Text by Stanley Lui | Photos by John Tan
Pat Law is the founder of social influence marketing agency GOODSTUPH • 是好的! and a respected thoughtleader on the buzzing social media scene in Singapore. Nominated in Women's Weekly Singapore "Women of Our Time 2010" for Best in Media, featured in Her World Singapore as one of "50 Most Inspiring Women under 40" and highlighted in Peak Magazine as "2012 Person to Watch for", Pat is a personality not to be missed.
In March 2010, the former digital strategist at Ogilvy Public Relations started her own agency and never looked back. Under her leadership, GOODSTUPH won accolades in the industry, bagging Gold for "Best PR/Guerrilla Marketing Stunt" at Marketing Events Awards 2012 and grabbing Bronze at the Gong 2012 Singapore Creative Circle Awards, and along the way built an impressive client list that includes ChannelNewsAsia, HP, Nike, Sephora and UOB.
The eight-year veteran in the digital marketing industry not only publishes her insightful commentary on TODAY newspaper and her personal blog blankanvas but is also a member of Culturepush — a digital publication curating content on art, culture and design in Singapore —, the 55DSL Blog Collective — a hand-picked council of bloggers from around the world covering fashion, photography, art/graphics, music, and more — as well as the Organisation of Illustrators Council in Singapore.
SENATUS met with Pat at GOODSTUPH's new office location at Maxwell Road and finds out from the Boss Lady herself how her "badass social influence studio" agency "makes brands social and find brands love".
We're curious to learn more about GOODSTUPH. Can you tell us what a social influence agency is?
The easier way to describe what we do is "social media marketing". I'm adamant against using this term as it has been bastardised by one too many self-proclaimed social media experts but it's a concept that people in general can easily grasp and understand.
What we do differently, above and beyond this catchphrase, is we find our clients "love" by identifying the right influencers to advocate and/or play an ambassadorial role for the brands. In doing so, we build a trusted relationship between our brands and its customers and open up a channel for communication, exchange and conversation.
How did you come up with the name for your agency?
"Good Stuff!" is what comes out of someone's mouth when they see a marketing campaign done well and that's what inspired my derivation. It is what we aim for our clients to say when we execute on projects for them.
The name itself is a also reminder of how we want our quality of work to be. The challenge we give ourselves is to build up a strong brand presence through the excellence of our products and services so that people recognize GOODSTUPH as our agency's identity right away, without a thought on whether there's a misspelling.
You launched Another Good Thing in 2012. Tell us more about what that is.
Another Good Thing is an incubator, a social laboratory through which we develop creative solutions ranging from mobile to web applications, with idea contributions from partners. The simple but succinct brief for all green-lit projects is that it has to improve the current way things are done, to make life better.
Our first product roll-out was SocialKit, a social experiment created to help people understand their social influence online by creating a visual summary from the user's social graph on Facebook.
We will be looking to do more in 2013 via Another Good Thing, so stay tuned.
How did your previous experiences help you in starting your own agency?
I think the key is having the right attitude. How much you want to learn depends on how open your mind is and how you use each occasion to gain hands-on knowledge.
At the agencies I worked with and the clients I serviced, I never looked at a project as too big or small but rather, at how much I could learn from working on it.
Tell us about one such occasion.
One of the hardest projects for me was once having to learn about hair loss for men. Obviously, I didn't immediately relate to the health predicament nor the product, but I offered to work for the trichologist at my client's treatment center for a week to better understand the issue in-person.
In this social media age, the process of learning and acquiring skills the right way has been diluted with self-help YouTube videos and Googled results.
Instant Gratification and the "Insta-Learning" phenomenon has diminished the value of talent today and that is what I'm worried about with this new generation.
Share with us what you've found rewarding doing all that GOODSTUPH?
When client executives take on internal battles to fight for the work we do — That to me, is very satisfying because these executives didn't need to put themselves on the line for us.
Clearly, they must trust and believe in us.
What I'm proud of is that we remain independent and have operated for the last two and a half years on our own resources.
We have yet to take a single cent from the Government and I'm proud of our self-resilience.
GOODSTUPH was born locally and we continue to hire and groom locals in our growing team. That to me, is what matters the most.
I count myself lucky with all the wonderful mentors I've had and I'm a product of the values they've imparted to me.
As the Boss Lady, how do you run own company your own way?
I make it a point to work on some special projects that aren't commercially-driven. Take for example these stone lions that were designed in collaboration with Singaporean artist FLABSLAB in which we added our unique take on the traditional. Our version was modified with a dose of cheekiness, with extra elements like a football, beer bottle, mascara, cigarette, Chanel necklace and on their backs, swear words(!).
That's the GOODSTUPH philosophy. We do things differently. There was no client brief for this project, we just did it.
Going forward, what are your plans and vision for 2013?
I would like to take on more challenging projects. It's easier to market certain brands that are already "sexy" and we do enjoy being part of that process.
What I'd also like to do is find a client with a traditional marketing strategy, turn it on its head, and re-energize the consumer base's perspective, loyalty and passion for the product — now that would be a challenge!
By the end of the first quarter of 2013, we will also be opening a little vintage store within our office to sell items from a bygone period. In a sense, you're bringing home a piece of memory with each purchase.
At the end of the day, we're storytellers. To evolve from telling stories from our campaigns to telling stories with our products feels like a natural progression.
Find out more about Pat's badass social influence agency at //goodstuph.org
