At the age of 16, when most of her peers in Quezon, the Philippines, were indulging in fashion and pop culture, Sheine Ebora-Sombero thought very differently.
She wanted to be a strong, capable and independent woman. While flipping through the pages of a magazine, she saw a picture of the classic Ferrari 250 GTO and a fire was lit.
“From that moment, I dreamt of working for Ferrari and everything I did was geared towards making that dream come true,” she said.
On Dec 22, two decades since that promise she made to herself, Ebora-Sombero, now the Brand Manager of Singapore’s exclusive Ferrari dealer Ital Auto, was named by Ferrari as the brand’s Top Marketing Executive at the conclusion of the 2020 Testa Rossa Awards.
The annual awards, inaugurated in 2016, is Maranello’s way of recognising and honouring the best employees in its global network of 180 authorised dealers in over 60 markets. It is also Ferrari’s way of inculcating a “Champions League” attitude in its staff’s pursuit of excellence. Organised by the Ferrari Academy, 12 nominees are picked in each of the four categories that represent the facets of a dealership: Top Technician, Top Service Manager, Top Marketing Executive and Top Sales Executive. These nominees are selected from more than 2,000 employees after they had top-scored in their region’s mandatory training sessions.
Ben Ng, a Sales Consultant with Ital Auto, was also nominated in the Top Sales Executive category.
On Dec 1, the three nominees in the running for the Top Marketing Executive accolade met virtually with a panel of eight senior executives from Maranello. To maintain relevance in these times, the trio of candidates have to each present a case study on how to prospect for customers in the midst of the pandemic.
Although the health crisis has pushed businesses to go digital and contactless, Ebora-Sombero thought differently. On her presentation, she explained: “I emphasised that while Ferrari needs to embrace marketing technology, we cannot rely on it solely; it has to go hand in hand with the human touch because our brand is something that needs to be felt and that is something that that can never be replicated by Artificial Intelligence. We should only use technology as a tool to help the sales and marketing team come up with a precise engagement and deliver it at the right moment.”
The panel in Maranello also posed questions to test if the plan is watertight. “The questions were so difficult,” she recalled. “I thought I know quite a lot about the brand but the questions proved that there is so much more to learn. This tough competition made me strive even harder for excellence that befits Ferrari, it has really raised the bar for me.”
On Dec 22, Ferrari’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Enrico Galliera announced Ebora-Sombero the winner in a livestream. The triumph also marked the culmination of a dream that began with a picture of the 250 GTO. She said: “It feels great to be a member of Ferrari's Champions League because I know in my heart that it's a product of my passion and dedication to the brand; it is something that I dreamed of and worked hard for.”
After graduating from a university in Manila , she gained experience in the industry by working her way through the ranks in the marketing and communications field at two other car brands. Balancing work and studies, Ebora-Sombero learned the ropes of the automotive world while earning a post graduate diploma in management and an MBA.
All that time, this tifosi member fuelled her passion by collecting scale models of Prancing Horses. The first, naturally, was an F40 that was picked up at a flea market. Today, she has amassed more than 200 of these 1:18 miniatures in her collection, including eight of her favourite 250 GTO.
A dream was realised in 2012 when she was hired by the Ferrari dealership in the capital city as a Sales Account Manager. Although she specialised in marketing, Ebora-Sombero grabbed the opportunity as it gave her the chance to experience the work done by the sales team and it would prove invaluable after she got promoted to the position of Brand Manager as she was able to synergise both sales and marketing.
Two years later, she joined Ital Auto but the learning journey never stopped. In 2018, she passed a course on digital marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to update her knowledge.
As she summed up her journey with Ferrari, Ebora-Sombero expressed joy and gratitude to be given the chance to represent motoring’s greatest brand, saying: “What can be better than living your dream every single day and being rewarded for it?”