Marketing technology capability build for a global marketing services company in APAC
As a global marketing services company moved to close the gap between traditional agency delivery and technology-driven marketing, Interval built a specialist talent pipeline across four APAC markets - placing 18 digital and MarTech professionals with a two-year retention rate of 91%.
The challenge
As a global marketing services company accelerated its push to build internal digital capability, the business faced a significant talent gap between its traditional agency structure and the specialised skills needed to compete in an increasingly technology-driven environment. The requirement spanned performance marketing, MarTech, content strategy and data and analytics across Singapore, Australia, Japan and Southeast Asia, at a moment when competition for this candidate profile across the region was at its most intense.
The difficulty was not simply one of availability. Digital and marketing technology talent with genuine agency or marketing services experience, as opposed to pure technology backgrounds, was particularly scarce. The business needed candidates who understood both the craft of marketing and the mechanics of the technology enabling it, a combination that narrowed the addressable talent pool significantly in every market.
The approach
Interval worked closely with both HR and operational leadership to define precise competency profiles for each market, recognising that the requirements differed meaningfully across the region. MarTech maturity in Singapore and Australia was considerably ahead of Southeast Asia, and Japan presented distinct cultural and linguistic considerations that required a fundamentally different sourcing approach.
Critically, Interval approached the brief not as a series of isolated hires but as a capability-building exercise. This meant mapping the talent landscape across agency networks, marketing technology platforms and brand-side in-house functions simultaneously, to identify candidates who could bring genuine digital and technology maturity into an organisation undergoing significant structural change.
Throughout the engagement, Interval provided regular market intelligence on candidate availability, competitor hiring activity and compensation benchmarking across each market, enabling the business to remain competitive in its offers and make decisions quickly.
The results
Interval placed 18 digital and marketing technology specialists across four markets. The average time-to-offer was 34 days and the two-year retention rate across all placements was 91%. The hires spanned performance marketing, MarTech, content strategy and data and analytics, collectively accelerating the client's capability-building agenda at a critical moment in its transformation.