Thinking about a career in marketing? Living abroad and considering a job in the Netherlands? Tiqets’ longtime recruiter Rachel sat down with our Head of Consumer Traffic, Surya Teja Gutta, to discuss his journey from India to Amsterdam, and his experience working across multiple departments in a fast-growing tech scale-up. Read on to discover the challenges, cultural differences, and very unique perks he’s experienced in his time at Tiqets so far.
Let’s begin with an introduction to our Performance Marketing Team at Tiqets, which plays a crucial role in our company’s success. As part of our Consumer Traffic Business Pillar, the PPC team is dedicated to driving B2C customer acquisition and fostering sustainable growth. Within the Consumer Traffic Pillar, the PPC team specializes in paid marketing initiatives, with a strong focus on search engine marketing optimization. We actively manage paid search campaigns on Google and Microsoft Ads, covering over 50 travel markets in 10 different languages. Our target audience extends globally, ensuring a broad reach for our campaigns.
Collaborating with industry leaders such as Google, Microsoft ads, Meta, and others, we continually learn and leverage the latest technologies to enhance our strategies. This provides us with a unique advantage in the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape. Discover the journey of Surya – the Head of Consumer Traffic @ Tiqets and how his expertise and dedication have shaped the team and contributed to our overall success.
Meet Surya! 👋🏼
I’m Surya, I come from India. I was hired by Tiqets (while I was still in India), as a Senior Growth Manager to help the company experiment with new marketing channels to reach more customers and to explore new supply opportunities. It’s been a little more than two years since I joined. I worked from India for a bit and then moved to Amsterdam to join the team at Tiqets HQ.
Tell us in a nutshell, why Tiqets?
I love the travel industry and I’ve worked in this field for a long time. I had been working in this space for over six years when Tiqets approached me, and I already knew Tiqets for a while. This was one of the biggest reasons for me to choose Tiqets.
I knew the Tiqets Supply Team from Ankur (Tiqets’ Regional Director, APAC & ME). One of the things that I missed in my previous company was the support from a big supply team. I strongly believe that this business is “Supply first” (along with Product). So, I thought that by leveraging an amazing supply team, I could grow the business a lot more and build a global brand!
How did you find arriving in the Netherlands and joining Tiqets?
There’s something really nice about the Tiqets culture – everybody from day one is already very nice and welcoming. They’re proud to show you Tiqets and there’s also a sense of pride in introducing Tiqets’ culture to somebody who’s new in the company. That’s what I find really fascinating about the people – they are so kind. It is fun to hang out with people in and outside the office.
Once you join, you don’t feel like a stranger because everyone is curious to know you and your interests and hobbies. For example, if you’re interested in football, you’re immediately added to a football group on Slack. If you’re interested in bouldering, you’re added to the bouldering group. There’s a Slack channel for everything and someone will add you!
If you are open to making new friends and joining social gatherings, then Tiqets is definitely the right place for you.
Tell us a bit more about your role at Tiqets!
I joined Tiqets in a rather dynamic role in the company. And by dynamic, I mean that I’ve changed teams and projects almost every two quarters. I was – as I said – initially hired to experiment with new growth, marketing, and supply ideas. As one of the first experiments, I launched a new version of Google Ads called Online Location Ads with another colleague and scaled it very quickly using tools like Channable, etc.
As soon as I arrived in the Amsterdam office, I got involved in a bunch of different projects within various departments, such as finance, distribution, and merchandising. I was supporting the teams with small research projects and MVP’s while also working on new performance marketing channels.
After doing Growth Marketing for almost two years at Tiqets, I’ve recently moved into my current role as Head of Consumer Traffic, overseeing all B2C marketing activities. The consumer traffic pillar focuses on performance marketing and free channels like SEO, with a team of marketing specialists and a product team working on scalable marketing automation.
What excites you the most about your role?
I think the strategic intersection of product design and marketing is where my real interest lies, and where my experience, knowledge, and creative thinking are most effective – helping to devise, build, implement and optimize new and existing product and marketing channels that help us grow and reach a wider customer base, while also foregrounding the customer experience, as a core guiding principle at every step.
At Tiqets, you are surrounded by really smart people from different backgrounds. Working with all the stakeholders and convincing them to follow your vision has been one of my biggest challenges and learning curves at Tiqets. But it is something that excites me a lot too.
What is the secret of success at a scale-up company?
It depends on the individual I guess. When you’re in a startup, you want to prove things quickly. For example, you want to prove a concept, scale it fast and you sometimes end up doing it in a hacky way. But in a scale-up, it’s a bit different. You have some of your concepts proved and the question is: How do you double down on those things?
While at the same time, how do you have enough time to constantly innovate and try something new? Finding the balance between the two is key because we don’t have everything figured out yet! Even the bigger players in the market haven’t figured out everything and we all must have the mindset to innovate, try out new things, and see what works. The secret of happiness for me lies in finding this balance.
What drives your ambition at Tiqets?
My ambition at Tiqets is fueled by the growth potential as well as favorable market positioning that we possess. I believe that Tiqets has what it takes to become a market leader in the industry. My ambition revolves around achieving this market leadership in the most efficient way possible. I am constantly looking for strategies that enable us to do less, while accomplishing more, focusing on doing the right things to push Tiqets to new heights!
Most memorable and fun story at Tiqets (so far)?
The most memorable was when Laurens, our CEO, allowed me to take his boat (with the most amazing sound system) on my birthday in August. I went sailing with colleagues and friends. The weather was so nice, we sailed, swam, laughed, drank and danced. And the boat was still intact at the end of the day, haha. But isn’t that memorable? That your CEO lends you his boat?
Also, the first ski trip I went on – definitely memorable… I think I slept one hour during the four-day trip! I was the last to go to bed and the first to be ready for ski lessons! The growth mindset never sleeps!
