Local SMEs valued for their casino resort knowledge

Chris Wieners

A small Macau company competing against a similar firm in Singapore or Hong Kong with more than 100 employees can face challenges of David vs. Goliath-like proportions. And in the case of the local marketing consultancy, Hogo Digital, the old tale rings true: the smaller company usually wins.
Founded in 2011 in Macau, Hogo Digital provides a wide range of marketing-related services. Initially focusing on the hospitality and gambling industries, it later grew into general tourism. It has three other offices located in Hong Kong, Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City.
About two months ago, Hogo Digital became the principal marketing agency for the Grand Ho Tram Strip, an integrated resort project in Vietnam. This is the first time a local enterprise has been sought by foreign casino operators to provide marketing services. Located two and a half hours from Ho Chi Minh City, the local government is trying to transform the district into an entertainment strip of integrated resorts similar to Macau’s Cotai Strip.
Chris Wieners, managing director of Hogo Digital, told the Times that they were facing competition against several larger companies, but the fact that they were a Macau-based firm helped them stand out amongst their competitors. “One of the reasons I believe that we won this project was our background and the fact that we have been working with large casinos here in Macau. I think that is very attractive to [the Vietnamese resort]”, he said.
“A key aspect of us being here has been our proximity to China and the fact that we are in what people outside of Macau consider the largest overseas tourist destination for mainland Chinese. So companies in Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries view Macau businesses as being in the best position to understand the Chinese consumer,” he explained.
Wieners discussed some of the difficulties that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) like Hogo are facing when operating in Macau. The major issue, he believes, is still the human resources shortage, which is hindering the growth of companies. “One of the biggest issues we have here is that if tomorrow I took on one or two more [Grand Ho Tram Strip] level projects and I needed to double or triple the size of my team, I wouldn’t believe I could do it in Macau. Our biggest issue in Macau is finding the most suitable talented people. Here, especially when talking about marketing, [SMEs] are competing with two other key players: one is the casino industry – which obviously pays very well – and the other is the local government, which is also looking for the best marketing talents with international experience,” he said.
Wieners stressed that Hogo Digital does not want to relocate its headquarters abroad because the present location is seen as an advantage. However, they are also worried about developing a Macau-based team because of the difficulties in finding local talent they can afford, especially in the fields of design and information technology.
“We really want to avoid expanding our teams in the other three places at the moment and would prefer to grow the base in Macau. But there will be a point where, as a business, we will realize that we have grown as much as we can in Macau and will have to focus more on other places. We do not want this to happen, but there is a finite amount of resources here in Macau and I think, to be very direct, we see ourselves hitting that peak where it is very hard for us to grow locally. But if I were to go to Vietnam or Hong Kong tomorrow, I believe I could grow the company further there. As an SME, these things concern us because we do not want to move our headquarters, but at the moment, it seems to be easier to do business in other locations”, he said.
However, the managing director still believes that SMEs like Hogo can still attract local talent by offering training programs and opportunities to participate in international projects.
Furthermore, Wieners said that the benefit of employing local personnel is not simply due to an easier process. It is also because of the potential he sees in the Macau locals. “If you had asked me [whether locals are only good to hire because of their ID card] seven years ago, it would have been tough to answer. Now, we have seven to eight years of international brands entering the market. So a lot of local staff members have been trained to the international standard and are definitely capable of bringing them on,” he said. “If you go to Hong Kong or Vietnam, you do not have this sort of decade-long [economic] explosion in terms of the hospitality industry. So, we have people that are young, passionate and want to move up and forward. To me, these are some of the key benefits [of hiring locals] and it is definitely not just the fact that they have a local ID,” he said.