The CMO's MO: Tea is the world's second most-consumed beverage. Eugene Lee on the social-first, experience-led playbook behind one of the most ambitious brand-building bets in the F&B sector.
TODAY'S EDITION
03/27/2026
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The Knowledge
Flipkart win in India key to Starcom's success in first global media rankings
Meanwhile, indie agencies command the top 20.
Be more punk: Why design needs to get messy again
Brands must embrace counter-culture, RGA APAC's Ben Miles opines. As AI takes over the predictable, the creative industry's greatest asset is its humanity.
Creative Minds: From the Senate to adland, Jonel Revistual detoured his way to copywriting
The Dentsu Creative ACD spent years wandering through broadcast, activism, and spoken word poetry before finding his calling.
A recap of this week's moves and wins
Missed our daily updates? Here’s your weekly roundup of the latest talent moves and pitch wins across Hakuhodo, WPP Creative, Stackadapt, Carat, OFX, FTI Consulting, Monks, and more.
If every consumer sees a different ad, who’s left to share the story?
There was a time when a Diwali ad gathered a nation into one feeling, one story, one memory. Today, those moments are fractured into personalised prompts. In chasing efficiency, Joshi writes, brands might lose the connections that once made them matter.
The Trade Desk says Omnicom audits ‘have not identified any issues’
The DSP pushes back on Omnicom’s audit as routine oversight, even as its shares tumble around 7% in intra-day trading.
The Knowledge
Starcom tops first APAC 2026 rankings on Flipkart win, independents follow
WPP leads the holding group rankings, buoyed by Jaguar Land Rover and Estée Lauder wins.
Women’s sport has arrived, the brands haven’t
Women’s sport in APAC has outgrown its untapped potential tag with explosive viewership and year-round fandom, yet brands haven't caught up, says We Are Social's Suzie Shaw.
OpenAI shuts down Sora, billion-dollar Disney deal comes to an end
The generative AI video app, positioned as a breakthrough in text-to-video technology, has been scrapped less than two years after its launch.
Laopu Gold’s 221% revenue jump points to new rules of premium in China
The 'Hermès of Gold' just proved that in China, heritage, scarcity and price hikes are the new definition of premium.
Australian company fined for telling influencers to conceal paid posts
In a first-of-its-kind case, Australian authorities have slapped a US$27,608 penalty over undisclosed influencer gifting.
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AI is a marketer’s best ally: how to win by harnessing human creativity
The remarkable data-crunching power of AI has rewritten the rules of marketing. But as two of the region’s most celebrated marketing leaders explain, it leaves the profession with a critical quandary – how to avoid just doing more of the same, faster, and instead practice the sort of ‘creative bravery’ that leads to outstanding results
LLM ads raise concerns: Experts discuss measurement and brand safety risks
AI search is set to become the next walled garden. Marketers are thinking through how this shakes out.
Skincare brand Bioré bets on K-pop power to shine in South Korea
The Japanese brand teams up with boyband Stray Kids for a South Korea launch.
Suhayl Limbada exits KFC Thailand
Limbada led KFC Thailand to its first-ever Cannes Lions win in 2025.
Indeed’s CMO on marketing through a tougher and selective hiring market
Mass layoffs, AI-flooded inboxes and a rival in LinkedIn that overtook them by revenue—Indeed global CMO James Whitemore tells Campaign Asia why this bruising jobs market is also the platform’s biggest opportunity, provided every dollar is spent on making better matches.
In an age of direct buying, what exactly is a DSP for?
The spat between Publicis and The Trade Desk is an overdue reckoning with misaligned expectations between auditors, agencies and adtech platforms, as direct buying becomes cheaper and easier.
The Knowledge
APAC’s livestreaming boom spurs a surge in international brands
As livestream commerce rewires retail across APAC, in-housing is as much about speed and control as cost. When a single Chicjoc stream can generate RMB100 million and Taobao’s strongest live sales now come from store-run channels, the question is no longer whether brands should bring capabilities in-house, but how much.
The Knowledge
How Mastercard, Marriott and Miniso define what to keep in-house
From Mastercard to Miniso, APAC brands are betting on in‑housing for speed and customer‑centric clarity, while still relying on agencies for creativity at scale and strategic depth.
Creative Minds: Sophie Harper once hid her creative side, until she realised copywriting was poetry with a pay cheque
The Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney scribe channels her stage presence and poetic flair into every pitch.
'There has always been a tax collector in your tech stack'
The TTD-Publicis fallout just made it impossible to pretend otherwise.
OPINIONS
In an age of direct buying, what exactly is a DSP for?
The spat between Publicis and The Trade Desk is an overdue reckoning with misaligned expectations between auditors, agencies and adtech platforms, as direct buying becomes cheaper and easier.
'There has always been a tax collector in your tech stack'
The TTD-Publicis fallout just made it impossible to pretend otherwise.
Why the ChatGPT uninstall wave is a brand story, not a tech story
When a defence contract determines whether people will use that AI, we have moved beyond features. Something deeper is happening, opines Sanat Sinha.
Why the messy middle of the 'sandwich years' makes the best leaders
The sandwich years are hard. Parenting, parents and a high-pressure professional role, all at the same time.
The Iran war will not hit APAC advertising the way many assume
‘China is still the strategic variable,’ Whittaker writes, as a more fragmented APAC advertising landscape could blunt the risk of a single shock hitting all markets equally.
Why marketing needs a more human story of health
Wellness marketing in Asia often glorifies perfection. Stuart A Spencer argues brands should focus on everyday progress if they want to make healthier lives feel possible.
WPP's Elevate28 is a white flag, not a victory flag
The $676 million savings plan is an exercise in juniorisation, centralisation and using AI as a shield to cut senior staff, writes a veteran of the "now-defunct holdco model."
Why age diversity still struggles for airtime?
Too many people plan their exit from advertising by 40, convinced experience has an expiry date—an outdated bias, one agency founder says it's time to dismantle.