People to Watch 2018: Joy Ho

Fascinated by what makes people behave the way they do, Joy Ho earned a degree in psychology in her native Singapore. But it was her exposure to communications there that cemented her career path. An opportunity to study communications practice at Columbia University – and to live in New York City – further set her on her way.She was a social media editor intern – learning from experts about food, fashion, style, home and living – at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and then a marketing coordinator at NBCUniversal’s iVillage before moving back to Singapore to work for its Tourism Board. There she was in charge of driving the development and distribution of content across 14 international markets. “I was working with different multicultural segments and geographies, pushing to really understand the global businesses and come up with creative ways of speaking the language.”Making the move back to NYC just over two years later, she joined FreshDirect, but not without hesitation because she admittedly didn’t know much about the e-commerce landscape at the time. What gave her confidence was having worked across Asia-Pacific and the U.S., she learned to thrive in new environments and work with people from diverse backgrounds, all while growing her knowledge of food and travel trends internationally and tapping into consumer insights. “As a food company and a pioneer in food technology, I realized the skills I’d built in my past work could be useful in this role,” she says. “I’m part of a great team and haven’t looked back since.”Ho currently leads the shopper marketing programs for more than 27 brands ranging from CPGs to food startups in the snacks, beverage and fresh categories for the FreshDirect, FoodKick and At the Office businesses. She’s responsible for bringing brands like Pepsi, Kind and Avocados from Mexico to life across its various businesses. Managing the marketing branded programs from end to end, her work ranges from new product launches to trial-driving and loyalty-building efforts.“Ensuring high levels of collaboration is an absolute priority since programs are built across various channels like onsite, social, email, out-of-home and sampling,” she says. “From ensuring promotional alignment with merchandising, digging into shopper insights and post-program optimization with data & analytics, developing new site functionality with [user experience design] to writing creative/content briefs with brand marketing, every program I put together is a team effort.”Ho says her parents taught her to be determined and carve her own path, and her current boss, Michelle Harmon-Madsen, has been an invaluable mentor. “She’s one of the most genuine, inspiring individuals I’ve ever had the opportunity to work for, and has taught me so much – not only about the industry, but also about being creative and bold in the way we approach challenges, and learning to be diplomatic as we navigate through sticky situations at times.”Under Harmon-Madsen’s leadership, the relatively new shopper marketing function at FreshDirect has grown exponentially, Ho says. “We as a team get to take on a test-and-learn approach and are always experimenting. I’m really proud of the education throughout the organization, but especially digging deep into results and learning and testing new ways of marketing.”She believes we’re at the height of change in e-commerce right now. Shifting consumer habits are driving the changes, and FreshDirect embraces it fully. “It’s all about providing shoppers with top curated products like food, alcohol and other essential products to a mobile-first app and delivery in as little as an hour. We learned a lot about consumers, how they’re shopping and what they’re expecting and we’ve successfully met that with the FoodKick brand.”

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