Macau casino operator Wynn Macau Ltd’s newly-created role of chief marketing officer (CMO) has gone to Zoe Zou Wenyu, a Chinese executive with extensive experience working for Western beauty care brands, and for the United States business of Tmall, an Alibaba Group-owned website for business-to-consumer online retailing.
The fresh appointment was confirmed in a statement sent to GGRAsia on Thursday by Wynn Macau Ltd, operator of the Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace casino resorts. It did not specify when she was appointed.
Ms Zou’s “deep understanding of the pan-Asian consumer will enable her to effectively lead the Wynn team in customer insights, building integrated marketing capabilities, and [in] leading all digital and marketing activities to expand the reach of the Wynn brand,” said Wynn Macau Ltd.
She joins the group via Shanghai on the Chinese mainland, where she was general manager of the U.S.-based skincare brand Paula’s Choice.
Previously, she was with Alibaba Group, heading its Tmall overseas business in the U.S.
Prior to that she spent 13 years at the luxury division of French cosmetics firm L’Oréal SA, where her work included leading global development for the Kiehl’s brand, “expanding its digital marketing and presence globally in more than 50 markets,” said the Wynn Macau Ltd statement.
She will lead the group’s efforts to “expand its appeal to premium, international leisure travellers,” the announcement said.
It added Ms Zou would “expand the marketing of the company’s non-gaming offerings, in pursuit of making Macau a world centre of tourism and leisure”. The latter is a long-standing policy aspiration of the Macau government, which more recently set its six casino operators a specific goal of bringing in more customers from overseas markets.
In commentary in July, the U.S.-based parent Wynn Resorts Ltd said that the new Macau CMO role was created “to allow the company to more quickly and effectively respond to the evolving market in Macau,” according to Michael Weaver, chief communications and brand officer.
Investment analysts have said that the retreat of Macau’s traditional junket-based market for VIP gambling has created challenges – and opportunities – for Macau operators to pursue what analysts say is higher-margin mass-market and premium-mass gambling customers.
