Luxid’s Tero Rantaruikka is a muso. Ask him a question or two about what he likes in life and he’s soon onto music. “Music is my life blood and my tastes range from jazz to stoner rock,” says Tero. “Currently, I’m really into Steven Wilsons solo work and his band Porcupine Tree.”
Tero says that good music and art are what really inspire him. “I’m really passionate about vintage audio, vinyl records, and all the old stuff,” explains Tero. But it’s not just retro sounds that Tero is into, he loves new, live music. “When ticket sales open online it really makes my heart beat a little faster. And if I had my way, I would ban mobile phones at gigs – they really spoil the experience for the audience.”
But make no mistake, Tero doesn’t have an issue with technology. Quite the opposite in fact as he’s a Marketing Technology Manager at Luxid. “I know it’s a cliche, but I love working with different customers and with our experts to find solutions to their problems. It’s always inspiring and so much fun.”
Right now Tero is building a robust email subscription process for a global client: “It uses a marketing automation tool to take into account all the different email privacy regulations around the world,” explains Tero. “It can be challenging when you need to take into account usability, transparency and legal issues from both the end user perspective and marketer perspectives.”
Tero is well qualified for this type of cutting edge work having studied for an MBA in Marketing at the University of Jyväskylä. However, he could have taken quite a different path in life. “I grew up in a theatrical family,” says Tero. “But I never really wanted to work as an actor. For me it was the visual and technical side of stage that was intriguing. I wanted to work with lighting, set design and sound.”
While he now lives in Turku, Tero grew up in Eastern Finland, about 40 km from the Russian border. He’s open about the challenges in his early life. “I’m proud of beating all the odds considering where I grew up. I’ve been able to give my daughter a better start at life than I had.”
Beating the odds very much chimes with the Luxid value that Tero most relates to – Resourceful. “I love putting all my experience and knowledge into customer use and making life a bit easier for the customers,” enthuses Tero. “The best part is when the customer has not realized how things could be made easier and more efficient using sales and marketing automation and we present them with an idea that they’d never thought of.”
Tero has worked at Luxid for 17 years and has seen the company grow from a smaller agency with mostly local clients, to a large international operation with global clients and offices in Finland, the UK and US. “You can always be yourself here and you are respected as an individual,” says Tero. “Luxid has always been a fun and relaxed place to work.”
Luxidians all have a view on what makes Luxid different. For Tero it’s the focus beyond the horizon on where sales and marketing technology is going next: “We had a clear vision 15 years ago about where technology was going to take sales and marketing. And we were right – we’re getting to that place now. But our sights are still firmly on the future, looking to what’s coming next.”
And when Tero’s not considering the future for marketing tech, he’s much more down to earth and enjoying the great outdoors. “I’m loving my old cabin at the Turku archipelago. It’s a 100-year-old building that I’m bringing back to life using traditional methods and materials. It used to house the village phone switchboard. It’s actually fitting, since our Turku office also housed the city’s phone switchboard. First one in Finland actually.”
If like Tero, you have a passion for solving customer challenges using the latest technologies and want to work in an inspiring and supportive environment, then Luxid could be just the place for you. All you need to know about careers at Luxid can be found here.
