Beyond buzzwords – Moving purpose from marketing to the centre of every business

The conversation was sparked by AIA’s One Billion initiative to engage a billion people in Asia around the company’s purpose alongside other ambitious efforts by Asia-based and global businesses. Experts from around the world shared their experiences in enabling businesses to move beyond more superficial approaches to marketing and fully embrace their purpose and directly engage with their most important stakeholders.

Purpose within the business community has become one of the most common buzzwords for over a decade. While it remains a concept that virtually every major company speaks to on a daily basis in one setting or another, many external stakeholders can find it difficult connecting the abundance of purpose-focused marketing and messaging with how businesses regularly act in the real world.

At a candid roundtable hosted by AIA during Cannes Lions, marketers, agency leaders, and brand strategists took this challenge on by addressing some of the deeper questions behind this: what is purpose-led marketing? What do consumers expect and want to hear about a company’s purpose? And how can brands develop real, meaningful influence and drive behavioural change?

The perspective of those in the room was that while purpose may start with a brand’s beliefs, it must demonstrate how that purpose has an impact on the audiences it engages with. “It’s the behavioural shift that proves the impact of your purpose,” noted one APAC agency head working with sustainability-led FMCG clients. “Otherwise, you’re just shouting values into the void.”

The room agreed that the effectiveness of today, purposed-focused creative campaigns must be judged by the genuine outcomes they achieve, and not the optics or surface-level messaging. Inward facing industry metrics like equivalent advertising value and brand buzz are no longer enough. Real impact is measured in actions taken, habits changed and lives improved – as well as how these connect directly back to the purpose that companies intend to uphold with the public.

On that note, AIA’s Group Brand Director Stuart Woollford, shared how the insurer’s mission to help millions across Asia live healthier, longer, better lives is embedded in its business model, not just marketing concepts. “It's not purpose-driven marketing, it's a purpose-driven business, and I think that's fundamental. And we look to amplify that purpose through marketing and connect, inspire and engage with different audiences around the behaviours that are most beneficial to their well-being,” he said.

The company’s science-backed wellness programme, AIA Vitality, remains a compelling example of incentivising better health, Woollford emphasised that this was just one part of AIA’s ecosystem that turn its purpose into a daily, impactful reality for millions of customers and consumers throughout Asia. Through its AIA One Billion initiative, the insurer is leveraging every level of its business to engage a billion individuals in finding ways towards healthier, longer, better lives. Initiatives like AIA Healthiest Schools and the Rethink Healthy campaign platform serve as extensions of this to foster sustained lifestyle changes at scale.

“These programs are not just awareness plays. They’re designed to move people to act and we look to measure every single one of those positive behaviours,” he added.

Embedding purpose – Uncovering where principles and commercial reality translate into meaningful impact

Outside of AIA, other participants shared how their organisations embed purpose into their operations. A marketing leader at OCBC Bank in Indonesia explained how the bank’s transformation began by addressing the lack of financial literacy -- a national shortfall with substantial consequences for both individual consumers and the bank alike.

“We weren’t just rebranding. We were build trust from the ground up,” he said. “We focused on giving people confidence for the first time that they really grasped how fundamental financial knowledge and health can transform their lives. That meant launching real education programs, not just ads. And our CEO had to lead this effort from the front with our customers.”

As a result, purpose became more than a message; it became a movement, inside the bank and externally.

Meanwhile, a global marketer at Zespri, the world’s largest seller of kiwi fruit, detailed how the brand has shifted from product-first communication to a holistic health narrative rooted in nutrition. “Our product was always strong, but our story needed to be based on something deeply important to both our customers and our business,” she said. “Now, everything ladders up to a single goal: improving lives through health.”

The discussion in Cannes came to a number of important conclusions – Although a brand’s purpose may evolve over time, it must always remain tethered to behaviour. The founder and president of a leading agency in Indonesia emphasised that people’s beliefs will not be built without action. It is fundamental, therefore, to understand what’s standing in their way.

As brands and people evolve how they view purpose from their own unique standpoints over time, the discussion also highlighted how external marketing agencies help both sides understand where attention and effort should be refocused next. “We used to pitch brand stories,” said one regional strategy lead. “Now we’re pitching behaviour change models to CFOs, not just CMOs. This is actually all about how people and companies find value through their interactions, and that is how businesses work at their core, not just marketing.”

Several attendees also highlighted how marketing leaders are under growing pressure to demonstrate how purpose can be defined commercially beyond repeating general principles and good intentions. In practice, that will mean companies have to align major campaigns to long-term value creation – Requiring business, finance, legal and operational teams come together for the entire journey.

The conversation returned repeatedly to the Cannes Lions Festival itself and the changing nature of creative recognition. “It’s no longer enough to highlight a problem that society is experiencing,” said one brand judge. “You have to show how you solved it, at least moved the needle, or are actually equipping people with a real ability to change the way it impacts them for the better.”

Campaigns that won in Asia at Cannes this year didn’t just tell stories, they changed behaviours. A standout campaign took on gender inequality in India, representing a powerful inclusion-first product innovation that clearly connected audiences and the company to its purpose.

Key takeaway: Only real world action counts

As the session wrapped, the consensus was clear: Purpose is no longer the purview of  marketing. It is at the foundation of every business having a genuine connection with their stakeholders. In a low-trust, high-choice environment, relevance is hard-won by brands that make real-world action the priority over aspirational but hollow language.

Whether it is helping students build healthier habits through AIA Healthiest Schools, engaging a billion people through AIA One Billion, or shaping everyday decision-making through Rethink Healthy, success lies in sustained behavioural shifts.

As Woollford concluded, “If you’re not ready to back up your purpose with meaningful, measurable acts, don’t bother. Today’s consumers will see right through it. The brands that genuinely put customers first will be the ones to earn lasting trust and loyalty.”