“Reaching a partnership is like a marriage. You have to identify the right elements from another brand to add value to your own brand, just like people have to identify if the partner has that value and can add more quality to your life in a marriage,” Micol Puzio, a 35-year-old marketer working for OPPO (One Plus), shared her professional insight.

Puzio engages in sponsorships and co-branding partnerships on areas related to entertainment, especially music and arts design, video games and sports. “I worked on the projects to sponsor Wimbledon Championships and Roland Garros, two of the four major tennis tournaments in the world. I also had an online interview with Hans Zimmer sitting in his studio in Los Angeles while working on a campaign with him. I really love music,” Puzio recalled her working experience, showing great passion about the job.

Micol Puzio

Puzio, who hails from Italy, first settled in Shanghai in 2013. She started working as an interpreter and translator in Shanghai after finishing her master’s degree in English and Chinese translation and cross-cultural communication in her home country.

After being involved in an education-related job for a year, she realized that this wasn’t what she wanted to pursue. “I didn’t want to spend my life speaking about other people’s work. I really want to use my knowledge, language and cultural skills to bring new ideas,” Puzio said.

Fate came knocking on her door in 2014 when she found herself working in a project translating for a marketing agency for a fashion house from Italy. Her talents were appreciated by the person in charge of the agency, who later offered her an entry level position as a planner in the company.

She recalled that the marketing field back then in Shanghai was active and dynamic, thus giving her plenty of chances to learn.

“I worked like crazy, but it gave me the chance to learn fast. I learned so much about marketing. I was put on so many projects for foreign brands that wanted to enter the market or brands that were already in China and wanted to consolidate their presence on the market,” Puzio said.

In 2019, her perception on market tendencies on tech development lured her to take up a new position in Shenzhen.

“I was really interested about what was going on in Shenzhen, because Shenzhen was already the core of the tech revolution of China. I would like to be in Shenzhen and live and work this revolution from within,” Puzio said.

The new job motivated Puzio to be updated on new techs and got her to meet people working in the field. “It’s very easy to meet people from DJI, Tencent and Alibaba,” Puzio said. She is still exploring more.

Passion and faith kept Puzio going in marketing. Her educational background also helped her immensely. “Marketing is all about people’s behavior, like a marketer studies consumers’ behavior. In the end, consumers are people. My studies gave me a wide knowledge on how the mindsets or certain areas of the world are shaped. So, I’ve always been fascinated by how the social environment shapes one’s mind, one’s mindset,” she said.

In Puzio’s spare time, she likes posting photos and videos about her life in China on Instagram, hoping her family and friends learn more about the country.

In Puzio’s eyes, Shenzhen is a city that gives people more space to breathe with so many greenery and parks. In addition, it is so convenient to go to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia from Shenzhen. “I think it’s a very nice city that gives you the opportunity to live a good-quality life,” Puzio said.