish governance frameworks, right-sized to any organization, and build good security policies and practices to protect business data. Especially as businesses continue to rely on many SaaS platforms to run their operations, our expertise is vital. And today, we are a publicly traded company with access to capital to continue iterating on our mission to help businesses collaborate with confidence. That’s why we are so advanced.


M7: As content is still the king in marketing, what are your key strategies to raise interactive content for the consumer?
DRS:
It is imperative to meet consumers where they are, and stop thinking of the B2B customer – like an IT buyer, for example – as someone who is only reachable via traditional marketing channels or within the confines of the 9-5 workday. Today, it is more important than ever to market to the human or, as I like to say: it’s beyond B2B, it’s business to humans (B2H).

For example, AvePoint just launched a creative ad #SaaSInStyle, which is an abstract narrative on the link between technology and culture. As software has become a lifestyle for hybrid workers, we are portraying our technology in the same way that a designer would showcase their streetwear line. That is very different from how IT buyers have typically been marketed to, from AvePoint and from other software vendors, but it is reflective of the time today. Ultimately, we have created interactive, engaging content that evokes a desire among our audience—and it exists outside of the confides of typical IT marketing themes and channels to better connect with them.

Read More: “We’ll see advanced security with AI and ML to automate the process of threat detection and prevention” predicts Pax8’s Brad Fugitt.


In the consumer space, there are myriad examples of when influencer marketing has been wildly successful in driving the adoption of what we’d call viral products.



M7:  In this dynamic market era, what are your views on influencer brand marketing?
DRS:
In the consumer space, there are myriad examples of when influencer marketing has been wildly successful in driving adoption of what we’d call viral products. And keeping in line with my business to humans (B2H) philosophy, it can work equally as well in the technology procurement and services space.

Related to influencer brand marketing is another tool that I think is very effective and something I am passionate about: employee ambassadorship. For example, I am very active on LinkedIn and believe in the power of using social networks to connect with people – whether that is potential customers, investors, mentors, partners, etc. When an entire organization evangelizes their brand through social media, it is very powerful. Often it is best when it is organic. A great example of this was when AvePoint went public in July 2021. So many of our employees helped to build brand awareness and credibility for AvePoint simply by posting photos of themselves at Nasdaq in Times Square or at our various office celebrations.


M7:  What is your approach to branding for AvePoint, its products, and services?
DRS:
I believe that successful brands are aspirational, memorable, and consistent and this is a driving force behind all we do when it comes to brand marketing for AvePoint. Historically, we’ve scratched the surface at all three. We gave away a Ducati at Microsoft events for years; threw an exclusive Red Party for which attendees would vie for tickets; interviewed industry experts in a helicopter.  Today, our approach to branding is similar: we want to grab attention at a high level in order to increase our brand awareness and credibility. But now, we have a growing team dedicated to brand, one that collaborates with marketing but is uniquely its own. And, we have a more sophisticated way of measuring our efforts than ever before. Our new approach to branding began with the launch of the #SaaSInStyle ad campaign as just one of many more activities to come.

Read More: AvePoint’s Dr. Tianyi Jiang says “Making people feel like their authentic selves is vital to business success.”


It is imperative to meet consumers where they are, and stop thinking of the B2B customer as someone who is only reachable via traditional marketing channels or within the confines of the 9-5 workday.



M7:  Given your impressive career track record, what is your advice to marketers starting their careers today?
DRS:
Always assume positive intent. That means giving people the benefit of the doubt, identifying the situational details, and understanding the bigger picture or context. Ultimately, it is better to blame the problem at hand and not the people. That way, you can more collaboratively come to a resolution. I will add, this is my biggest piece of advice to anyone, in any industry or at any phase, not just marketers beginning their careers. In both your personal and professional life, this attitude leads to more positive interactions and better outcomes.

ABOUT AVEPOINT

AvePoint is the most advanced SaaS and data management solutions provider. More than 8 million cloud users rely on AvePoint to make their businesses more productive, compliant, and secure. Its SaaS solutions are also available to managed service providers via more than 100 cloud marketplaces, so they can better support and manage their small and mid-sized business customers. Founded in 2001, AvePoint is a five-time Global Microsoft Partner of the Year and headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. For more information, visit https://www.avepoint.com.

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