Does branding still matter in the AI era? The answer is not just yes—it’s becoming more critical than ever. 

AI is radically transforming how people shop, communicate and make decisions. In Asia, consumers are embracing these powerful technologies faster than anywhere else in the world. They’re using AI assistants, experiencing AI-powered recommendations and creating content with generative tools daily.  

Something surprising emerged from Prophet’s research, The Rise of the AI-Powered Consumer, comparing GenAI trends in Asia and around the world: As technology advances, human connection becomes more valuable. We surveyed consumers across five countries and discovered that people in China and Singapore aren’t just AI enthusiasts—they’re also the most insistent on authentic brand relationships. They want the efficiency AI brings and the transparency, trust and genuine human touch that brands can uniquely deliver. 

This creates both a challenge and an opportunity for brands in Asia. Here are three key trends brand leaders should keep in mind, along with examples of companies already building powerful, practical connections in the wake of AI disruption. 

Consumers Want Authenticity 

Consumers are adopting GenAI at a fast pace, especially in Asia. Prophet’s study found that 60% of Chinese consumers and 56% in Singapore are using GenAI, well ahead of consumers in Western markets. Moreover, 84% of consumers in China and 75% in Singapore say they are excited about brands that integrate AI.

With brands being more dynamic than ever, they must evolve into intuitive storytellers, balancing machine insights with human judgment. If brands are not careful, GenAI content and experiences can appear too polished or too perfect. That may feel generic and inhuman, undermining trust and connection. 

At the same time, concerns persist. Globally, 43% of consumers find some aspect of AI worrisome, but in Singapore, that rises to 57%—the highest among surveyed countries. People also expect companies to be honest, with 82% saying companies should always disclose the ways they use AI. 

As consumers become more aware of AI’s role in marketing, brands must continue to lead with authenticity to maintain credibility and long-term loyalty. Brands that leverage AI for personalization can enhance their identity and relevance, but they must also be cautious of over-reliance on technology, not losing the humanity that makes for meaningful and enduring relationships with consumers. 

(Image Source: Campaign Asia)

One powerful example of authentic AI use comes from Telekom Malaysia. To celebrate Hari Kebangsaan (Malaysia’s Independence Day) in 2024, it launched “Sejuta Suara, Satu Ritma, Jiwa Merdeka,” using AI-driven lip-syncing and voice cloning to let Malaysians sing in their preferred language. Rather than showcasing AI for its own sake, the campaign celebrated Malaysia’s rich linguistic diversity and highlighted the brand’s promise to open doors to a promising tomorrow. 

The result: AI amplified cultural identity rather than diminishing it, showing how technology can strengthen authentic connections. 

Other brands are also using AI in service of authenticity. Zalora, a fashion ecommerce site, developed an intuitive, multilingual chatbot deeply integrated with customer service data. It helps users track orders, manage returns and resolve issues quickly—and it does this in ways that look and feel distinctly “on brand.” This demonstrates how AI can enhance the customer experience while maintaining the authentic brand voice that shoppers trust. 

Brands can enhance authenticity by: 

• Ensuring overall brand strategy is built based on core human insights and not technology alone
• Creating AI tools that solve real customer problems rather than showcasing technology 
• Maintaining consistent brand voice and values across touchpoints using custom-built AI assistants 
• Combining human oversight with AI to ensure outputs stay true to brand tone, audience needs, and real-world relevance 

Consumers Crave Human Connection 

In China, 89% of consumers believe GenAI improves people’s lives by automating tasks and boosting efficiency; in Singapore, it’s 84%. (These enhancements are proving so valuable to consumers that 83% of Southeast Asian shoppers say they would pay more for them.) 

But even with their enthusiasm, consumers remain wary of losing human interaction. In Singapore, 75% of consumers worry that AI might replace human contact—the highest level of concern among surveyed markets. Almost half of Chinese consumers also share this fear. 

Many companies begin their AI journeys by solving customer pain points. When AI simplifies transactions, consumers welcome it. But in the meantime, the role of brand remains crucial by ensuring that technology complements—not replaces—human connection.

AirAsia’s “Ask Bo” concierge app is a strong example. While it automates travel tasks like booking and gate changes, recent updates allow customers to seamlessly transfer to a human agent when needed—combining AI efficiency with human reassurance. This hybrid approach acknowledges that while AI can handle routine tasks, human intervention remains essential for complex situations—preserving the human touch that builds trust. 

Shiseido Haneda Boutique (Image Source: Shiseido) 

Shiseido offers another best practice. Partnering with Revieve, a beauty tech developer, it uses AI for skin analysis but complements it with in-store beauty consultants who personalize recommendations. The result is an experience that feels deeply human, even when AI powers the initial interaction. By combining technological analysis with human expertise, Shiseido creates a premium experience that neither AI nor humans could deliver alone, deepening the customer relationship. 

Brands can maintain human connection by: 

• Clearly signaling human oversight within AI systems 
• Giving customers access to live human support when needed 
• Designing AI experiences that complement rather than replace human expertise 
• Creating opportunities for emotional connection even within automated processes 

Loyalty Still Matters 

Even as AI changes consumer expectations, and transforms the customer experience, loyalty remains at the heart of brand value AI enables brands to deliver personalized, relevant interactions that serve to strengthen bonds with customers.  

This is especially true in Asia, where consumers are particularly optimistic about AI’s potential. In China, 76% believe GenAI will improve their financial well-being by offering smart insights, as do 65% of Singapore’s consumers, creating an opportunity for brands to deepen trust by delivering tangible, AI-enabled value. Asian consumers also show greater trust in AI’s ability to spot opportunities they might otherwise miss. About 72% of Chinese and 76% of Singaporean consumers believe AI can help them make better decisions—higher than any other region surveyed. 

DBS Bank, headquartered in Singapore, exemplifies loyalty-building AI. It has embedded more than 800 AI models across 350 use cases, offering customers personalized financial advice. Its AI-powered virtual assistant supports call center employees, reducing call handling times by up to 20%—making human help faster and more satisfying for customers. By making human help faster and more effective, DBS strengthens its reputation for exceptional service—turning AI into a loyalty-building advantage. 

Anthony Tan, Grab Group CEO and Co-Founder at GrabX 2025 (Image Source: GizGuide)

Grab, the Southeast Asian super app, is also investing heavily, introducing AI Merchant Assistant and AI Driver Companion tools in collaboration with OpenAI and Anthropic. The two AI-powered solutions are personal, intelligent assistants designed to help Grab’s merchants and drivers optimize their businesses and maximize productivity. By making daily tasks easier for its partners, Grab builds loyalty by showing its AI innovations have heart, not just efficiency. These tools demonstrate Grab’s commitment to supporting its ecosystem of partners, building a community of loyal merchants and drivers who in turn provide better service to end customers. 

Brands can build loyalty by: 

• Personalizing experiences in ethical, human-centered ways 
• Designing AI solutions that save customers time and help achieve their goals 
• Using AI to empower employees to deliver better service 
• Creating feedback loops that continuously improve AI tools based on customer input 

Prophet’s global research study is applied and brought to life in client engagements. We help organizations unlock uncommon growth by understanding and taking advantage of digital disruption. There are several ways to work with us: 

• AI-powered growth consulting: Creating future-back business and brand positioning strategies that help you act on GenAI consumer and business trends to drive tangible results 
• AI-enabled products and experiences: Envisioning and bringing to life new products, services and experiences that are enabled and accelerated by GenAI 
• AI-driven marketing organization for the age of GenAI: Understanding your marketing vision, activating relevant AI use cases and deploying new capabilities 

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Consumers in Southeast Asia (SEA) are changing daily, requiring brands to undergo rapid transformation to stay relevant. Leading companies are using data and AI to deliver hyper-personalized experiences to the region’s young, tech-savvy consumers. They are embracing sustainability to reflect consumer values.  

In this dynamic interplay between consumer expectations and tech innovation, these innovative companies are setting the stage for a new era of marketing. Exceptional marketing teams know they must integrate brand and demand throughout the entire customer journey in ways that mutually reinforce one another to drive growth.  

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Brand-led experiences encourage exploration and advocacy, creating long-term relationships. Demand-led initiatives help customers use products and services most fully and keep the brand voice and promise front and center. In short, brand changes perceptions. And demand alters behavior. Both are vital. And when they are interwoven at each stage of the customer’s journey—from consideration, purchase and onboarding—organizations are more likely to find success. 

Prophet’s latest research has unveiled the key actions that winning companies across the world have in common, from which we identified four core principles that are especially important in SEA.  

Adapt Quickly: Embrace Experimentation with a Growth Mindset 

The digital savviness of SEA’s young consumers is growing and changing so fast that marketers can barely keep up. Companies are exploring new technologies more quickly, scaling what works and discarding what doesn’t.  

Companies know it’s not enough to be an early adopter – they want to be ahead of the curve. They need to codify an experimental approach to new channels and tactics.  

While not all marketers do this well, Prophet’s latest research has found clear trends among the most successful marketing organizations. Compared to companies that lag the average, these higher-achieving CMOs are courageous, lifelong learners, with 82% saying they are willing to try new processes, compared to 61% of CMOs from less successful firms. They are at ease leading teams with people with more expertise, at 80% versus 64%. And they are far more likely—71% versus 48%—to say they support their teams in experimentation, even through failures. 

Shopee is one of the region’s best examples of adaptability. This innovative e-commerce online platform provides customers easy, secure and fast online shopping. It keeps up with young people by consistently adapting to the region’s evolving e-commerce landscape by swiftly incorporating gamification and fintech services. For instance, Shopee has effectively integrated social commerce features like Shopee Live which allows sellers to showcase products in livestreams and enables direct interaction with buyers, creating an immersive shopping experience and accelerating purchasing decisions. Shopee Live played a crucial role in Malaysia and Thailand’s 9.9 Super Shopping Day, boosting sales by over 6x. 

However, this growth couldn’t happen without a concerted integration of brand and demand. Long-term brand visions are built with consistent brand-building activities in its memorable marketing campaigns. Shopee’s annual 9.9 Super Shopping Day campaign embodies its core values of simplicity, joy and community, building strong brand recognition and excitement. With a brand DNA that is centred on fun, Shopee is able to deliver engaging experiences to continuously drive demand, foster loyalty and sustain growth.  

Increase Customer-Centricity: Data is the Engine 

Many organizations are rich in data. But who “owns” it and how efficiently that data is shared and used makes all the difference. In the most successful organizations, the marketing team is also the most customer-obsessed. They are responsible for customer insights and data, utilizing them to better inform brand and demand efforts – from reinforcing positioning and value propositions, targeting and segmentation, to building a robust loyalty program. 

In companies that most effectively balance brand and demand, customer data and insights are tied to measurable business outcomes.  

DBS Bank, based in Singapore and operating in 19 markets across Asia, blends a customer-centric approach with data-driven personalization and seamless brand-demand integration. Its latest brand campaign, “Trust your spark,” is a brand effort that humanizes banking through real-life stories, evoking emotion and strengthening connections. Using YouTube Instant Reserve, DBS Bank personalizes content with audience interests—food lovers see ads on reducing food waste—enhancing engagement. Using first-party data from Google’s Analytics 360, the bank tracks customer journeys, optimizing ad spend and re-engaging audiences effectively. This data-driven strategy fuels measurable impact, with 15% of new business-related loans and SME products originating from Sparks viewers. With these insights, DBS Bank can make data-driven decisions to optimize future brand campaigns, ensuring its marketing efforts resonates emotionally while driving tangible business results. 

Integrate Short-Term Tech Wins with Long-Term Brand Building 

The rise of tech-enabled demand-generation tactics is reshaping marketing across the region. From predictive analytics and automation to real-time personalization, companies are leveraging technology to drive immediate customer acquisition and conversion at unprecedented speed. According to the e-Conomy SEA 2024 report, most organizations in the region can transition from an initial idea to execution in just six months, with 70% reporting a favourable return on investment (ROI) attributable to GenAI workflows within a year of implementation. 

While these tools accelerate short-term wins, brands must resist the temptation to prioritize quick gains at the expense of long-term brand building. Brand and demand cannot be seen as trade-offs, but as complementary forces. Prophet’s research found that the most successful leaders are those who confidently measure and manage the long and short-term simultaneously. In our study, 84% of marketers who are top performers can manage short-term and long-term KPIs effectively, compared to only 57% of all respondents. The key is “bothism”—embracing the power of tech-driven growth while making sustained investments in brand building. 

POSB Bank, a subsidiary of DBS Bank in Singapore, exemplifies the “bothism” approach by integrating tech-enabled demand generation with brand building in its recent “Treat Yourself Right” campaign. Using AI-powered age-morphing visuals, POSB Bank crafted deeply personal and relatable narratives that illustrate the evolving financial needs of Singaporeans over time. This reinforces POSB Bank’s position as a lifelong financial partner, fostering stronger brand affinity.  

Shangri-La Circle, a five-star luxury hotel brand’s loyalty program in Asia, is pioneering the future of hospitality with its technology by driving immediate operational efficiencies while simultaneously investing in initiatives that enhance the guest experience and build long-term brand loyalty. Shangri-La leverages advanced technology, including NeXRobot for contactless in-room service, a WeChat Mini Program for seamless guest requests and a smart check-in system to reduce staff workload. At the same time, a user-centric booking experience and an AI-powered local marketing platform help personalize guest interactions, optimize customer journeys, and strengthen brand loyalty across its global network. These show that brands can integrate technology seamlessly with the brand experience, ensuring that short-term wins and long-term brand equity coexist in a modern marketing strategy. 

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In 2023, businesses in Asia faced significant challenges, including rising costs, economic uncertainties, and persistent inflation. In 2024, C-suite leaders are confronted with the responsibility of driving growth amid tight marketing budgets and increasing cost pressures. 

With a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2024, what should be the top priorities for CEOs and CMOs in Asia to enhance customer relevance and foster business growth? There are four crucial levers to unlock uncommon growth in the coming year: 

1. Optimize your investment allocation across the brand funnel with a focus on generating demand to continually drive conversion and loyalty.
2. Be hyper-focused on your customers – leaders need to shift from a product-centric mindset towards a customer experience-led proposition to capture a larger total addressable market size and customer share of wallet, and shape perception as a market leader. 
3. Adopt a unified marketing operating model to foster effective collaboration and integrated decision-making across business units. This will not only drive synergies but also uncover untapped areas of growth. 
4. Harness the power of AI to supercharge your growth – from uncovering customer insights for strategic investment decisions, to enabling personalised and engaging experiences for customers. 

In this article, we delve into these strategic priorities, helping leaders navigate the evolving market. 

1. Stepping up Demand Generation as the Catalyst to Ignite Growth 

In the post-pandemic era, consumer behaviors have become more intricate and diverse, challenging the traditional way of capturing the dynamic nature of the customer journey. C-suite leaders in 2024 must shift toward an agile growth strategy, with a strong emphasis on demand generation. 

It is now crucial for C-suite leaders to concentrate on demand-driven strategies for engagement, leads, and conversions throughout the entire customer journey. This involves creating an efficient channel mix using an agile approach for data strategies and crafting unique experiences to promote loyalty, advocacy, and repeat purchases. Most importantly, this requires a human-centric growth strategy rooted in consumer insights. 

For instance, AB InBev Korea collaborated with Prophet to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Korean beverage market, aligning with consumer needs to identify growth opportunities. This insight-driven approach guided targeted investments in channels and brand activations, stimulating growth within their portfolio. Similarly, a multinational athletic apparel retailer partnered with Prophet to tailor a marketing effectiveness model for APAC. This data-driven strategy enabled informed decision-making, optimizing their marketing mix across the brand funnel and driving demand in a fiercely competitive landscape, ultimately leading to accelerated growth. 

2024 Priority: Leaders must strategically allocate resources to strengthen demand generation, steering growth strategies based on iterative consumer and market insights throughout the customer journey. This shift will enable marketing efforts to be more effectively aligned to generate demand and propel conversion and loyalty. 

2. Strengthening Full-Funnel Customer Experience to Accelerate Conversion  

Amid economic uncertainties, 68% of leaders in APAC prioritize business resilience by emphasizing customer service. The Asian Banker reported that 77% of satisfied customers actively advocate for the brand, underscoring the pivotal role of customer satisfaction in retaining the existing customer base and fostering sustainable growth. 

As CMOs now assume a more influential role in strategic decision-making, a unique opportunity arises to integrate customer experience (CX) into the organization’s DNA, shifting from a product-centric to an experience-led strategy. At the core of this transformative shift, three key principles should be considered: 

A compelling example of how an experience-led transformation can drive tangible growth is Singapore Airlines’ Kris+. Launched in 2020, Kris+ was conceived as a lifestyle rewards program aimed at engaging users beyond their air travel experiences. Going beyond traditional mileage rewards, Kris+ consolidates a diverse array of rewards, privileges and payment options into a single app. This innovative approach not only provides users with additional opportunities to enhance their shopping experiences both during flights and on the ground but also adds substantial value. Singapore Airlines’ potential customer base has expanded, and Kris+ currently stands as a significant revenue driver for the airline, boasting over 2.1 million downloads globally since inception. 

2024 Priority: An experience-led growth strategy extends beyond the realm of bolstering engagement and loyalty. When executed adeptly, it serves as a catalyst for broadening the total addressable market, augmenting customer share of the wallet, and solidifying the brand’s standing as a market leader.  

3. Achieving More With Less Through a Collaborative Operational Model  

The role of CMOs has undergone rapid evolution, with an escalating demand for them to demonstrate Return on Investment (ROI) and contribute significantly to overall revenue. Consequently, CMOs are now more intricately involved in decision-making processes that span various facets of business strategy, including CX, product, sales, and, in some instances, directly managing these areas. 

For CEOs, establishing robust connections between diverse channels, disciplines, and departments within their organizations is paramount. This not only fosters effective collaboration but also ensures seamless decision-making across different business functions. 

Prophet’s Collaboration Flywheel 

Our research suggests that a progressive understanding of collaboration takes place over three phases. Read more. 

In 2022, Prophet played a pivotal role in supporting Cisco Secure’s transformation of its marketing operating model. The primary objective behind this strategic move was to enhance efficiency and collaboration across different functions. The result was a more defined structure among business functions, both regionally and locally, underscoring the effectiveness of strategic alignment in achieving organizational goals. 

Another noteworthy case is Luckin Coffee, one of the fastest-growing retail coffee chains in Asia. The brand, once on the brink of bankruptcy, was committed to optimizing its operational efficiency and quickly turned itself around within just two years, reporting a 7.2 billion RMB revenue in Q3 2023 and an 84.9% YoY growth. One of the key shifts Luckin took was to evolve CMO Fei Yang’s role to CGO, Chief Growth Officer, to oversee revenue growth, demand generation and customer experience on top of marketing. By integrating user operations and brand marketing, Luckin was able to increase its agility in identifying customer needs, innovating products, launching marketing campaigns and accelerating demand. 

2024 Priority: This strategic approach lies in not only the optimization of resource utilization but also the revelation of untapped avenues for growth across the entire business. By breaking down silos and fostering collaboration among different functions, businesses can achieve a holistic and streamlined approach to decision-making, ultimately contributing to business success and resilience. 

4. Harnessing the Power of AI as a Transformative Force

Generative AI (GenAI) technology has swiftly emerged as a transformative force on a global scale, particularly within the APAC region. An IDC study reveals that 70% of C-suite leaders in the APAC region are actively exploring or have already invested in GenAI. In our recent article, we also highlighted how the capabilities of GenAI can be harnessed for marketing effectiveness. However, the stewardship of human insights and brand strategy remains key.  

While many AI technologies are still in their early stages, capitalizing on this momentum requires cultivating a culture of innovation. This involves not only upskilling teams to adeptly harness AI but also addressing prevailing apprehensions and skepticism surrounding its integration. 

Beyond utilizing GenAI for productivity, equipping the workforce with essential AI skills positions them to unlock its potential, extracting valuable insights from extensive customer and market data. C-suite leaders, in particular, are encouraged to strategically implement AI to enhance customer experiences and customize offerings based on the dynamic and evolving needs and behaviors of their customers. 

An example of embracing AI integration is 7-Eleven Japan’s plan to leverage AI in 2024 to generate text and visual content for new products. Grounded in the analysis of store sales data and consumer feedback via social media, this approach is expected to significantly reduce the time needed for product planning and align product distribution with emerging trends. 

Similarly, Disney has been a trailblazer in incorporating technology, utilizing data from wristbands, IoT sensors, and strategically placed cameras around its resorts. This data-driven approach empowers Disney World operators to identify and address overcrowded areas, offering personalized promotions to encourage customers to move to less congested spaces based on their preferences. Looking ahead, the prospect of Disney using GenAI to enhance personalization, such as anticipating customers’ dietary needs before they enter restaurants, adds an exciting dimension to its growth trajectory. 

2024 Priority: As AI technologies continue to advance, it is imperative for organizations to possess a comprehensive understanding of AI, supported by clear guidelines and policies. This ensures the quality and reliability of AI-driven insights, thereby facilitating informed decision-making in an increasingly dynamic business landscape. 

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During my recent keynote at DigiBranCon in Kuala Lumpur, I spoke to a congregation of leading marketers on the dichotomy of brand building versus demand marketing. In the post-Covid-19 era, where digital adoption and acceleration changed everything, should you invest more on brand building or demand marketing?  

The Context: Southeast Asia’s Rising Digital Adoption 

Southeast Asia’s massive e-commerce sector is advancing at a rate that is exceeding expectations. There are over 350 million internet users today and close to 10 million more coming online each year. In SEA, the time spent online has already surpassed the time spent watching TV and the online time spent in China and Japan. 

Brands hoping to engage with SEA consumers must keep in mind the mobile-first nature of the market, with high levels of social media usage and influence. Successful brands are already using social as an e-commerce sales channel, catering to a young population with strong consumer ambitions. Established unicorns such as Grab, Lazada, Shopee, InMobi and Tokopedia are investing heavily in digital commerce and beginning to compete with newer, emerging players in the space. 

The digital acceleration that took place during the pandemic invariably led to more brands shifting sales online. While there is a myriad of factors that lead to success or failure, one key consideration is the tension of brand building versus demand marketing.  

Having a brand that stands out in the sea of competition is especially important online. In e-commerce, becoming a preferred brand is even harder yet critical – how do marketers build brand affinity and grow demand? Given most brands in SEA are small to medium-sized enterprises, this can be difficult given the time and financial investment required. As a result, many brands focus on near-term goals, relying on demand marketing for short-term sales and promotions. While this may convince consumers to make impulse purchases or trials, it doesn’t accomplish the longer-term goal of building true brand loyalty. 

Should You Invest in Brand or Demand Marketing? 

If no one knows your brand, your demand generation isn’t going to be as successful as it could be. You need brand awareness for demand generation to work and vice versa. Your brand establishes your legitimacy, creates loyal customer relationships and helps efficiently drive demand. Demand marketing is more about “Why buy one now?” It involves education and highlighting pain points with urgency. Branding is more about “Why buy from us?” It entails building your reputation so that people choose your product to solve that problem – even though there are likely other options.

As marketers, we know brand strategies don’t always directly connect to a sales pipeline, and demand doesn’t always lead to increased awareness in the market. But when the efforts from both sides are designed to complement each other, we’re able to reach a new, unprecedented level of cohesion across the entire marketing program –creating a powerful growth engine that helps us achieve the goals of: 

• Building preference for your brand and products  
• Reducing price sensitivity  
• Nurturing loyal and repeat customers 
• Saving costs with improved operational efficiencies 
• Creating a sustainable revenue stream
• Higher effectiveness and ROI with our marketing investment  

Prophet’s approach to brand and demand marketing is grounded in recognizing that there is a better way to engage with modern audiences, which is especially meaningful in SEA. It is a sustained, integrated approach that continuously engages with audiences inside and outside the marketing funnel in a value exchange that drives growth for both the audience and the brand.  

How to Strike the Right Balance?  

Is there a magical ratio between brand to demand? The conventional 60/40 brand/demand investment split is helpful but increasingly outdated and doesn’t accurately reflect what any medium or touchpoint can do. It also depends on the market situation and your business goals – the ratio will and should change at any given time to adapt to competitive environments.  

To be good, we need to do both. But to be great, we need a more intentional, unifying strategy. The ideal state is to develop a long-term strategy across the customer journey to build preference, which helps to achieve faster, short-term quick wins during moments when buyers are more receptive to “demand” campaigns.  

There are four golden rules that we identified in our recent, global research: 
 

1. Build a marketing organization that has the skills and capabilities for both brand and demand, with teams working together against a shared purpose
2. Design your marketing approaches in an integrated fashion starting with annual planning.
3. Experimentation leads to success. Build a learning agenda and provide an investment budget.
4. Track performance and progress with an integrated brand and demand view and laddering up to business goals. 

Through expertise and excellent marketing campaigns, you’ll build relationships that showcase how your product really is better than your competitors, and you’ll have a whole audience of loyal fans to back you up on that. The key lies in regularly fine-tuning your brand-to-demand ratios based on the goals of your brand, the product/campaign and audience response.  

A good example is the regional fashion e-commerce brand, Zalora. When it was still a lesser-known brand, it focused investments on building its brand through traditional and social media marketing across Facebook and search engines. Today, as the brand matures, Zalora invests more heavily in demand marketing through strategic brand partnerships and social commerce, while still investing in data-driven Google ad campaigns.  

Brand and Demand Marketing is the Ideal Couple and Content is a Compelling Aphrodisiac 

As we seek out tactics that will lead us to achieve a proper ratio, there has been a trusted hero of the brand-and-demand approach: Content. If brand and demand are the ideal couple to engage audiences, then content marketing is how we amplify the love story of the couple successfully.  

Experienced marketers know that one asset or social post does not result in a subscriber, let alone generate a lead. Trust takes time to develop, and the consistent cadence and drumbeat of a long-term content effort can help to build and nurture real relationships with audiences.  

Like those addictive Korean drama series, if you can produce a steady stream of engaging and compelling content throughout the customer journey, your audience will be more engaged, and your brand messaging and communication will become more appealing. When this consistent drumbeat aligns with memorable brand campaigns, you build brand recognition and earn loyalty across the marketing funnel. 

Through a strategic storyline approach, brands can extend their master narrative and create meaningful audience interactions throughout the entire funnel, ultimately nurturing prospects to conversion, recommendation and ultimately, loyalty. 

Take the Indonesia-based e-commerce platform, Tokopedia, for example. The brand has embedded K-pop in its marketing content to better target its younger and female segments across Indonesia since 2021. Not only did Tokopedia present K-pop groups BTS and BLACKPINK as the face of the brand, but it also created a long-term content strategy to feature Korean artists in its programs, campaigns and events to drive customer acquisition, engagement and sales. This creates a consistent customer experience, delivering key benefits to the target audience along every step of its customer journey, thereby building brand loyalty. 

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Dency quite literally stumbled upon Prophet. One day, when she was visiting Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s MBA office, she spotted an ad for a part-time job analyzing Prophet’s signature global report, the Prophet Brand Relevance Index. She applied, and the rest is history. The following summer she interned at Prophet’s Hong Kong office, where she dove right into project experiences with the co-workers she now considers a second family.

An experienced problem-solver with a collaborative approach, Dency is a key player in our newest office in Singapore. As an Engagement Manager, Dency focuses on building meaningful relationships with her clients, helping them achieve success in their roles while bringing ideas to life through pilot test-and-learn and execution.

Dency’s impact at Prophet has not gone unnoticed. She was honored with the coveted “Propheteer of the Year” award at the annual Aaker Awards ceremony – our annual global employee recognition awards. Learn more about Dency…

How do you describe Prophet’s culture to your friends?

Prophet’s culture is very open, nimble and entrepreneurial. I’ve met so many people with unique backgrounds, talents and perspectives across Prophet. There’s great flexibility at work, with ample opportunities to travel. Speaking up is highly encouraged regardless of seniority and everyone is treated as a valuable member of the Prophet family.

What’s one piece of professional advice that has stuck with you most?

“Be the kind of person who can put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand something not just from your own perspective but from theirs as well.”

“She was honored with the coveted “Propheteer of the Year” award at the annual Aaker Awards ceremony – our annual global employee recognition awards.”

What has been your biggest challenge since starting at Prophet? How did you get through it?

One of the biggest challenges I faced was being tasked with turning around a sizeable project that was not delivering to client’s expectations. It was truly a “sink or swim” situation. Within the first day, I had to quickly organize and prioritize key tasks, ask for additional resources and divide key deliverables into manageable pieces to be socialized with the client. Thankfully, the Prophet team was very supportive with an “all-hands-on-deck” approach. In true Prophet fashion, we did it, together, and the client was impressed with the work we were able to deliver within a short timeframe.

If you could call yourself five years ago, what would you say? What if you could call 10 years into the future?

If I could call myself five years ago, I would thank myself for following my heart and taking the leap of faith to leave my comfort zone. I had been working at the Monetary Authority of Singapore for the first five years of my career then. While I was satisfied in my job, I was eager to try something new though I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do. So I went to business school where I discovered a world of opportunities and had the time to reflect on my purpose in life. I came across an opportunity to spend my summer interning at Prophet Hong Kong and the journey has since been exhilarating and rewarding.

If I could call 10 years into the future, I would congratulate myself for getting through the “toughest” decade of growth and remind myself to keep having a learning mindset while staying true to my purpose and values as I gain new experiences.

You’ve taken the time to meet the rockstars behind our work. Now, how can we help? Let’s chat.

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