The challenge of 2026 will be an authenticity deficit, says Colgate marketer Samir Singh

Brands should bring joy to people’s lives. For Samir Singh, executive VP of marketing, APAC, at Colgate-Palmolive, that principle has guided a career spanning more than three decades.

When he joined Colgate-Palmolive six months ago, he spent his first two months in a blur of over a hundred one-on-one meetings that involved listening, learning, and mapping how the company’s brands connect with consumers across Asia-Pacific. Even after 25 years at Unilever, where he helped shape global icons like Lux, Dove, Axe, Rexona, and Lifebuoy, including leading Lifebuoy’s famous handwashing behaviour-change programme, he approached Colgate ready to absorb before he acted.

Today, he holds the purse strings of a multi-billion-dollar portfolio across oral, personal, and home care in some of the region’s most dynamic markets. Along the way, he has built a reputation as both a category builder and a storyteller, famously driving Lifebuoy to 15% CAGR over four years—a campaign that is now a Harvard Business School case study.

“Great brands need to stay true to their legacy, to what made them work, to their distinctive brand assets, and to their memory structures,” Singh tells Campaign Asia-Pacific.

What drew him to Colgate? “There’s a culture and willingness to learn and change. I’ve met a lot of talented people that I’m learning from every day, and this creates a workplace you genuinely look forward to,” he says.

For young marketers just starting out, Singh has simple, practical advice: “You need to arrive with curiosity. In the first 90 to 120 days, that’s when most of the fresh ideas will come to you. Don’t ignore them—but also don’t assume you’ve found the ultimate solution, because there’s always nuance and historical legacy to consider.”

Read his full interview below:

1. You’ve now spent a year at Colgate-Palmolive after decades at Unilever, where you famously helped shape Lux’s positioning in beauty. What have been the biggest highlights of that transition? 

Both Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive have had a huge positive impact on consumers’ lives. They’re great organisations with unique strengths, and joining Colgate, for me, has meant becoming part of a creative and innovative execution powerhouse with a 200-plus-year legacy of building globally loved brands.   

I think the thing that has struck me most is that Colgate talks about its three values—caring, inclusivity, and courage—and this is a company that really lives up to them every day. I had about 100 one-on-ones in just the first two months. People shared what they did, how they could help me, and how we could work together.  

2. AI has certainly delivered efficiency gains, but it hasn’t yet produced brilliant advertising. Or has it? Where do you see AI genuinely adding value for a consumer goods company like Colgate, and where do you think the hype becomes dangerous? 

I think it certainly adds value. We are leveraging generative AI for product and concept discovery, as well as for ideation screening.  Even for product formulations, we are using AI as an invaluable tool for shortlisting. We used AI effectively in the Optic White Purple campaign with IU to multiply content that consumers want to see at the moments that matter, so it’s already making a difference. 

I feel AI might ironically make the role of creativity and human judgment even more important. AI, at least in the form we know today, cannot replace creativity, emotional nuance, or human relationships.  

3. If 2025 has been about cutting through the noise, what do you think 2026 will be about?

With the influx of AI-based content and ideas, productivity and innovation will be better. But I also think there will be an authenticity deficit. Consumers are seeking credibility, and they are seeking real emotion at every touchpoint. Ultimately, it’s about amplifying those moments that feel genuine and human—moments where people see their stories and themselves reflected. 

This means leaning into user-generated content (UGC), community voices, and real lived experiences that can’t be faked. For us, UGC is just another way of saying we will provide more authentic, lived content at every touchpoint. It is one piece of the puzzle in the larger omnidemand generation jigsaw. For example, targeting IU’s fans with customised content, special editions, and really bringing their star to them in an authentic way helped transform them into brand ambassadors.    

4. Would you describe yourself as a brand purist or a challenger? Which one resonates more with you?

What’s non-negotiable is that every brand experience brings joy to consumers, even if it happens billions of times a day, as it does with Colgate. On this point—providing joy in the end-to-end experience—I would say I’m a brand purist. But on everything else, it depends on the situation and the context.   

The trick, again, is not tying yourself to any hard and fast rule. Great brands need to stay true to their legacy, to what made them work, to their distinctive brand assets, and to their memory structures. But within that, they must continue to innovate, deliver new news, be seen as progressive, and constantly engage with new audiences. Both are possible, and they are not mutually exclusive. 

5. Talk about a recent (last couple of years) brand campaign (outside of your brand) that truly inspired you? And what lessons could you apply to your own brands? 

I love Heinz’s 2023 campaign, ‘It Has to Be Heinz’. That’s the kind of creativity that celebrates the core of a brand because it’s intrinsic to the brand, and therefore, I think it impacts business results and equity for the long term. As you know, the campaign focuses on the intense, almost obsessive love that people have for ketchup, but most of the time that love is taken for granted. It’s unexpressed. All the work showcases clever, minimalist, visually striking content where they don’t even need to show the product, highlight features, or use many words.    

One execution, for example, asked audiences—everyday people—and AI to draw ‘ketchup’. Almost everyone, including AI (though with the wrong spelling), drew a Heinz ketchup bottle, its shape, and its iconic colour. They even used Heinz’s ketchup red to call out restaurants that were filling local imitations into Heinz bottles. And when Taylor Swift was spotted having something with “extra ranch” or “seemingly ranch,” Heinz launched a limited edition within 12 hours. That shows the full spectrum of what I was talking about: working at your core, staying true to brand legacy, staying true to distinctive brand assets, celebrating them, and—at the same time—innovating at the speed of culture.       

6. Name a brand, can’t be yours, with a fantastic customer experience you really admire. What about their approach impresses you most? 

One of my favourite brands is Singapore Airlines. I’ve never seen a service brand more obsessed with the end-to-end experience in every single interaction. And frankly, it’s about maximising joy—joy that the consumer probably won’t articulate but will remember. Because when you have bad service, a delayed flight, or a poor booking experience, you talk about it. That’s their secret: every touchpoint is designed to make travellers feel valued and cared for.  Unlike with other airlines, when you’re greeted by the cabin crew, you don’t feel guilty asking for a favour. Every person, including the one on the phone or the most junior cabin crew member, feels empowered to say “yes” rather than “no.” 

7. In a volatile market defined by job cuts and consolidations, what’s your advice to an entry-level marketer starting their journey today? 

The fundamentals of becoming a good marketer haven’t changed. I am still learning constantly. But my advice would be the voice of the consumer in the room. Immerse yourself in what they think, feel, and do, because often we come from different backgrounds. Bring your whole self. Don’t edit yourself. Come as you are. You were hired not just for how you fit the brief, but also for how you don’t—your unique perspective, your background, your differences—everything that adds value to the output.    

Be humble. Talk to everyone who has touched your business or brand in the first 60 days. Get all the views. Respect the archaeology of the brand. Put your head down and get things done. Solve problems and persist. And once you have the license—the consumer license and the business license—express yourself. Share ideas with your boss, get feedback, and build confidence around your instincts.    

And the last thing I would say, though not the least: take the job seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. Keep your sense of playfulness and wonder, and enjoy the everyday. Happy marketers make great marketers. If you’re stressed and constantly caught up in back-to-back meetings and operations, then who’s bringing the creativity and strategic thinking in? You need to have both. You need to be great at getting things done, but also at giving creative input to the business or the brand you’ve joined.       

8. Tell us something people might not know about you. Could be a hidden talent, passion, or even trivia. 

I have too many interests outside of work to list completely, but one of them is cinema. I’m a huge cinema buff who enjoys all kinds of films—American, Indian, or European—spanning from the 1930s to the present day. I love cinema that reflects life, that doesn’t try too hard, that doesn’t show off but speaks to you in a way that’s both insightful and emotional. And because I wasn’t talented enough to become a film director, I tried to dabble in advertising.   

One of my favourite films from India, though slightly obscure and more on the artistic side, is Pather Panchali, a Bengali film made by Satyajit Ray, who is one of India’s—and the world’s—greatest directors. The film portrays life in a poor, rural Bengal village stricken by famine. Yet, astonishingly, for over two hours, it becomes a meditation on living. For me, it is a film about the human condition. Despite the tragedy that surrounds the story, you come out of it feeling uplifted and happy.   

9. What keeps you up at night as a CMO?   

I think what keeps me up at night is—not talking about myself or Colgate in particular—the fear of not being relevant in the world of tomorrow. That doesn’t always mean you have to be young or appeal only to youth, but it does mean that the way we think about brands and marketing has to always resonate with where the world is moving.    

That’s why I find brands like Colgate so uniquely suited to win in the future. In a world where we talk about a trust deficit, brands like Colgate represent the epitome of trust. For me, it’s very important that, as people lucky enough to work on such great brands, we always preserve this legacy, this relevance, and this future readiness.