Asia is emerging as the world's leading cultural compass as the region now increasingly shapes what consumers value, according to TBWA's inaugural Eastfluence\Backslash 2025 report.
The report argues that Asia is well-positioned as a compelling counterweight to Western playbooks built around hustle, hyper-individualism, and convenience. This means that Asia's marketers are exporting a new cultural operating system, with a fundementally different way to build brands.
"There is growing polarisation and a clear fatigue with the dominant narratives coming out of the West. Every time a story loses its power, societies go in search of a new script. That is where Asia comes in," Emmanuel Sabbagh, chief strategy officer at TBWA\Asia, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "The question we wanted to ask was: What are the stories and scripts that people are seeking from the East?"
The report's methodology drew on a network of 340 cultural strategists embedded in TBWA offices around the world. Over six months in 2025, the team ran around 20 structured dialogue sessions to devise the report's insights.
Asia's momentum is backed by scale. By 2040, the region is forecasted to contribute 42% of the global GDP and account for over half (53%) of the world's youth aged 18 to 24. The report identifies four key values redefining its influence: deep mastery, unapologetic emotion, thoughtful friction, and social etiquette.
When it comes to deep mastery, the report argues that there's a rising demand for craft skills, trade schools, and slow-made goods. Asia's long-held reverence for mastery, from Singapore's hawker cuisine to India's handmade traditions, is a model for brands everywhere.
Sabbagh observes that this has changed how brands communicate with their consumers. For example, Tokyo-based fashion label Amaud and Chinese jewellery brand Laopu Gold have cultivated a slow growth orientation when it comes to luxury, prioritising ethical craftsmanship over rapid expansion.
"These brands often show the process of creating the product. It's all about the backstage, which is even more interesting than what is at the forefront, on the shelf of a grocery store, on a retailer, or whatever is on an e‑commerce website," he adds.
Channeling emotions is key in Asia
The report also notes consumers are leaning more towards unapologetic emotion, growing bored of marketing that defaults to a performative, snarky brand voice. In other words, brands that lean towards sincerity are more likely to earn goodwill among their consumers.
"True emotions is now the new cool," Sabbagh says. "Oishi, for instance, builds communication on joy, fun, and friendship. That would have sounded cheesy a few years ago, but now this tone is gaining more relevance."
The shift towards unapologetic emotion centres on second‑generation social platforms, where fans and communities are. Sabbagh urges brands to talk to their superfans to cultivate a personality that resonates with their audiences at large.
"What is killing advertising in the West is trying to understand the ‘average’ feeling consumers have about a brand. If you want to unlock emotion, you need to start with your superfans, because they’re the ones who experience the product most intensely and authentically. When they speak, there’s a clear sense of genuineness in their tone and voice that no aggregated insight can replicate," he explains.
Meanwhile, the report points to 'thoughtful friction' as a counterpoint to the obsession with speed and seamlessness. Sabbagh believes these frictions lead to a more credible evolution of purpose marketing: "It’s marketing with limits. As the human, health and societal costs of ultra‑convenience and "unlimited” everything become clearer, consumers will be increasingly drawn to brands that set thoughtful boundaries."
Sabbagh sees an opportunity for brands to build intentionality in its marketing too. If a brand is perceived as trying to protect its consumers, this can drive preference for the brand, especially when competitors aren't doing the same.
He frames frictions as the pragmatic version of purpose marketing: "For Western markets, embracing limits is a real mindset shift, but consumers are starting to value good over great."
Taking up the cultural cues
In Asia, the report suggests that social etiquette has long been table stakes. For global brands, this means shifting from me-first messaging to emphasising community, and hard‑wiring courtesy into every step of the customer experience.
"Brands that want to go global need to stay in step with culture and choose to take its cues from influences beyond its own borders," Sabbagh notes.
For marketers in Asia, Sabbagh's key takeaway is resisting the urge to overly Westernise local and regional brands in order to appeal to a larger consumer base. The opportunity today, he says, is to foreground a brand's own provenance rather than building a generic, global image.
Take BYD's slogan, for example. "A line like ‘Build Your Dreams’ doesn’t feel natural to the brand. This is a company that has worked incredibly hard to make great, affordable electric cars. It's more powerful to focus on the process, the engineering and craft behind it," he explains. "Now is the time to be more confident about that origin and identity.”
Ultimately, the report argues that when brands look to the East for inspiration, it should be more than just borrowing aesthetics, but rather learning how to credibly build values into their marketing. As Sabbagh suggests, those willing to be transparent about their creative process, embrace big emotions, design in limits, and uphold etiquette may find themselves setting the next global script, and not simply following it.
