When it comes to staying relevant in public relations and content marketing, staying ahead of the narrative requires more than just a good story; it requires the right infrastructure. That’s why Founder Terng Shing Chen from SYNC PR, a regional agency helping startups and SMEs scale across Southeast Asia, has built his day-to-day routine using different tools. His daily routine involves managing cross-border teams and navigating the complexities of a fragmented media landscape.
To maintain agility while scaling impact requires skill, as well as a curated tech stack that blends traditional storytelling with a tech-first approach to growth.
Urvashi Gupta, Head of Asia-Pacific for Primer, shares her favourite tech tools
These are the tools that help him run a multi-country distributed team.
First drafts with Gemini (Google) – Paid
AI slop is a real thing, so I don’t use Gemini to draft everything. I use Gemini as a collaborative partner for the heavy lifting. We don’t just use it for “writing”; we use it for rapid iteration.
For example, when we’re launching a regional campaign for a Fintech client, I’ll use Gemini to help brainstorm ten different creative angles for a single press release, tailoring one for the technical trade media and another for the lifestyle press. It’s also incredibly useful for drafting long-form thought leadership pieces for LinkedIn. I can input my rough notes from a client meeting, and Gemini helps me structure the narrative flow.
This allows my team and me to spend less time on the “blank page” phase and more time on the high-level strategy and “human” nuances that make a story truly resonate.
ContactOut to power outbound marketing – Paid
Reaching the right person at the right time is the cornerstone of successful PR and business development, but the “gatekeeper” problem is real. I use ContactOut as a vital tool for our outbound marketing and recruitment efforts.
When we are pitching a high-stakes story, I don’t want my team’s emails sitting in a generic info@ inbox. ContactOut allows us to find verified contact information for specific journalists, potential brand partners, and key stakeholders that are often hidden. For instance, if we’re helping a SaaS startup expand into Indonesia, I can use the tool to find the direct line to tech editors in Jakarta. This precision targeting ensures our outreach is efficient and that we spend less time hunting for data and more time building actual relationships.
Deep research and analysis with NotebookLM
I’m not an expert in technical fields. In fact, I maintain I’m not an expert at PR or anything, but I am an experienced student. But when we have to represent clients in complex sectors like Deep Tech, Biotech, or AI, I have to synthesise massive amounts of technical information quickly. I’ve integrated Google NotebookLM into my workflow to manage this cognitive load.
I’ll often upload five or six dense industry whitepapers, client pitch decks, and interview transcripts into a personalised “notebook.” Instead of skimming through 200 pages, I can ask the AI specific questions like, “What are the three biggest regulatory hurdles for AI in Singapore mentioned in these documents?” or “Compare the market entry strategies of these three competitors.”
It generates summaries that directly inform our strategic advice, ensuring that every PR campaign we launch is backed by deep, data-driven insights rather than just gut feeling.
Slack handles all our internal communication
Managing a regional distributed agency requires a “digital headquarters” where communication is instantaneous and transparent. Slack is the central nervous system for SYNC PR. We’ve moved almost entirely away from internal email threads, which tend to become silos where information goes to die.
We organise our work into specific client and project channels. For a social media marketing campaign, the designers, copywriters, and account managers are all in one thread. If a client gets a sudden mention in a major publication, the “Coverage” channel lights up, or sometimes the team likes to share mundane or random updates to keep us all engaged. This real-time collaboration is what allows a distributed team across different markets to act like a single, cohesive unit.
Video editing made easy with Capcut
I recently started getting into some of the nitty-gritty stuff when I can and basic video editing is one of the things I am putting some work into. The shift toward short-form video has completely changed how I build both the agency’s brand and my own personal brand. I use Capcut to produce high-quality video content without needing to wait for a dedicated production suite or a professional editor to clear their schedule.
On any given day, I might record a quick 60-second industry commentary or a “day-in-the-life” snippet from an event. I can now add captions, cut out the “umms” and “ahhs,” and overlay relevant b-roll in minutes directly from my phone. It’s been a game-changer for our social media marketing team; it allows us to be “social-first” and maintain a consistent visual presence on LinkedIn and TikTok, showing our audience the faces behind the agency in a way that static text simply can’t.