Brew Interactive: Why Marcus Ho Treats Marketing as a System, Not a Service
Before Brew Interactive Director Marcus Ho founded the Singapore-based company in 2009, he already had a significant amount of experience in entrepreneurship, as well as self-taught skills in SEO, display advertising, and digital marketing. As a small business owner selling handphone accessories, he had to learn the ins and outs of digital marketing quickly in order to grow his business in a competitive market. Through the challenges of driving traffic and generating online demand, Ho gained a practical understanding of why many companies try and fail to increase traffic and visibility for their own digital assets.
In short, Ho learned that too many companies focus on marketing activity rather than outcomes and performance. In other words, the amount of time and money companies spend on marketing does not always equate to traffic, conversions, or sustainable growth. With this in mind, Ho realized that the ideal digital marketing agency should focus on measurable outcomes instead of abstract concepts such as buzz or hype.
Marcus Ho was inspired to branch out of phone accessories and start his own digital marketing agency when other companies began seeking his advice after observing the marketing outcomes his small business was able to meet. He initially founded the company under the name Digimetric, eventually scaling it into a global agency partnering with brands such as Unilever and 3M. The company grew through the pursuit of strategic goals such as delivering measurable ROI through digital channels, building long-term relationships instead of relying on transactional projects, and serving clients underserved or priced out by local agencies.
In the process of growing the company, Ho learned the importance of creating systems to achieve outcomes instead of relying on founder involvement, which proved unsustainable in the long run. “Build systems, not just services. Sustainable growth comes from repeatable outcomes,” Ho advised. “Growth without discipline creates fragility. Systems and clarity are what allow businesses to scale.” This lesson inspired Ho to invest in capable leadership, systematize delivery, and restructure the company’s teams to support repeatable outcomes at scale.
After a brief period in which Ho brought on a strategic partner to help grow the company, a partnership that proved unsuccessful, Ho took over operations once again. This experience taught him the importance of ownership, alignment, and long-term thinking, which would shape the company’s ethos moving forward. The company, now named Brew Interactive, grew from a boutique digital agency into an integrated marketing partner offering services such as SEO, performance media, social media, content creation, CRM implementation, and AI-enabled lead generation. Brew Interactive has clients across Southeast Asia and the United States in sectors such as education, healthcare, finance, and government.
In 2019, it received a HubSpot Marketing Award, and in 2023, it won a Singapore SME 500 Award for its work in performance marketing. Brew Interactive also received Marketing Excellence Awards in multiple categories, including Excellence in Government Sector Marketing. In addition, Brew Interactive was appointed to the Whole-of-Government Creative Panel.
In an industry like digital marketing, which often prioritizes creativity and theatrics, Brew Interactive’s practical, results-based approach provides a contrasting perspective with its own merits and advantages. While storytelling and aesthetics are still valuable tools for a marketing agency, digital marketers must not lose sight of the systems and discipline that result in measurable outcomes.
“Marketing should be accountable,” Marcus Ho says. “Which is why we approach every engagement with a commercial mindset, ensuring strategies are measurable, optimisable, and aligned with real business objectives.”
As Brew Interactive looks toward the future, it plans to rely on its tried and tested formula of investing in systems and senior talent while also exploring the possibilities introduced by AI, internal tooling, and automation. These new technologies will continue to support the organization’s mission to create long-term scalability and integrated systems that utilize people and technologies to reach measurable, concrete goals. By prioritizing repeatability, transparency, and performance discipline, the agency has built a model designed to endure beyond individual campaigns, trends, or market cycles.