Ksenia Ruffell is EMEA marketing manager at IDeaS Revenue Solutions and a board member of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI). She recently sat down to chat with Carlota Pico about her role at the world’s leading provider of revenue management software and solutions for hotels. Ksenia discussed her background in psychology and the experiences that have shaped her as a marketing professional; explained how IDeaS supported their audiences during lockdown; and suggested best practices for running multi-language, large-scale marketing projects effectively.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, and listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify.

Key takeaways

• To go far in the marketing world, you need to be an effective communicator, have strong attention to detail, be genuine and authentic, be a people person and keep an open mind.

• IDeaS—part of SAS Institute—is one of the longest-standing vendors in hospitality, having been on the market for over 30 years. They boast a 98% client retention rate, including renowned brands like Hilton, Mandarin Oriental and Radisson.

• IDeaS has seen their client and prospect engagement more than double this year, even in the midst of a global pandemic. This can be credited to new initiatives such as their free revenue management foundation course, creative content campaigns and first-ever podcast, “Unconstrained Conversations” with host Klaus Kohlmayr.

• In addition to the podcast, which features interesting interviews with hotel industry thought leaders, IDeaS runs an award-winning hospitality blog that represents one of their main content outlets.

• To effectively run a multi-language, large-scale marketing project, you must have an appreciation for the different markets that you’re working with, employ native speakers to localize content, and make sure the timing is right for everything.

Marketing is about having a variety of skills, but number one is certainly good communication. Whether in your personal or professional life, it’s all about relationships and communicating.

Rapid-fire recs

What’s an app or tool that you can’t work without?

I’d recommend Wrike. It’s a project management tool that we use on our marketing team. Anything that we collaborate on and execute is in Wrike. It’s basically a Bible that I live by!

A valuable resource, event or group?

I read Marketing Week on a regular basis. I think it’s a good resource for staying up to date as a marketer. Their content writers have quite a direct, no-nonsense approach, and I like that.

When it comes to books, there are so many that it’s hard to choose one. But an all-time favorite would be Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” It’s an old one, but still very relevant because all aspects of life come back to relationships and communicating.

Additionally, I’d recommend Seth Godin’s books—they’re good for marketers.

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Connect with Ksenia and Carlota on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Mary Kresge, a freelance content creator based in Madrid.

If you’re interested in learning more about running multi-language marketing projects, check out our article on 12 multilingual social media tips that really work.

To see the full transcript, click on page number 2 below. 

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