“Why are people not moulding local brands?”
It is this very question that led to the beginnings of SJ Digital Media Solutions LLP. Since their incorporation in 2016, the creative agency has been revolutionising branding in Singapore. Established in 2016 by Ms. Joycefaith Ang, SJ Digital Media Solutions is a creative branding agency that helps businesses evaluate their marketing position against competitors and assess the effectiveness of their business strategy.
SJ Digital Media has distinguished themselves from their competitors by providing result-driven social media marketing services to help with every stage of social media. Their team provides clients with performance marketing and design expertise and data-backed results by compelling impactful advertising creatives to achieve the business objectives of their clients. Their services include Brand Audit, Brand Portfolio, Marketing Plans, Content Curation, Digital Advertisements, and Content Management.
On top of other award accreditations, they have established many world-recognised partnership programs which include Facebook Inc and Wix.com LTD accredited advertising agency and are a registered management consultancy by Enterprise Singapore. For their excellent business acumen and they will be receiving the Singapore Prestige Class Award – Top 30 Winners 2021/2022. For her Entrepreneurial spirit and outstanding business practices, Ms. Joycefaith will be receiving the Aspiring Woman Entrepreneurs Award – Top 30 Winners 2021/2022.
Reaching Out to Local Brands
Ms. Joycefaith developed a keen interest in art and design from a young age, many people had always described her as “creative and always looking at things from unique angles.” Unfortunately, while the opportunities did present themselves, the stigma that pursuing a career in the arts was something that she could not go against. Her journey striked off against all odds to pursue her interest in Design & Media, specializing in Film & Animation.
After graduation, she took up a post with PGT healthcare which was a collaboration between Proctor & Gamble and Teva pharmaceutical in the design field. During her time with, PGT Healthcare, it set her thinking “We are always building brands for international products, but when you look at the local brands in Singapore, there isn’t much development in the branding.”
In 2015, it became clear to her that she wanted to help our local SMEs build a strong branding and marketing initiatives that would enable them to gain international recognition.
“Rather than building international brands that have already been established, why are people not moulding brands locally.” There are a lot of local products and services that are good quality and competitively distributed. The problem is that these brands are very under-explored.
“I enjoy growing local businesses to venture overseas, I really do see a lot of products that are established in Singapore, it’s just that they don’t know how to rebrand themselves.” In that sense, Ms. Joycefaith wanted to be part of the brand and marketing arm to help SMEs to mould in that direction. That was the ideals and strong belief of the team.
Full Delivery Suite
SJ Digital Media’s vision is to help brands set a strong foothold in the local market and help local brands to venture regionally and into the international market. Their core mission is to provide result-driven social media marketing services that helps businesses establish their brand identity and awareness. They hope to be part of the digital transformation journey for local entrepreneurs and businesses so that local branding can be strengthened and eventually penetrate the international market.
What sets them aside from others in the market is the unique value proposition which is fundamental to market positioning. For them, they focus on the niche market by targeting local brands that have high growth potential but lack distinct and coherent marketing strategies to help differentiate them from their competitors.
Aside from advertising, they also explore brand development for their clients such as brand audit and brand assessment. SJ Digital Media positions themselves as a full suite company. Additionally, the team is comprised almost entirely of in-house staff who can cover almost all aspects of the project, giving them full internal control of the quality and delivery of the project. This also gives them full control of the project to follow the structure that they have laid out for our clients in the marketing roadmap, allowing them to create the content to run an advertisement to entice the client’s audience.
Being in a digital marketing industry, SJ Digital Media is constantly searching for new advertising platforms so that they can make comparisons in terms of customer engagement, return on investment and cost effectiveness. The advertising outlets that they currently utilise include, and are not limited to, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, telemarketing, email marketing, websites etc.
When running advertisements today, it isn’t just about collecting the services from the client and simply rolling out the project, advertisements don’t always work. On that note, their direct connection with Facebook allows them they conduct monthly reviews so that they can troubleshoot all the problems and come up with their next plan of action should problems arise.
Growth
Embracing the endless technologies that are now available, SJ Digital Media are partnering with corporations like Facebook Ltd and Wix.com Ltd to incorporate their technologies into their solutions. “Being able to keep up with technological trends and advancements is one of the keys to long-term sustainability. I embrace the endless possibilities that technology can offer, and we are constantly on a lookout for new social media marketing platforms as well as enhancements that can complement my clients’ businesses.”
Everything in SJ Digital Media is cloud based, from their technologies to project management. This has been a big help during the pandemic where work from home has become commonplace. Instead of constantly micromanaging their staff, they track the KPI of each staff to ensure optimal work efficiency.
Additionally, skillset is extremely important in this industry, thus making their hiring requirements extremely stringent and there is a need to constantly upgrade to keep up with the ever-changing technological advancements. In between when market shifts and there are more cutting-edge technologies that are being released, they either conduct internal trainings and cross trainings, or sign them up for courses relevant to upgrade their skills. This ensures that the skillsets that the staff have are always current and relevant.
What it means to be a Business Owner
As a business owner, the primary responsibility involves harvesting the potential of SJ Digital Media by developing a strategic advantage to combat increasing competition and to employ suitable policies that help eliminate risks and threats. Additionally, I also need to ensure financial solvency by monitoring the Company’s financial position, cash flows and formulate appropriate strategies in accordance with market and economic trends. Ms Joycefaith started the company in 2015 and officially registered with ACRA in 2016. The team has since grown from three to four people in the beginning, to 15 in-house-staff that are capable of taking on the marketing aspects that are needed for their projects. “My mid-term goal is to develop a more robust team with clear and defined goals laid out and to strengthen my team’s expertise and portfolio through continuous training and development programmes.” This will help to enhance the quality and operational efficiency, which will form an integral part of their venture into other markets.
The Oil and Gas, and Engineering industries are markets that digital marketing companies do not usually adopt. The reason for this is because these industries rely largely on trade shows, conventions and MICE to grow. If covid still persists as an endemic, it is going to be very challenging for the market, especially for the business development section. They can only rely on papers that are very specific to their industry for advertising which makes them very niche markets.
Ms. Joycefaith hopes that these industries can start to revamp. “I have started to see engineering firms in Singapore reaching out to digital marketing agencies like ours.”
SJ Digital Media is currently focused on developing the local market and acquiring foothold progressively in different industries. “We have clients who are expanding into other countries and in the near future, we hope to grow alongside our clients and build up our expertise and capabilities to compete in the global marketplace.”
