Sports Marketing – Are You in The Game?

Chinara Abdykadyrova joined Dentsu X Vietnam (the former Dentsu Media Vietnam) three years ago and found her passion in Sports Marketing, which has been developing in Vietnam thanks to the support of Dentsu Inc’s Football Business Asia Division. Since then, she has been leading football related projects in Vietnam and the Southeast Asian region; as well as J.League / JFA (Japan Football Association) related campaigns in Vietnam.

Being in charge of the Vietnam National Team and Vietnam’s Professional Football League projects, Chinara has built up close relationships with Football Federations in Southeast Asia and has been involved in the biggest tournaments in the region, including the AFF Suzuki Cup and Toyota Mekong Club Championship.

Ivan Codina is the head of the LaLiga regional office in Singapore. La Liga is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league. Ivan’s role is to bring LaLiga closer to the football fans in Asia and to increase the LaLiga’s fan base.

Ivan has more than 15 years’ experience working in the Sports Industry and has worked the past 9 years in Southeast Asia. During this time he has held management and marketing roles at Dentsu Sports Asia, Red Card Global and the Singapore Sports Council.

Ivan’s role keeps him traveling almost all the time and his favorite thing to do during his spare time is to spend time with his wife and son. LaLiga is very committed to the Vietnamese football fans and will be conducting a series of activations in the Vietnamese market in order to start engaging with them.

Cedric Connan is a veteran in the field of the television business. Since 1999 he has worked at the Canal Plus – the French premium cable television channel that is owned by the Vivendi Communication Group.

He is the senior representative of Canal Plus in Vietnam, as a board member at VSTV (K +) – a foreign joint venture in the Pay-TV business in Vietnam. Cedric is particularly knowledgeable about sports, movies and youth content and has been instrumental in shaping the position of K + Television as it is today.

Hai Dang has been in the sports and fitness business for the last seven years. He is the chairman of Vietnam Modern Fare Invest and Trading JSC, which specializes in fitness equipment and table tennis. The company is famous for its brand name “Mofit” and it is the exclusive distributor of Pulse Fitness UK and Double Fish Table Tennis and is a shareholder in the Japanese sport brands Mizuno in Vietnam.

Hai is interested in sport investment and in contributing to the development of the Vietnamese sports industry. He has cooperated with Vietnam Tourism, Sport and Culture Committee and Ho Chi Minh University of Sport to operate various projects including “Personal Fitness” and the “Group X Training Course”. His company – Mofit has successfully hosted and sponsored numerous table tennis competitions as a member of Vietnam Table Tennis Association.

Koon Kee is co-founder and CEO of Aquarius Vietnam. Originally from Singapore, Koon Kee has been working and living in Vietnam for the past 26 years. Aquarius Vietnam is the media representative for Discovery Networks, The New York Times, Sony Pictures Television, CJ Media, Channel News Asia, and Mashable. In the area of sports marketing, Aquarius Vietnam represents and/or partners with VSTV K+ Television, Eurosport, and The International Table-tennis Federation.

Koon Kee is also an Independent Board member of Kova Trading and will join the International Advisory Council in Vietnam of The Singapore Management University later this year. Prior to his current responsibilities, Koon Kee held general management and board responsibilities at ICI Paints Vietnam, American Standard Vietnam, T&C-Tait Vietnam, and Dinh Quoc Glass.

Mark Khan is the Founder of Star Management, a boutique consulting company that connects Business Executives with opportunities in Vietnam through exclusive, invitation only Golf Events. He is an avid golfer who is passionate about golf and the related business opportunities that help brands to connect with premium customers in Vietnam.

Mark is from New York City – a Management Consultant by trade and has been supporting foreign and local companies in Vietnam for the past 15 years. He has been involved in over 200 golf events including the Mercedes-Benz Trophy which is a corporate golf series played in 60 countries by 60,000 recreational golfers around the world including Vietnam. His clients includes Vietnam Star – the largest Mercedes-Benz dealer in Vietnam, Sherwin-Williams Corporation, the Mayor’s office of San Francisco and foreign and local investors who have developed golf courses in Vietnam.

Connor Nguyen is blazing new trails in the sports entertainment business in Vietnam. He was born in Vietnam but grew up in United States. During that time he worked both in the corporate world and sports area. He worked as a business analyst for Shell Oil and Gas Trading Company and later established his own tennis academy, coaching players on the professional tour.

Connor moved to Vietnam in 2008 and founded SSA (Saigon Sports Academy). He later co-founded the Saigon Heat, Vietnam’s first professional basketball team, competing in the ABL (ASEAN Basketball League). Since then several additional sports properties have been developed under the XLE holding company including Vietnam University Games, the UniGames, and the Vietnam Basketball Association.

Salauddin Sulaiman Sinnakandu is the Senior Director of Sponsorship Sales & Marketing as Mediapro Asia and was hired in 2015 to spearhead the company’s Asia growth and he has been instrumental in creating bespoke solution for the company’s business partners.

Salauddin has almost 20-years of Regional Sales and Sponsorship experience and he has worked in key sales and sponsorship roles in Print and Television media and was formerly with ESPN Star Sports and Viacom International Media Networks particularly with MTV Asia. He has worked in a variety of markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and the Middle East.

Oren Steinfeld is the co-founder of BrandMagic, the world’s leader in Virtual Advertising with offices in New York, Mexico City, Toronto, Seoul, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Tel Aviv and Hanoi. Previously he worked as the General Manager Asia at PVI CableVision in Hong Kong for 7 years. He graduated with honors from the Birmingham University and obtained his MBA from the TA University.

BrandMagic develops creative technology driven solutions that allow advertising to be integrated within content, so that commercial messages are delivered in a more efficient and effective way that allows brands to seamlessly embed their brand messages within a program, overcoming advertising resistance.

Phil Worthington is the Managing Director of Millward Brown Vietnam, responsible for overseeing the expansion of the Millward Brown brand in Vietnam. He is one of the most experienced authorities on the development of brands in Vietnam, having worked in the market research industry here since 1994. His particular area of focus is on understanding brands and their communications impact.

Interspersed with his time in Vietnam, Phil has also worked for market research companies in Myanmar (1997), the UK (1999-2001) and Thailand (2004-2007) and has a keen understanding of marketing in Southeast Asia. He is a key speaker at brand and marketing events in Vietnam and overseas