About
Marketer first, trainer second.
Daily CMO is a small marketing company in Malaysia run by Reuben Ch’ng, with Sri handling the build and Mira keeping the projects moving. Three people. Client funnels, our own workshops, and Underdog Con. Everything you read on this site was written by one of us.
Reuben at Underdog Con. People buy from people, so here is the person.
The story
How this came about
The first Underdog Con. CommonGround Bukit Bintang, November 2022. Two hundred people.
Reuben started out as a music producer. He still runs Cat Studio, a music and recording school, which is why the company behind Daily CMO is called Cat Insights Venture.
Marketing came next: a decade running campaigns for brands like TNB, Sony, Nando’s, UEM, Media Prima Digital and History Channel, and a stretch as business director at a mobile advertising company. Somewhere in there he sold a data science course on nothing but weekly preview webinars and one FAQ blog post, and realised positioning does most of the work.
In November 2022 he ran the first Underdog Con: a paid, no-pitch marketing conference where speakers had to bring real case studies with numbers. Two hundred people came. Eight editions later it is what Daily CMO is best known for.
The agency work grew out of the same room. Founders kept asking the same question after every talk: “Can you just build this for us?” So now we do. Funnels, automations, ads and the follow-up in between, for businesses that sell with a conversation.
Since late 2022 there has also been a newsletter, daily at first, weekly since November 2024. 218 posts and counting on what worked, what flopped, and what we would copy.
How we think
Eight things we keep coming back to
Pulled from four years of Reuben’s writing. If you disagree with most of these, we are probably not the right team for you, and that is fine.
Marketing is psychology, not technology.
Technology only amplifies an impulse that is already there. People queue for a toy for status, not because of Instagram.
Proof over promise.
Prospects look for evidence before reasons. A wall of a hundred testimonials beats “our customers love us”.
Write the way you talk.
And more importantly, the way your audience talks. Copy that does not sound like the person who shows up makes people feel sold to.
Success is a lagging indicator.
One customer took six years on the list. Another took two years of ads. A low hit rate is normal. Quitting guarantees the loss.
People who pay, pay attention.
Free events run about 50 percent show-up. Paid ones run 95. Underdog Con has run at 99.
Do not fight customer behaviour. Build around it.
Malaysians verify you on WhatsApp before they buy. The answer to “that is not scalable” is: suck it up, then automate.
It is better to be first than better.
Answer Engine 2025 sold out on 27 days of prep because nobody had claimed the topic in Malaysia yet.
If it is not converting, fix the offer, not the ads.
Removing one free RM450 gift from an otherwise unchanged spa funnel killed sales outright. The ads were fine.
Team
The people who will actually be on your project
Reuben Ch’ng
Founder. Strategy, clients, trainer
Ten-plus years in marketing, HRD Corp accredited trainer, has trained over a thousand marketers and founders across Southeast Asia. Runs every Underdog Con and every strategy call. Also runs Cat Studio.
Sri Barratan
Creative and technical operations
Builds the pages, the funnels, the automations and the ads. Writes the SOPs, cuts the video, keeps the CRM honest. If it is live on a Daily CMO site, Sri built it.
MM
Mira Mutiara
Project manager
Keeps client projects, workshop logistics and HRD Corp paperwork moving. Works remotely from Indonesia. The person who replies when you ask for a quotation.
10+
years running marketing for brands including TNB, Sony, Nando’s, UEM, Media Prima Digital and History Channel.
1,000+
marketers and founders trained across Southeast Asia.
8
Underdog Con editions since 2022, most of them sold out.
218
blog posts, one weekly newsletter, zero paid ads for either.
Cat Insights Venture is an HRD Corp registered training provider (CoID 201603102053). Trainer of record: Reuben Ch’ng Yong Huang, TTT certified.
Work with us
Three ways in. Pick the one that fits.
Hire the agency
Full funnel, built and run in your accounts. Start with a strategy call.
Send your team to a workshop
One day, hands-on, HRD Corp claimable.
Come to an event
A webinar this month, Underdog Con when the next date drops.
Draft notes for Reuben
- The story is my draft from the blog and old bios. You said you would write this yourself. Treat it as a structure to react to.
- Reuben photos are the Underdog lanyard shot from the WhatsApp workshop page. A newer proper headshot would help here and on the homepage.
- Mira has initials until we get a photo.
- Team bios are one paragraph each. Rewrite in your words.