‘We had some incredibly strong competition’: Sinorbis’ Nicolas Chu on entering the Mumbrella Awards
Founder and CEO of online marketing platform Sinorbis, Nicolas Chu, reflects on winning the best marketing technology company of the year at this year's Mumbrella Awards.
Winning best marketing technology company at the 2018 Mumbrella Awards was a vindication of his team’s hard work and an important benchmark, says Sinorbis CEO Nicolas Chu.
The winning Sinorbis team at the Mumbrella Awards
Chu told Mumbrella that the entering the awards was an opportunity to see how Sinorbis compared against the rest of the industry: “As a new provider in the marketing technology sector we were keen to understand how our software would stack up against the competition and get some feedback from leading industry experts.
“The Mumbrella Awards are one of the most widely recognised in the marketing and media industry and are renown for being difficult to win.”
Established by Chu and co-founder Allen Qu in 2015, Sinorbis is an all-in-one marketing platform designed for Western organisations selling into the Chinese markets. The company’s name is a combination of the latin words for China – Sina, and Orbis – the world.
Qu and Chu founded the business to assist western companies overcoming the cultural and technology barriers faced when attempting to crack the Chinese e-commerce market – a market with an ecosystem very different to the rest of the world.
Chu was previously global president of HotelClub and Ebookers, and before that was Expedia’s Australia and New Zealand boss. The idea of Sinorbis came to him when dealing with e-long, the joint venture that Expedia once had in China.
Sinorbis’ winning award entry for best use of best marketing technology company award
Chu told Mumbrella he wasn’t sure the business would win the technology prize: “We had some incredibly strong competition in our category – including well-established organisations such as HubSpot and Double-click – so I would definitely not say that I was confident that we’d win.
“I did think that we were in with a good chance and overall felt that the judges appreciated the complexity of the problem we are solving. We are also currently the only all-in-one digital marketing platform for China which meant we certainly added something unique.
“While our digital marketing solution for China has been adopted across many different business types and industries, it adds another dimension to get this kind of validation for our product from our peers.”
In awarding the prize, the jury said: “Even though relatively early in its business journey, Sinorbis has taken a huge challenge for marketers wanting to connect with China and has broken through the red tape and technology issues.
“The result is that it has delivered an easy to use platform and service. Sinorbis stood out in an impressive field for its uniqueness, ability to solve challenging problems and seriously impressive early results.”
Despite his uncertainty when entering, Chu advises business owners not to hesitate when going for awards: “Just go for it – even if you don’t win, being part of the Mumbrella Awards is a fun and rewarding experience.
“The feedback from our customers, investors and business partners has been absolutely fantastic. We received countless congratulatory messages and it gave us a great reason to reconnect with prospects and customers.”
